Christie’s announces the sale of The Pieter & Olga Dreesmann Collection of Dutch Old Master Paintings was part of the Old Master & British Paintings Evening Auction on Tuesday 3 July.
Adriaen Coorte, Asparagus and Red Currants on a Plinth. Estimate: £1.4 million to 2 million. Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd 2012.
The Dreesmann family name is synonymous with connoisseurship, passion and generous philanthropy in the arts. Crowned by Rembrandt’s masterpiece A Bust of a Man in a Gorget and Cap (estimate: £8 million -12 million), offered at auction for the first time in almost 40 years, the outstanding collection, formed by Pieter and Olga Dreesmann, comprises a group of 15 exceptional works by 17th Century Dutch Masters of the ‘Golden Age.’ The group constitutes the most important single-owner collection of Dutch paintings of this period to come to the market in recent years and is expected to realise in excess of £19 million.
Pieter and Olga Dreesmann see their collecting as a continuum. They are presently re-focusing their interests and, having decided to part with these works, they are now creating irresistible opportunities for collectors to acquire the finest of the 17th Century Dutch School. The Dreesmanns’ enthusiasm, combined with their discerning eye when acquiring these works, will be an inspiration. Pieter and Olga Dreesmann are active art collectors with interests that span from Antiquity to the 21st Century. They are supporters of fundamental art research as founders of the Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesmann Fund, a dedicated research unit on Dutch 17th Century painting techniques at The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. They also support philanthropic causes linked to the care of children with genetic disorders and Special Needs. A portion of the proceeds of this sale will go to the above-mentioned charitable causes.”
