The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston has consigned 17 works by Dutch and Flemish masters to be sold at two live auctions at Christie’s in New York in February. They are collectively estimated to sell for between $2.5 million and $3.8 million.
The paintings have mostly been off the market for more than half a century and are to be sold during the Old Masters I and Old Master Paintings and Sculpture II auctions taking place on February 5, 2025, at Rockefeller Center. The MFA Boston website shows the works were formally deaccessioned in October.
MFA Boston said in a joint news release with the auction house that the works are being sold to raise money for its acquisition fund. The museum did not address if it was targeting any specific acquisitions or how it seeks to diversify its collection by the deaccession.
Christie’s acknowledged that the museum is known for its large collection of Dutch art and suggested that funds from the deaccession would be used by MFA Boston to acquire other works in the same field to expand its legacy.
Emanuel de Witte, Interior Nieuwe Kerk (1677). Photo courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd
“Infrequently has a group with such provenance and quality appeared on the market as these Dutch and Flemish paintings,” John Hawley, director of Old Master paintings at Christie’s said in a statement, adding: “The proceeds from the deaccession of these exceptional works will be used to further enrich the museum’s collection in this field.”
Frederick Ilchman, the museum’s curator of paintings and chair of European art, noted that MFA Boston doubled its collection in size as recently as 2017 after major gifts from Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo and Susan and Matthew Weatherbie. The two couples donated a combined total of some 113 works by 76 Dutch and Flemish artists.
“Over the past several years, our curatorial team carefully reviewed the entire collection. Our process revealed that some pictures were similar to, even duplicative of, other works by the same artists at the MFA,” Ilchman said. “Given that these paintings were less likely to be displayed, we felt they could be deaccessioned for the benefit of the museum.”
Jan Both, Bandits Leading Prisoners (around 1646). Photo courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd
The top lot of the sale is a work titled Bandits Leading Prisoners (1646) by the artist Jan Both, expected to fetch between $1 million and $1.5 million. That work had been purchased by the museum for $1,006 in 1934. It was not clear how the museum selected the works it plans to sell, but it has retained a number of etchings by both.
Another highlight in the sale is Emanuel de Witte’s Interior of the Nieuwe Kerk (1677), which MFA Boston bought in 1949 for $500. It is expected to sell for $400,000 to $600,000 and depicts an atmospheric interior view of the important church on the Dam Square in Amsterdam.
Jan van Goyen, River Landscape with a Ferry and a Church
(1656). Photo courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd
“While the interior of the Nieuwe Kerk is faithfully represented here, the dog in the foreground, the mother feeding her baby in the left distance, and the gravedigger were no doubt added by the artist and may refer to the transitory nature of life,” the museum had written about that work in its online gallery notes.
And a third highlight from the slate is a sizeable 1639 still life by Pieter Claesz, which had been gifted to the museum in 1956. It and a landscape painting of a river with a ferry in the foreground and a large church in the background by Jan Josefsz van Goyen have both been given estimates of $150,000 to $250,000.
