Christie's to showcase sale of The I Q van Regteren Altena Collection

KOLKATA: Christie's is coming up with the sale of The I.Q. van Regteren Altena Collection which will be offered over a series of sales in London, Amsterdam and Paris throughout 2014 and 2015. This extensive collection of Old Master drawings is the most important to come to auction in a generation and features works by the greatest masters such as Rubens, Rembrandt, Goltzius, and de Gheyn.

Formed by Professor I.Q. van Regteren Altena (1899-1980), a distinguished art historian and former head of the Prints and Drawings Department at the Rijksmuseum, the collection will be offered in more than 800 lots and is expected to realise in the region of £10 million. It is very rare for the collection of a true connoisseur to appear on the market and The I.Q. van Regteren Altena Collection presents an incomparable panorama of mostly Dutch and Flemish draughtsmanship from 1550 to 1850, with illustrious provenances. In recent years, several drawings from van Regteren Altena's collection have been transferred to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The museum has just announced that the Van Regteren Altena heirs have generously allowed the museum to make a selection of drawings from the collection for acquisition. The museum chose drawings with a special association with I.Q. van Regteren Altena: a landscape by J. de Gheyn and a group of 46 spectacular watercolours by Joseph Augustus Knip. These acquisitions were generously supported by the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Mondriaan Fonds, de BankGiroLoterij, the Rijkspatrons, the Gerhards Fonds/Rijksmuseum Fonds, the VSBfonds and an anonymous gift. Furthermore, the heirs have donated a group of 69 drawings by 19th-century Dutch artist's preparatory processes.