The auction house trading the work expected it to fetch around $5,000 and did not make a feature of it in the catalogue, but dealers including Hank Ebes, the successful bidder, recognised the painting's significance and it sold for $36,000 plus commission.
Melanie Clore, deputy chairman of Sotheby's Europe, told this writer that in view of the enormous interest aroused by the portrait, she privately thought, hours before the sale, that it might fetch around $50 million.
The Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem is thought to be hoping to acquire it from its private owner; a London dealer has suggested that if the picture were put up for sale it could fetch around £5m ($10m).The van Heythuysen is among the 60 or so paintings in an exhibition of Dutch portraits that opens at London's National Gallery next week and will travel to the Mauritshuis in The Hague in October.
It was estimated to fetch around $22 million to $28 million at Christie's in New York City this December, but ended up selling just north of $40 million, making it the most expensive Hopper ever sold at auction.
Mr Munday said that the flat, which is being sold as a repossession, could fetch around £1,000 a month in rent if it is modernised.
REUTERS BREAKINGVIEWS Abu Dhabi Firm Said to Attract Bids for Asset Sale | Gulf Capital, a private equity firm based in Abu Dhabi, received almost a dozen bids for its Gulf Marine Services unit, which was expected to fetch around $500 million, Reuters reports, citing two unidentified people.
Conservative estimates suggest the ear is likely to fetch around £700.
He seems, in particular, to be inviting bids for TIM, which might fetch around €35 billion ($44.5 billion).
US group CareFusion was tipped as one potential purchaser, with analysts at UBS suggesting the business could fetch around £2.8bn.
Yesterday's gold medal winner plus Uthopia and Alf, who along with Valegro have helped Britain to gold medal glory in dressage, are expected to fetch around £20m.
