Portrait from Elizabeth Taylor's living room sold for $2mlnJanuary 25, 2012 - 21:34 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - A 17th-century portrait that once hung in the living room of Elizabeth Taylor's California home - and was only recently reattributed to the Dutch master Frans Hals - sold at auction Wednesday, Jan 25, for $2 million, The Associated Press reported. "Portrait of a Man," painted in the early 1630s, went to a buyer bidding by phone at Christie's sale of Old Masters. Its presale estimate had been $700,000 to $1 million. A Hals scholar, Seymour Slive, had listed the painting as a "doubtful" work by the Dutch artist in a 1974 catalog, judging by a black and white photo of the work. After Taylor hung it in her California home in the 1950s, "it academically fell off the radar," said Nicholas Hall, head of Christie's Old Master paintings. But last summer, Christie's and Pieter Biesboer, the retired curator of Old Master paintings at the Frans Hals Museum in Holland, confirmed the work was by Hals. "From 20 yards away one could tell that it was an utterly authentic Hals, a totally characteristic picture with all the bravura, brushwork ... the very expressive face," Hall said. Depicting a gentleman in a black coat and white collar with his hands folded, the painting is signed "FH." Taylor's art dealer father, Francis Taylor, acquired it and gave it to her in the 1950s. She hung it over her fireplace near an iconic lithograph portrait of herself by Andy Warhol that sold at Christie's in December for $662,500. Taylor died in March at age 79. Other paintings from her collection will be sold by Christie's in London on Feb. 7-8. In December, the auction house sold her collection of jewelry, fashion and memorabilia. Among the highlights was a pearl necklace that sold for $11.8 million. Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Your home is in Armenia – Ameriabank offers mortgage loans for the Diaspora To buy real estate, Diasporans can apply to Ameriabank online to buy, renovate or build a home anywhere in Armenia. Armenia-Qatar ties discussed in Doha The Secretary of Armenia’s Security Council met with the Deputy Secretary General of the National Security Council of Qatar. Surveying works underway in Armenia’s Kirants Surveying works are underway in the Armenian village of Kirants in the northern Tavush province. Armenia calls for prohibiting threats of attacks on nuclear facilities Armenia has raised the need for a treaty prohibiting attacks on nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes. |