New York Sotheby's grossed $86.59 million on Thursday morning (January 26) for 51 Old Master paintings in New York. The top lot of the week, Peter Paul Rubens' early multi-figure composition 'The Head of Saint John the Baptist is Presented to Salome', however, accounted for almost a third of the total takings.

Christopher Apostle, head of Old Master Paintings in New York, secured them for his client at $23.5 million net, below the $25 million minimum expectation. A premium of $26.93 million is owed.

The same bidder was also enthusiastic about Christ's Crowning with Thorns (c. 1614), an early work by Valentin de Boulogne, Caravaggio's most gifted French successor. Here, the approved $4.89 million including premium remained below the purchase price of $5.2 million that the consignor Mark Fisch had shelled out in January 2016 in New York.

Both works are among ten guaranteed top works of the Baroque period that the New York real estate developer Fisch had to sell in the divorce war with his ex-wife Rachel Davidson. They fetched $49.6 million at Sotheby's alone. However, the house had made a special effort before the auction and committed guarantors for seven of the ten works, so they had already been sold in advance.