Sotheby's hold virtual sale of art from Rembrandt to Banksy

The auction house Sotheby’s is holding an online sale featuring artwork that spans five centuries of art history, from Rembrandt to Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró to Banksy.

After months of disruption due to the coronavirus outbreak, the sale of 70 artworks - from the 17th century up to the present day - will be live-streamed Tuesday from Sotheby’s London.

“With the global art world calendar having shifted, we too have seized the opportunity to do things differently,” said Helena Newman, chair of Sotheby’s Europe. The auction caters to “a new generation of a collectors (who) show less concern with the traditional art market categories of the past,” she added.

The most valuable paintings include Miró’s “Peinture (Femme au chapeau rouge)” from 1927, estimated to sell for 20 to 30 million pounds ($25-37.5 million), and a self-portrait by Rembrandt from 1632, one of only three in private hands. The Rembrandt is estimated to fetch up to 12 million pounds ($20 million.)

The auction also includes a triptych by Banksy called “Mediterranean Sea View,” painted in 2017. The panel of three paintings, presented in elaborate traditional frames, features orange life jackets and alludes to the lives lost at sea during the European migrant crisis. Proceeds from the paintings, expected to fetch from $1 to $1.5 million, will raise money for a hospital in Bethlehem.

Sotheby’s London said some two-thirds of the art on sale has never been at auction before. Of the rest, most had been off the market for two decades.