Female artists are in demand on the Spanish artwork market | EUROtoday

Two very completely different work by Francisco de Goya (1746 to 1828) had been the 2 high tons on the Spanish artwork market in 2025. One exhibits the Baron von Menglana, Don José Cistué y Coll, in a full-length portrait from 1788. The Aragon regional authorities acquired the portrait of the revered lawyer and college professor from the heirs of the individual portrayed for 3.6 million euros and handed it over to the museum in Huesca.

The similar value was accepted by a bidder for an early work by Goya on the Magna Art Auctions public sale home, which solely opened in Madrid in 2024. Goya in all probability painted the “Adoration of the Cross” round 1772 for the church in Torrecilla de Valmadrid. His father gilded the primary altar there. The portray comes from a personal Catalan assortment, has an export allow from the Spanish Ministry of Culture and was offered on the beginning value.

The Spanish state additionally paid a substantial value of two.2 million euros for a set of 9 oil work with mother-of-pearl incrustations. Created on the finish of the seventeenth century within the Viceroyalty of New Spain, now Mexico, the uncommon photographs of the Virgin Mary are actually in Madrid’s Museo de América. They come from the palace of the Marquis de la Montilla in Seville.

A bidding struggle triggered a piece by Luca Giordano (1634 to 1705) that was beforehand unknown to researchers. The Madrid public sale home Abalarte supplied the monumental depiction of an Amazon in battle or the preventing Assyrian queen Semiramis for 180,000 euros. The hammer solely fell at 700,000 euros. According to stories, the work was despatched to a overseas collector on the telephone.

The island authorities of Mallorca paid solely barely much less, the equal of 687,000 euros, for a really well-preserved nautical map from the fifteenth century at a web based public sale by Sotheby’s in London. The Mallorcan cartographer Pere Rosell made it on parchment in 1447. He acquired details about crucial distances, reefs and harbors from sailors, and the map was commissioned from the Florentine Martelli household, who had been thought-about rivals of the Medici. Only the details about the western a part of the Mediterranean is dependable. In the east even Babylon seems, though the as soon as largest metropolis on the planet was by no means on the ocean and was already a delusion throughout Rossel’s lifetime.

The subsequent motif is just not the tough sea, however fairly beautiful ladies. Thanks to the bequest of the Prado curator Juan José Luna, the Spanish state secured a portrait of the daughters of the painter Luis Paret (1746 to 1799) to the Prado Pinacoteca. The oil portray on copper “María y Luisa” from 1783 value 395,000 euros.

The state additionally designated “The Visitation” by Juan Bautista Maíno (1581 to 1649) for the Prado. The gallery Jaime Eguiguren Arts & Antiques from Uruguay supplied the non secular motif on the TEFAF in Maastricht in 2022. Now the Spanish Ministry of Culture paid 375,000 euros for the colourful portrait of the Mother of God and her cousin Elisabeth, each in joyful anticipation.

The Reina Sofía Museum added a small work by Maruja Mallo (1902 to 1995) to its assortment for 300,000 euros. The Spanish painter created the practical portrait of a younger black lady in exile in Argentina in 1948. It has nothing to do with the surrealist or abstract-geometric works of fellow group member “Generation 27”. Nevertheless, the expressiveness of the profile image is plain. The acquisition marks a brand new excessive value for Maruja Mallo and comes within the context of the preparation of a retrospective deliberate for 2026 underneath the title “Máscara y Compás” on the Reina Sofía.

But Maruja Mallo is just not the one artist who made it onto one of the best checklist of the Spanish artwork market in 2025. The Italian painter Lavinia Fontana (1552 to 1614) and the Spanish sculptor Luisa Roldán (1652 to 1706) are every represented with two works. The oil work “Lady with Servant and Dog” and “Lady with Child” by the Italian mannerist discovered a brand new lover at Magna on the beginning value of 325,000 and 275,000 euros respectively.

The state secured two coloured terracotta teams by “Roldana” Luisa Ignacia Roldán Villavicencio (1652 to 1706) from the Abalarte public sale home for 275,000 euros every. The “Rest on the Flight to Egypt” goes to the Prado in Madrid and the “Our Lady” goes to the National Sculpture Museum in Valladolid. Like Lavinia Fontana, Luisa Roldán loved recognition throughout her lifetime and have become the courtroom’s sculptor in 1692. Nevertheless, the present buy is her first work to be exhibited within the Prado.

Overall, the Spanish artwork market was as soon as once more modest in worldwide comparability final yr, with single-digit million sums for the highest tons – regardless of an inclination in the direction of Old Masters. The cultural heritage, be it of Spanish, Hispanic or overseas origin, is maintained within the nation. Accordingly, his Ministry of Culture stays one of the crucial essential patrons. The drawback if the state makes use of its proper of first refusal is the lengthy time frame that should be granted to it for fee.

A brand new legislation that would offer incentives for patrons and collectors has been mentioned for years however has not been handed. It may stimulate the market and produce high-profile works which are nonetheless being held again to public sale homes.