The top price was reached during the main sale on January 24 when a late Gothic sculpture by Tilman Riemenschneider (“Objects of Desire,” Art & Antiques, January 2008) sold for $6,313,000 to an anonymous phone bidder, against an estimate of $4 million to $6 million. The Franconian limewood figure of St. Catherine, circa 1505, had been out of public view from 1931 to 2000, when it was featured in a special Riemenschneider exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Limewood (also named lindenwood) is known for its plasticity and ease of carving, used here to create a face that combines deep emotional power and saintly serenity. Fittingly, this masterpiece set an auction record for the German artist, surpassing the previous mark of $2.97 million set at Sotheby’s New York in 2001.

Sculpture was the star of the sale, as shown by a painted and gilt terracotta relief of the Madonna and Child by Donatello (est. $2 million–$4 million) that captured the second-highest price of $5,641,000. Nearly three feet high, this sensitively rendered piece is the only terracotta by the most important Quattrocento sculptor in private hands in the U.S. Its appeal was no doubt boosted by its excellent condition, including extensive intact polychromy, and it, too, set an artist record. Lucas Cranach the Elder may have benefited from his first major retrospective in 35 years, at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Germany (see Art&Antiques, March 2008)—two of his paintings brought high prices at Sotheby’s. A “Portrait of a Young Lady Holding Grapes and Apples” (est. $1.5 million–$2 million) went for $5,081,000, and a canvas depicting the philosopher Aristotle with Phyllis—the seductive queen who, according to medieval legend, rode the aged philosopher like a horse (est. $2.5 million–$3.5 million)—sold for a slightly less impressive $4,073,000. Here Phyllis is shown wearing a trademark Cranach red hat. The ever-popular Venetian veduto genre did well: A Bellotto view of the Grand Canal with the Rialto nearly doubled its high estimate to bring $2,169,000, and a view of the Thames in London by his uncle and teacher Canaletto more than doubled its high estimate when it sold for $2,057,000.

The previous day, Sotheby’s held a drawings sale, including Jeffrey E. Horvitz’s collection of Italian works. The Horvitz hoard accounted for $4,963,850 of the total $9,195,175, although as a group, it fell closer to its low aggregate estimate that to the high. The top Horvitz piece was Agostino Carracci’s “St. Jerome in His Study” (est. $70,000–$100,000), which sold for $385,000. In the various-owners section, a remarkable double-sided sheet of head studies in red chalk by Fra Bartolommeo (est. $800,000–$1.2 million) sold for $1,945,000, making it the top lot among drawings. It had not been seen publicly since 1927.

Perhaps buyers felt now was the time to invest in something that has already stood the test of time. Or maybe the spending mania that has gripped the art world for over five years has yet to dissipate. Whatever the truth may be, the oft-repeated canard that American buyers are only interested in contemporary art was definitely given the lie.