Alexandra Suich Bass
speaker
93 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 3 Sep
Alexandra Suich Bass’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And of course, there's the story of its survival, how it dodged being ripped up for wagon covers during the French Revolution, Napoleon's fondness for its visions of victory over the English, the Nazis' efforts to steal it.
At its heart, it evokes unchanging themes of the human experience: promises and power, suffering and salvation.
It's a tableau that's as tragic as it is timeless.
A world ravaged by violence, survivors seeking solace and understanding in art.
These threads stretch across time and generations.
On first glance, the painting, by an unknown 17th century artist, seemed unlikely to start a bidding war.
It depicts two yellow skulls, one without a lower jaw, and a handwritten note.
Yet on July 1st, bidding at an auction at Christie's in London pushed the painting's price to $575,000, about four times the pre-sale estimate.
Sales of Old Masters, a century-spanning category that typically includes works completed before 1850, are picking up.
The value of sales of Old Masters worldwide rose 30% in 2025 from a year earlier to $1.2 billion.
But that doesn't quite capture the full story.
Many of these paintings are sold privately.
Patrick Williams of Adam Williams, a gallery in New York, told me that younger buyers are showing more interest too.
This year, 16% of bidders in old master sales at Sotheby's are under the age of 40, nearly triple the share from five years ago.
So what's changed in the past two years?
Contemporary markets have been showing some volatility.
Old masters are more stable.
They're less expensive.
And of course, they're more scarce, since the artists are long dead.
Buyers have more eclectic tastes, too.
Showing 41–60 of 93 · page 3 of 5
← Previous
Next →