Send in the clowns Tribute to the Circus of Monaco: the Fratellinis, Artcurial, Monaco
20 January
A pi François and Albert. Around 100 photographs, works of art, posters and various other objects commemorate the trio, who toured Europe with their circus act and starred at the Cirque Medrano in Paris between 1915 and 1924. Their spectacular show was not only popular with the public, but also with Parisian intellectuals and artists, including Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Raoul Dufy. This 1920s red velvet costume belonged to François, who played the traditional role of the elegant, pompous, whiteface clown. Embellished with a swirling diamante pattern and lace collar, the one-piece suit was made by his wife, Jeanne Peres, a horsewoman. It is expected to sell for between €4,000 and €6,000.
Chinese screen swapped for a fur coat Property from the Winter White House, Leslie Hindman, Chicago
23 January
An eight-panel Coromandel floor screen from the late 19th century (est $2,000-$4,000) is among the remaining contents of the Kennedy family’s summer home in Palm Beach, Florida. The oceanfront mansion, nicknamed the “Winter White House”, belonged to the Kennedy family for 62 years until 1995, when the property, and most of its assets, were sold for $4.9m. This decorative screen originally belonged to Mary Soames, the youngest daughter of Winston Churchill. According to the seller, Soames gave it to Joseph and Rose Kennedy when they visited her English estate. As Soames griped about the lack of heating, Mrs Kennedy offered to exchange the fur coat that she was wearing for the screen. Coromandel floor screens featuring Chinese landscapes and motifs became fashionable among European collectors in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were named after India’s Coromandel coast, through which the screens passed on their way from China to Europe.
Baroque shower of gold Master Paintings Evening Sale, Sotheby’s, New York
28 January
A highlight of Sotheby’s sales of Old Masters is Orazio Gentileschi’s Danae (1621), which depicts the moment in Greek mythology when Zeus enters Danae’s locked chamber in the form of a shower of gold. The painting, which is estimated to sell for between $25m and $35m, is marked by the sensuality of its subject and its use of light. Gentileschi was strongly influenced by Caravaggio from the early 1600s and became one of the younger painter’s most prominent followers. This work, part of a set of three commissions for the Genoese nobleman Giovanni Antonio Sauli, is more than two metres wide and has been described as the most important Italian Baroque painting to come to the market since the Second World War. A second, more anxious-looking version of Danae, dating to 1623, belongs to the Cleveland Museum of Art and was believed to be the original before this work resurfaced in 1975.
