8 February 2007 - 20:51Hanover sale tops 30m

Sotheby’s sale of the house of Hanover treasures at Marienburg Castle in Germany has reached a total over the ten days of 44 million Euros (approximately 30.2m), four times the expected total. Around 20,000 objects went under the hammer, in an unprecendented sale of items belonging to the German royal family headed by Prince Ernst August, the third husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco. Ernst August is a descendant of the last German Kaiser Wilhelm II. The sale was held to raise money to help maintain the family estate.

The single most expensive lot in the sale was a pair of massive blue ground 19th century Russian vases, (see picture) produced by the Imperial Porcelain Factory in St. Petersburg, which sold for 1.69million Euros (1.16m approx). Measuring 36″ (92cm) high, they were finely painted by M. Kriukov and S. Spiridonov with panels with allegories of wrath and pride.