The best auctions of January 2022

Old Masters: Botticelli, Gentileschi and more

One of the last privately owned masterpieces by Botticelli will go under the hammer this month in New York as part of Sotheby’s annual Masters Week sales series. Following the auction house’s record-breaking sale of the Renaissance artist’s Young Man Holding a Roundel last year, which sold for $92.2m, The Man of Sorrows – a half-length panel painting of the resurrected Christ that last appeared at auction in 1963 – is expected to fetch more than $40m. “The painting spotlights Botticelli’s intense spirituality, which greatly influenced his later-period work and life,” says Christopher Apostle, Sotheby’s head of Old Master paintings in New York. Also in the sale will be pieces by Giovanni Bellini and Pieter van Mol, and a rare portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi (estimate $2m-$3m). 27 January; sothebys.com 

Season-opening car auctions in Arizona

Kicking off the 2022 collector-car auction calendar, RM Sotheby’s will be hosting its 23rd annual Arizona sale, offering a wide variety of marques and eras, with sports cars and a single-owner collection leading the highlights. Star lots include a recently restored 1987 Porsche 959 ($1.2-$1.5m), a grey-blue 1964 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster ($2.2-$2.5m) and the 1980s icon Cizeta-Moroder V16T ($900,000-$1.2m) – the only example to be offered by its illustrious original owner, music producer Giorgio Moroder, who was an investor in the brand. Over at The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa about 15 miles away, Bonham’s will be presenting its 11th Scottsdale auction, featuring rare collectable motor cars such as a matching-numbers, special-order-colour 1958 AC Ace Roadster that has been treated to a full nut-and-bolt restoration (estimate on request). 27 January; rmsothebys.com, bonhams.com 

Bonhams celebrates Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the second woman to serve on the US Supreme Court, died in September 2020, leaving behind a personal library reflecting her wide-ranging interests spanning everything from law and travel to art and music. Now about 100 of the trailblazing judge’s books, photographs and ephemera are going on sale. Highlights include her copy of 1969 Rutgers Law School yearbook ($500-$700) – the year she joined the faculty as the school’s second female tenure-track professor – her annotated copy of the 1958 Harvard Law Review ($1,000-$2,000) and a copy of the photo book Women by Annie Leibovitz and Susan Sontag, signed and inscribed by both to Ginsburg ($500-$700). Online auction, 19-27 January; bonhams.com 

Christie’s launches a new wine sale in Los Angeles

For its first online sale based in Los Angeles – Fine & Rare Wines – Christie’s has tapped the cellars of two notable collections, one of which belongs to a client of the house for more than 50 years. The launch is part of a wider plan to cater to America’s west coast in tandem with Christie’s Asian markets – regions that now make up 40 per cent of active wine clients. Expect rare bottles such as a 1795 Barbeito Terrantez ($8,500-$10,000) and 1889 Tokaji Essencia ($2,000-$3,000), as well as every vintage of Napa Valley’s Screaming Eagle from 1993 to the present. Online auction, 18 January to 1 February; christies.com

Gems from a François-Joseph Graf interior on Lake Geneva

One of François-Joseph Graf’s first projects after launching his eponymous interior-design agency in 1986 was Au Bord du Lac, a house on the shores of Lake Geneva. Graf, who was known as the “Don Quixote of Taste”, filled his client’s home with French 19th-century art and furniture, each room combining his love of lustrous materials – lacquer, glass and gilded bronze – with his own luxury fabrics. A selection of objets from Au Bord du Lac curated by Graf will go on sale in a live auction at Christie’s London, with highlights set to include a 1917 Henri Le Sidaner painting, Art Nouveau ceramics by Pierre-Adrien Dalpayrat and a suite of Aesthetic Movement room panelling. 26 January; christies.com 

A celebration of Americana at Sotheby’s

Americana Week at Sotheby’s comprises four sales, each dedicated to the history, heritage and folklore of the United States. Headlining the selection is the collection of William K du Pont, a scholar, collector and descendant of the storied du Pont family (the clan was most recently depicted in Bennett Miller’s film Foxcatcher). Over several decades, du Pont amassed one of the most highly regarded collections of American memorabilia ever assembled – including silver-mounted flintlock pistols ($25,000-$50,000), antique walnut furniture and documents signed by George Washington ($6,000-$8,000), all of which will be on offer at a live auction in New York. 22 to 23 January; sothebys.com