Reunited With Its Bottom Half, Cabinet Fetches £1.08M

by Zoe Strimpel
Tue, 4 Dec 2007 at 1:43 PM

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Four bidders competed for an Italian Baroque cabinet at Sotheby's today, with the successful bidder taking home the most expensive "and important" piece of Italian Baroque furniture sold to date at auction. The piece went for £1,084,500, just above its upper estimate of £1 million ($2 million). Only three such cabinets were known to exist until the head of Sotheby's furniture division, Mario Tavella, saw a photograph of a Roman console table that was presumed lost. He deduced that the table, which had been sitting in a restaurant in York, north England, for decades, was the missing stand for an equally important cabinet that Sotheby's had been keeping in storage for more than 20 years. The two were reunited, and today, sold.

Mr. Tavella said: "The fantastic price achieved for such a remarkable piece of Italian furniture demonstrates that there are numerous serious collectors who have not been influenced by the current minimalist trend and desire pieces of extraordinary design."

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