Goya received as a gift by Nicolae Ceaușescu from the King of Spain, in the biggest art auction this winter in Romania!
The auction house A10 by Artmark announce the most important art auction of winter 2025 – an event that brings together pieces of heritage of rare value, masterpieces of the history of Western and Romanian art. Among these, and an engraving with a special meaning made by Francisco Goya.
The paper, entitled “Engagement – Caprice No. 57”has an impressive provenance: it belongs to the series “Los Caprichos” (“The Whims”, no), made by the famous Spanish painter at the end of the 18th century, and comes from a coveted collection – it is a gift personally received by Nicolae Ceaușescu from the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I de Bourbon, around 1979-80. Confiscated in December 1989, when it was handed over to the National Art Museum of Romania, the engraving was returned to the heir, Zoia Ceaușescu, in 2012, and is classified in the category of Mobile National Cultural Heritage Fund, by order of the Minister of Culture.
Goya's engravings have been, since the 70s, a cultural vector of Spanish diplomacy. Another Eastern European leader, Josip Broz Tito (former president of Yugoslavia), also received copies of the “Whims” series (from Enrique Galvan, president of the Spanish Socialist Party), which is today in the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. Nicolae Ceaușescu was given this gift by King Juan Carlos I, in the context of bilateral relations in the 70s and 80s. The star engraving has a starting price of €8,000 at the Artmark event, which is remarkable considering that similar Goya works fetch tens of thousands of euros on the international art market. Also, engravings by Goya from the “Whims” series are exhibited in all the great museums of the world, from Barcelona and Madrid, to London, Berlin and New York.
In the same Artmark auction, collectors also have access to exceptional works of Romanian art. Here are just a few rarities: a classic nude signed by Nicolae Grigorescu – entitled “At the source” and painted around the 1860s, with a starting price of 50,000 euros, but also a signed painting Nicholas Vermont – “Young Enescu in recital” (1927), with a starting price of only 5,000 euros.
Grigorescu's nude is a truly exceptional appearance, because the theme of the nude is rare in the artist's work – only a few works are known, most of them studio studies made in France or during the formation phases. Why are there so few? Because Grigorescu, unlike the realists who were his contemporaries, rarely addressed the nude as an autonomous theme; always attracted to the female figure, but he composed it in poses of rural life or a sweet portrait of the women close to him, as he also explains Mariana Cîmpeanu, Doctor of Visual Artsfor YouTube channel Artmark: “The nudes were made by Grigorescu during his studies in Paris. And they were few. You can see in these paintings that Grigorescu had a special way of rendering female beauty. I think that in these paintings we can find the key to Grigorescu's works, in the touch with which he made the carnation. Of course, the anatomical study is also important, and it can also be seen in the Șărăncuțele made by Grigorescu later, in Romania.”
Selection of the Winter auction from Artmark it also includes other masterpieces, 195 in total! It is a carefully curated selection, with rare and representative works signed both by old masters of Romanian art and by the most appreciated contemporaries. Here are just a few of the other signatures: Nicholas Tonitza, Theodore Aman, Camille Ressu, Stefan Luchian, Octav Bancila, Samuel Mützner, Theodore Pallady, Ion Tuculescu, Cornelius Baba, Constantin Piliuta, Stefan Câltia, Felix Afternoon, Adrian Ghenie. And all of them can be admired in the exhibitions of the Artmark Galleries at Cesianu-Racovița Palace from the Capital, in str. CA Rosetti no. 5, daily (from Monday to Sunday), in the generous time slot 10.00-20.00, always with free entry!
Article supported by A10 by Artmark
