Dutch artwork, including Rembrandt sketch, sell for €11.8 million at auction

Nine Dutch artworks from the 16th and 17th centuries sold for a combined total of 9.97 million pounds, equivalent to roughly 11.79 million euros, at Christie’s in London on Thursday. The pieces were part of the Old Masters Evening Sale event at the auction house.

“The Three Crosses,” a 1653 Rembrandt sketch, was among the items auctioned. The piece depicts Christ crucified between two thieves. It sold for 1.46 million pounds.

Two of the Dutch items sold for higher amounts, including a painting by Haarlem-born artist Jacob van Ruisdael of a wooded landscape that garnered 3.38 million pounds. A buyer also paid 3.14 million pounds for a Jan den Uyl still-life painting of a pewter jug and silver tazza on a table. Both Van Ruisdael and Den Uyl died in Amsterdam in the 17th century.

The amounts paid for the works by Van Ruisdael and Den Uyl were both new records for the artists, according to news wire ANP.

The Van Ruisdael work and two other pieces were sold from the collection of Dr. Hans Wetzlar, an Amsterdam art dealer who died in 1977. Christie’s did not disclose the identities of the buyers.