For the first time a ranking of Romania's highest grossing painters has been published by local magazine Capital. The chart lists the top 100 Romanian painters, past and present, by the value of their work sold on auction and was launched with a celebratory dinner at the Cesianu-Racoviţă Palace earlier this week.

Currently in top spot is Nicolae Tonitza's with În iatac (In The Bedroom), which sold for EUR 290,000 at Artmark's Winter Auction in December last year (in picture). Next placed artist is Nicolae Grigorescu, whose Ţărăncuţă odihnindu-se (Peasants Resting from Work) fetched EUR 270,000 at auction last year, while in third place is Camil Ressu with Aişe (Spring Flowers) which went for EUR 160,000 back in 2009. Ştefan Luchian, Ioan Andreescu, Marcel Iancu, Ion Ţuculescu, Theodor Pallady, Victor Brauner and Constantin Artachino completed the top ten most valuable Romanian artists, with their artworks selling from EUR 155,000 to EUR 67,500 in the last five years.

Romanian art has gathered in popularity in recent years, with works by artists such as Tonitza and Nicolae Grigorescu regularly setting new records at auction. Former head of Romania's Cultural Institute Horia Roman Patapievici, Artmark auction house shareholder Alexandru Bâldea and Revista Capital's editor in chief Oana Osman all attended the launch event this week.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com

(picture source: Artmark)