This December the traditional European sculpture sale in the Old Masters Week will include important 19th and 20th century sculpture for the first time.

The merger of these two fields adds to a sale which was already unique to the auction world for its focus on European sculpture and an exciting array of marbles, bronzes, and terracottas including work by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Antoine-Louis Barye and Alfred Boucher. They join a fine selection of older objects from one of the most diverse collecting fields handled by Sotheby’s. Besides sculpture, it encompasses works of art ranging from Romanesque metalwork, to exotic Kunstkammer objects and fine caskets and small cabinets.

Featured in the sale will be a large, exceedingly important, limewood figure of St John by the Master of the Harburger Altar offered on behalf of the Oppenheimer Estate, a Baroque set of four lively terracotta putti representing the Senses dated 1733, and an elaborate rock crystal tazza once owned by the Archbishop of Mainz.

19th-century highlights include an exquisitely carved marble seated nude by Alfred Boucher and Giovanni Battista Lombardi’s fine marble figure of Ruth.