Displaying items by tag: brett gorvy

The Pablo Picasso canvas that set a record on May 11 at Christie's for the most expensive work ever sold at auction, at $179.4 million, may have gone to a buyer from Qatar.

Unnamed art world sources are telling the "New York Post" that the buyer of "Femmes d'Alger (Version “O")" (1955), was billionaire former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani. Buyers at auction typically maintain their anonymity by bidding via phone; the Picasso was won by an anonymous telephone bidder represented by Brett Gorvy, international head of contemporary art for Christie's.

To a medley of whoops, hollers and gasps on Monday night, Pablo Picasso’s 1955 painting “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’)” sold for $179.4 million including fees at Christie’s “Looking Forward to the Past” sale of artworks spanning the 20th century. The price was the highest on record for a work of art sold at auction, the company said, and was well over its estimate of $140 million.

Once the bidding reached $120 million, the Picasso was pursued by five clients on telephones, often in agonizingly slow, $1 million increments, before finally being sold to a buyer represented by Brett Gorvy, Christie’s international head of contemporary art.

Christie’s has announced that two monumental works by Andy Warhol will lead its highly anticipated Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on November 12. The silkscreen paintings, “Triple Elvis [Ferus Type]” (1963) and “Four Marlons” (1966), are expected to fetch around $70 million each. Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s, suspects that interested buyers could try to acquire both works and keep them as a unique pair. Warhol’s current record at auction was set last November at Sotheby’s when his two-panel painting “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)” sold for $104.5 million.

“Triple Elvis” and “Four Marlons” are being offered for sale by the German casino company WestSpiel.

Auction houses expect to sell as much as $2.3 billion of art in New York this month as billionaires from China to Brazil compete for trophy works by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Jeff Koons in a surging market.

Two weeks of semiannual sales of Impressionist, modern, postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s, Sotheby’s (BID) and Phillips begin May 6, with online bidding as early as today. Their combined sales target represents a 77 percent increase from estimates for a similar round of auctions a year ago.

On November 12, Christie’s Evening Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art in New York achieved an unprecedented $691,583,000 – the highest total for any auction in art market history. The top lot was Francis Bacon’s triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which garnered $142,405,000, a world record for any artwork ever sold at auction.

The highly anticipated painting, which was was expected to sell for $85 million to $95 million, portrays Lucien Freud, Bacon’s friend and fellow artist. Executed in 1969, the work is one of Bacon’s most important paintings and unites two of the most significant figurative artists of the 20^th century.

The sale set ten new world auction record prices for Bacon, Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Lucio Fontana, Donald Judd, Wade Guyton, Vija Celmins, Ad Reinhardt, Willem de Kooning and Wayne Thiebaud. Three works sold for over $50 million, 16 went for above $10 million, and 56 works exceeded $1 million. In addition, Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog (Orange) achieved $58,405,000, a new world auction record for a living artist and the most expensive contemporary sculpture ever sold.

Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s, said, “We are thrilled to announce an historic total of $691.6 million for this evening’s sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art. It is the second time this year that Christie’s has broken the highest total in auction history. Collectors from 42 countries registered tonight with strong bidding from American, European and Asian collectors but also from institutions. The sale was heavily focused on icons and masterworks, achieving an astonishing 10 record prices and breaking the record for any work of art ever sold at auction. Beyond the records, 10,000 art lovers flocked to Christie’s galleries in the last week to engage with and enjoy the remarkable selection of artworks on display.”

On November 12, 2013, Christie’s New York will offer a monumental abstract painting by Mark Rothko during its Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening sale. The last time a Rothko of this magnitude was offered at auction was May 2012 when Orange, Red, Yellow sold for a record $86.6 million at Christie’s.

Untitled (No. 11) has resided in the same collection for two decades. Prior to its acquisition in 1992, the work was featured in a number of retrospectives including exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the Neue National-Galerie in Dusseldorf, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Untitled (No. 11) is expected to garner between $25 million and $35 million.

Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christie’s, said, “After the auction record set in May 2012 for Orange, Red, Yellow, from the Pincus Collection, we are delighted to present Untitled (No. 11) as one of the highlights of Christie’s November evening sale. The demand for masterworks by Rothko is probably the most international amongst all the artists we sell, with strong bidding consistently from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Russia and the Middle-East. Untitled (No. 11) is remarkable for its incredible beauty, intensity of color and inner light - the very hallmarks of Rothko’s prime period. The monumental scale allows viewers to be completely enveloped by the colors and its sensations.”

Untitled (No. 11) will go on view in London before traveling to New York in November.

Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening Art Auction on May 15, 2013 in New York garnered $495 million – the highest total in auction history. Packed with masterpieces from an array of important art movements including Abstract Expressionism and Pop, many of the works offered were from lauded private collections and institutions. Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, said, “The remarkable bidding and record prices set reflect a new era in the art market, wherin seasoned collectors and new bidders compete at the highest level within a global market.”

The top lot of the night was Jackson Pollock’s (1912-1956) Number 19, 1948 (estimate: $25 million - $35 million). A prime example of Pollock’s drip paintings, the work sold for $58.3 million and set the record for the artist at auction. The influential art critic, Clement Greenberg, singled our Number 19 as the painting that offered enough proof to justify calling Pollock one of the most significant painters of our time.

Other highlights include Roy Lichtenstein’s (1923-1997) iconic work of pop art, Woman with Flowered Hat (1963) (estimate: approximately $30 million), which sold for $56.1 million and set the record for the artist at auction; Jean Michel-Basquiat’s (1960-1988) Dustheads (estimate: $25 million - $35 million), a neo-expressionist work from the 1980s, which sold for $48.8 million, an auction record for the artist; and Mark Rothko’s (1903-1970) color field painting, Untitled (Black on Maroon) (1958) (estimate: $15 million-$20 million), which sold for $27 million.

Out of 70 works offered at last night’s auction, only 4 failed to find buyers.

Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary auction edged out Sotheby’s as the blockbuster sale of the week. Profits reached a walloping $412,253,100 on Wednesday night in New York and only six of the 73 lots went unsold. Beating the pre-sale estimate of $289,350,000-$411,800,000, the auction was the second highest grossing in Christie’s history. The record is currently held by the November 2006 Impressionist and Modern sale that brought $491.5 million. However, last night’s auction was the highest earning sale for the Post-War and Contemporary category to date.

During the course of the sale seven artist records were set and six works sold for over $20 million. Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International head of Post-War and Contemporary Art said, “We curated the sale around the rich variety of quality works and most coveted artists.” Works by these big name artists proceeded to sell for mind-bogglingly astronomical prices.

Andy Warhol’s iconic portrait of Marlon Brando, titled Marlon, (1966) sold for $23,714,500, Roy Lichtenstein’s interior Nude with Red Shirt (1995) brought $28,082,500, and Franz Kline’s seminal Abstract Expressionist painting, Untitled (1957) sold for a record $40,402,500. Other major sales included Warhol’s 3-D Statue of Liberty (1962) that went for $43,762,500, Mark Rothko’s Black Stripe (Orange, Gold and Black) that sold to a telephone bidder for $21,362,500, and Jeff Koons’ stainless steel Tulips (1995-2004) that brought $33,682,500, a new record for the artist. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1981) was expected to bring in big numbers and did not disappoint at $26,402,500, but the piece stayed under its high estimate of $30 million.

Contemporary sales continue tonight at Phillips de Pury.