Displaying items by tag: Christie's

Francis Bacon’s ‘Portrait of George Dyer Talking’ sold for $70 million at Christie’s evening auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art on February 13 in London. The painting, which was the sale’s top lot and achieved the highest price ever paid at auction for a single panel by the artist, was expected to fetch around $49 million. Bacon’s triptych of Lucian Freud, which sold for $142 million at Christie’s in New York in November 2013, remains the most expensive work by the artist ever sold at auction.

The 6’ by 6’ canvas depicting Bacon’s lover, George Dyer, was featured in the artist’s monumental retrospective at Paris’ Grand Palais in 1971. The exhibition opened just two days after Dyer was found dead in a French hotel room due to an alcohol and drug overdose. Despite their famously tumultuous relationship, Bacon painted portraits of Dyer almost obsessively both before and after his death.

The sale at Christie’s garnered $206,158,720 -- the second highest total for a European auction of Post-War and Contemporary art in history -- and sold 83% by lot and 95% by value. Other highlights included Gerhard Richter’s ‘Abstraktes Bild,’ one of the artist’s finest abstract works to appear at auction, which sold for $32.5 million; a sculpture by Jeff Koons titled ‘Cracked Egg (Magenta),’ which fetched $23.4 million; and Damien Hirst’s spot painting of Mickey Mouse titled ‘Mickey,’ which sold for $1.5 million.     

Portugal’s Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, announced that the sale of 85 works by Spanish artist Joan Miró would go on as planned despite a cancellation at Christie’s London. The auction house halted the sale, which was scheduled to take place on February 4, following a legal dispute in Portugal.

The paintings, which are valued at more than 36 million euros, were acquired by the Portuguese government from a failing bank during the 2008 global banking crisis. Much to the dismay of Portuguese art enthusiasts, the country announced that it would sell the works to bring a much-needed injection of funds. Earlier this week, Portugal’s Socialist party filed a request in court to have the sale halted. Although the request was rejected, Christie’s decided to cancel the sale due to the legal uncertainties surrounding the collection.

Coelho assured that the sale would take place in the “near future” but no date has been set.

On February 5, Sotheby’s London’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale fetched 163.5 million pounds, significantly more than its pre-sale estimate of 128.4 million pounds. Out of the 89 lots offered, 10 failed to find buyers.

The highlight of the sale was Camille Pissarro’s ‘Boulevard Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps,’ a street scene that sold for a record 19.9 million pounds, nearly five times the previous record for the Impressionist master at auction. The painting, which is widely considered to be one of the most important Impressionist works to appear at auction in the last decade, was originally owned by the Jewish industrialist, Max Silberberg. During World War II, the Nazis forced Silberberg, who perished in a concentration camp, to get rid of his entire collection of 19th and 20th century artworks. ‘Boulevard Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps’ was restituted to Silberberg’s family in 2000.

The auction also saw the highest price for a Vincent Van Gogh painting offered at auction in London when ‘L’Homme est en mer’ sold for 16.9 million pounds. Other highlights included a print by Pablo Picasso titled ‘Composition au Minotaure,’ which sold for a record 10.4 million pounds and a work on paper by Alberto Giacometti titled ‘Homme Traversant une Place par un Matin de Soleil,’ which achieved a record 8.5 million pounds.

Two weeks of London sales kicked off on February 4 at Christie’s where works by Picasso, Rene Magritte and Juan Gris helped an auction reach 177 million pounds, a record for a sale in London. During the sale, Gris’ still-life ‘Nature Morte a la Nappe a Carreaux’ sold for 34.8 million pounds, a world record for the Spanish artist at auction.

In December 2013, Christie’s London announced that it would auction off 85 works spanning the seven decades of Spanish artist Joan Miró’s career. On Tuesday, February 4, the auction house announced that it had cancelled the sale following a legal dispute in Portugal.

The paintings, which are valued at more than 36 million euros, were acquired by the Portuguese government from a failing bank during the 2008 global banking crisis. Much to the dismay of Portuguese art enthusiasts, the country’s cash-strapped government announced that it would sell the works to bring a much-needed injection of funds. Earlier this week, Portugal’s Socialist party filed a request in court to have the sale halted. Although the request was rejected, Christie’s decided to stop the auction, saying, “The legal uncertainties created by this ongoing dispute mean that we are not able to safely offer the works for sale. We have a responsibility to our buyers to be sure that legal title can transfer to them without issue.”  

The works were to be sold during three auctions slated to take place February 4 and 5. The star of the auction was to be ‘Women and Birds,’ which features two of Miró’s recurring subjects. Created in 1968, the canvas was expected fetch between 4 million euros and 7 million euros.

Christie’s Old Masters Week, which took place in New York from January 28 through January 30, garnered $68 million. The top lot was ‘The Rothschild Prayerbook,’ a masterpiece from the Flemish Renaissance that sold for $13.6 million, a record for an illuminated manuscript at auction.

‘The Rothschild Prayerbook’ is comprised of lavish and intricate illustrations by the most celebrated court artists of the Renaissance, including Gerard Horenbout and Alexander Bening. The book was most likely made around 1505 for someone connected to the imperial court in the Netherlands. Kay Sutton, the Director of Books and Manuscripts at Christie’s, said, “The Rothschild Prayerbook is a fabulous work of art and it has been an enormous pleasure and honour for us to be able to show it so widely and to such universal admiration -- an admiration recognized by the price it achieved at auction.”

Other highlights from Christie’s Old Masters Week included Francisco de Goya’s ‘Los Caprichos’, a set of 80 etchings that sold for $1.4 million; Tiepolo’s ‘I Cani Sapienti,’ which garnered $3.6 million, a record for a single work by the artist at auction; and a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens titled ‘Saint Ildefonso receiving the Chasuble from the Virgin,’ which netted $233,000.

This spring, Christie’s will sell approximately 400 items from the collection of Huguette Clark, a reclusive copper heiress. The auction house has revealed that the trove includes Claude Monet’s ‘Water Lilies’, which has not been exhibited publicly since 1926 and is expected to fetch between $25 million and $35 million, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s ‘Young Women Playing Badminton,’ which is expected to bring between $10 million and $15 million.

Clark’s collection also includes musical instruments, Gilded Age furniture and rare books. The trove will be divided among two sales -- one on May 6 that will include the Monet and Renoir paintings, and another on June 18. The entire collection is expected to fetch more than $50 million. Before the sales, highlights from Clark’s holdings will go on view at Christie’s London and then at various locations throughout Asia.

Clark was the daughter of U.S. senator and copper tycoon, William A. Clark. Beginning in 1930, she led a largely reclusive life and when she passed away in 2011, she left behind an estate worth nearly $300 million. The proceeds from the upcoming sales will go to the estate, which will most likely be distributed between art institutions and distant relatives.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced that it will donate $40 million to a fund established to help save the Detroit Institute of Arts’ finest works from being sold at auction and avoid cuts to municipal pensions. The fund, which was created after the city of Detroit filed for bankruptcy in July 2013, now totals $370 million. Detroit is currently over $18 billion in debt and creditors are seeking repayment.

Following the bankruptcy filing, Kevyn Orr, Detroit’s emergency manager, asked Christie’s to appraise the 2,781 city-owned works housed in the Detroit Institute of Arts. The auction house estimated the works to be worth anywhere from $452 million to $886 million. The Institute has opposed any sale, stating that its art is held in a charitable trust and cannot be part of any auction to help pay for Detroit’s substantial debts.

The Kellogg Foundation, which was founded in 1930 by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan, provides funds for the promotion of the welfare, comfort, health, education, and safeguarding of children and youth, regardless of sex, race, creed or nationality.

Christie’s Americana Week auctions, which included the sales of Important American Silver on January 23, Important American Furniture, Folk Art and Prints on January 24, and Chinese Export Art on January 27, fetched a total of $10,189,025.

The Chinese Export Art sale realized $3,034,750 and the top lot was a rare set of four large Chinese export porcelain nodding head figures from the Qianlong Period, which sold for $173,000. The Important American Silver sale netted $1,737,875 and the top lot, a silver Brandywine bowl by Cornelius Vander Burch from the late 17th century, brought $317,000. The Important American Furniture, Folk Art & Decorative Arts sale was the biggest hit of the week and realized $5,416,400. The top lot was an 18th century Chippendale carved Mahogany scallop-top tea table from Philadelphia, which garnered $905,000. Andrew Holter, head of American Furniture and Decorative Arts at Christie’s, said, “Today’s solid results underscore collectors’ continued appetite for works of exceptional provenance and quality.”

On January 25, Sotheby’s held the auction ‘Visual Grace: Important American Folk Art from the collection of Ralph O. Esmerian’ in New York. The sale, which included over 208 lots ranging from watercolors, portraits, pottery, furniture and weathervanes to carvings, needlework, sculpture and scrimshaw, fetched $12,955,943, significantly exceeding its pre-sale estimate of $9.5 million. The sale set a new record total for any auction of American folk art. 

The top lot of the auction was a carved figure of Santa Claus by wood carver Samuel Robb, which sold for $875,000, far surpassing its pre-sale estimate of $250,000. Other important sales included Ruth Whittier Shute and Samuel Addison Shute’s portrait of Jeremiah H. Emerson, which brought $665,000; a rare carved pine pheasant hen weathervane from the late 19th century, which sold for $449,000; and ‘The Carver Limner,’ a painting depicting three members of Freeport’s Carver family, which fetched $521,000.

Esmerian, the former chairman emeritus of New York’s American Folk Art Museum, is currently serving a six-year sentence for fraud. The sale at Sotheby’s was ordered by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and generated $10.5 million for Esmerian’s creditors including Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

This spring, Huguette Clark’s collection of musical instruments, Gilded Age furniture and rare books will be sold at Christie’s. The trove of approximately 400 objects is expected to bring over $50 million and will be divided among two sales in May and June. Before the auction in New York, highlights from the collection will go on view at Christie’s London and then at various locations throughout Asia.

Huguette was the daughter of U.S. Senator and copper tycoon, William A. Clark. Beginning in 1930, Huguette led a largely reclusive life and when she passed away in 2011, she left behind an estate worth nearly $300 million. The proceeds from the upcoming auction will go to the estate, which will most likely be distributed between art institutions and distant relatives.

In 2012, 17 pieces of jewelry from Clark’s collection were sold at Christie’s including a rare pink 9-carat diamond that fetched approximately $21 million, nearly twice its pre-sale estimate.