Displaying items by tag: Sotheby's

The billionaire activist investor Daniel Loeb has sued Sotheby’s to force the removal of a poison pill that is preventing his hedge fund from buying more of the auction house’s shares. Loeb, Sotheby’s largest shareholder, launched an attack on the company last year to encourage reforms to the company’s leadership and operations. He also spoke critically of the board’s wasteful executive compensation and waning competitive edge.

Loeb asked a Delaware court to decide whether a board can put up barriers to protect itself from a shareholder seeking board representation. Loeb’s hedge fund, Third Point, holds 9.6% of Sotheby’s, but has been prevented from building a larger stake by the board’s defensive action last October. The one-year poison pill prevents activist investors from accumulating more than 10% of the company’s stock and would make it exorbitantly expensive for Loeb to build his power in the company.

Loeb is asking for the court to overrule the poison pill, saying that his intention is to gain seats on the board and change management policies and that at no time has Third Point had any desire to take control of Sotheby’s.

The St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, will sell a number of works from its extensive fine art collection, including five portraits by Thomas Eakins. Eakins, a realist who lived and worked in Philadelphia, is widely considered one of the most important American artists in history.

Christie’s will facilitate a private consignment sale of the works, which mostly feature past faculty members and have been in the seminary’s possession for around 80 years.  A sixth Eakins painting, which was loaned to the seminary by the American Catholic Historical Society, will also be put up for consignment. In addition, the seminary is consigning a painting by the American Impressionist Colin Campbell Cooper as well as a work by the expressionist painter Alice Neel. Bonhams and Sotheby’s will broker those sales respectively. 

Before deciding to sell the works, the seminary had a committee of arts specialists and seminary alumni and administrators conduct a year-long study. The seminary looked into partnering with local museums and historical societies, hoping that one would offer to acquire the paintings, but none of the organizations voiced interest.

Proceeds from the sales will help fund a major renovation of St. Charles’ Main Line campus, which will include making the seminary smaller and renovating its existing facilities.

Major auction houses are voicing opposition to a new bill called the American Royalties Too Act, which would grant visual artists (or their estates) a portion of the profits when their work is resold at public auction. The bill was introduced last month in the House by Representative Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York, and in the Senate by Democrats Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

In December 2013, the United States Copyright Office re-examined its policy concerning visual artists and resale royalties. Last time the issue was explored, which was in 1992, the Office decided that artists should not receive a share of the profits when their works are resold. However, after more than a decade, the Copyright Office reversed its decision and stated that resale royalties should be awarded to visual artists, including painters, illustrators, sculptors, and photographers.

Lawyers for Sotheby’s visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill this month, asking Congress to shoot down the bill. They are joined in the fight by Christie’s, who have hired David Israelite, a royalty battle veteran and the CEO of the National Music Publishers’ Association. The auction houses consider the bill an added cost that will increase the price of doing business, which could lead to more sellers making deals through private transactions rather than public auctions. They are also arguing that the royalties would solely benefit the most successful artists and estates as they are the ones whose work is most often sold in the secondary market. Galleries and dealers are not included in the proposed bill.

Representative Robert W. Goodlatte, a Republican from Virginia and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will decide whether to schedule hearings on the bill.

According to a report released on December 13 by the United States Copyright Office, in the past two decades, over 70 countries have changed their policies concerning resale royalties to better serve visual artists.  

After closing his firm Exis Capital Management Inc., hedge-fund manager Adam Sender announced that he will sell nearly half of his contemporary art collection at Sotheby’s. Since 1998, with guidance from New York-based art adviser Todd Levin and various Chelsea gallerists, Sender has amassed a collection of approximately 800 works by 139 artists.

Over the course of 18 months, Sotheby’s will sell about 400 works from Sender’s collection, including pieces by Cindy Sherman, Richard Prince, John Baldessari and Dan Flavin. The collection is expected to fetch over $70 million.

The first selection of works from Sender’s collection will be offered on May 14 at Sotheby’s important evening sale of contemporary art.

A painting by Norman Rockwell that has been missing since October 2013 was recovered in Ohio by a private investigator. ‘Sport,’ which appeared on the cover of the “Saturday Evening Post” in 1939, was sold to an unidentified buyer in May for more than $1 million at Sotheby’s in New York. Before the disappearance, the painting was being kept in a storage warehouse in Queens. When it was found, the painting was still in the wrapping used previously for storage and appeared to be undamaged.

WelPak Corporation, the art moving and storage company that was responsible for transporting and storing the painting after its sale, released the following statement: “WelPak Corporation is pleased to report the successful recovery of the Norman Rockwell painting, ‘Sport’ reported missing from its facility in October 2013 through the diligence and hard work of its private investigator, Dean Golemis, of Global Security and Investigative Services in conjunction with the investigation undertaken by the NYPD.”

The oil on canvas painting features a fisherman clad in a yellow raincoat in a boat smoking an upside-down pipe. No one has been charged in the painting’s disappearance.  

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Salvator Mundi,” which was discovered by American art dealer Alexander Parish at an estate sale in the mid-2000s, was sold to an unidentified collector for between $75 million and $80 million in May 2013.The details of the sale, which was organized by Sotheby’s, remained confidential until this week.

“Salvator Mundi,” a half-length portrait of Christ holding a crystal orb in one hand, was created around 1500. Since 1900, the heavily over-painted canvas was attributed to Boltraffio, an artist who worked in da Vinci’s studio. It wasn’t until Parish acquired the work and it underwent extensive cleaning and research that it was deemed an original da Vinci formerly owned by King Charles I of England. Prior to last year’s sale, Parish and two other art dealers shared ownership of the work.

In 2012, after raising tens of millions of dollars, the Dallas Museum of Art attempted to buy “Salvator Mundi.” Museum officials made a formal offer to Parish and the painting’s other owners but were rebuffed after some discussion.

The American Folk Art Museum in New York has acquired a number of traditional folk art works as well as pieces by self-taught artists, enhancing its already-expansive permanent collection. With objects dating from the eighteenth century to the present, the museum is devoted to preserving, conserving and interpreting works of traditional and contemporary folk art.

Among the recent acquisitions is ‘The Peaceable Kingdom,’ a painting by the Quaker artist Edward Hicks. Hicks painted at least 62 versions of The Peaceable Kingdom over a period of more than 30 years. This particular version was given to Hicks’ daughter as a wedding present and remained in the Hicks family for many years. It was later represented by Edith Gregor Halpert and her pioneering American Folk Art Gallery, Terry Dintenfass, and the Sidney Janis Gallery. The painting was donated to the Folk Art Museum by Sidney Janis’ son Carroll, and his wife, Donna.

Other highlights include an elaborate architectural portrait by self-taught artist Achilles Rizzoli titled ‘The Kathredal’; a 19th-century watercolor book purchased at the recent Sotheby’s sale of the collection of Ralph O. Esmerian; an ethereal work by Thornton Dial that was gifted to the museum by the artist’s family; and a crayon and pencil drawing on pieced paper by the Mexican-American artist, Martín Ramirez, which was donated to the Folk Art Museum by David L. Davies, a former Museum trustee, and Jack Weeden, who had previously established a $1 million exhibition fund in their names.

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.

Sotheby’s announced that it has named Alexander Rotter and Cheyenne Westphal the new Global Heads of Contemporary Art. Tobias Meyer, the auction house’s former Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, stepped down at the end of November 2013. Rotter and Westphal have both been with Sotheby’s for many years -- Rotter was behind the recent sale of Andy Warhol’s ‘Silver Car Crash,’ which brought a record $104 million, and Westphal helped launch Sotheby’s new contemporary art galleries in London.

Helena Newman and Simon Shaw will helm the auction house’s department of Impressionist and Modern Art. Newman, who joined Sotheby’s in 1988, was instrumental in the February 2010 auction that netted $263.6 million, a record for a European sale. Shaw, who has worked at Sotheby’s outposts in Stockholm, Paris and London, orchestrated the 2012 sale of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream,’ which sold for an historic price of $119.9 million, a record for a modern work of art at auction.

Daniel Loeb, a hedge fund manager who is Sotheby’s largest shareholder, recently commented on the auction house’s need to establish new leadership and more efficient operations.

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.