Displaying items by tag: auction house

As auction houses gear up for the major fall sales, news of several blockbuster consignments is starting to trickle out. Following the revelation from Sotheby’s last week that it has secured a rare Vincent van Gogh still life that is expected to sell for between $30–50 million, the house has revealed it will offer two extremely rare and iconic sculptures—by Amedeo Modigliani and Alberto Giacometti—that have never appeared at auction before and will undoubtedly be among the leading lots at the November 4 evening sale of Impressionist and modern art.

Giacometti’s "Chariot" (conceived and cast in 1950) is a unique painted cast depicting a goddess perched  atop a chariot with large wheels.

A new exhibition will open at Christie's Mayfair 11 October 2014. "The Bad Shepherd" is a major exhibition exploring the continued influence of Pieter Brueghel the Elder and his artistic dynasty in the 21st century. This is the first exhibition ever to present the work of the Brueghels in dialogue with contemporary art and features many rarely seen works from private collections.

Artists include: Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Marten Van Cleve and Abel Grimmer Peter Doig, Nicole Eisenman, Jeff Koons, Sarah Lucas, Neo Rauch, Thomas Schütte, and Jeff Wall.

Phillips will inaugurate its new auction house and exhibition space in London’s Mayfair on October 6th with a group exhibition of contemporary sculpture, dreamt up by star curator Francesco Bonami. The exhibition will be on view during Frieze Week, alongside works to be offered at the Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions on October 15th and 16th.

“A Very Short History of Contemporary Sculpture” includes 33 works by internationally renowned artists, including Carl Andre, Bruce Nauman, Louise Bourgeois, Felix González-Torres, Matthew Barney, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd, Jeff Koons, and Ai Weiwei.

According to The Art Newspaper, Christie’s has boosted its seller’s commission in its contracts with consignors. The auction house will now charge 2% of the hammer price of a work that meets or exceeds its high estimate. After the 2% performance fee, Christie’s charges commission using a sliding scale based on a work’s final hammer price.

In order to attract powerful sellers offering blue-chip works, auction houses often waive the seller’s commission for preferred clients. Christie’s new 2% performance fee, which is in addition to the fixed buyer’s premium (the percentage of the hammer price paid by the buyer), ensures that the auction house will receive a portion of the profits from both sides of a blockbuster sale.

Sotheby’s auction house is making a big push for its latest target -- the new wealthy along the West Coast of the U.S. -- by showing off more than $200 million of art.

Armed with highlights from its upcoming New York sales including canvases by Mark Rothko and Jasper Johns along with Old Master painting and jewelry, Sotheby’s starting this month will woo the rich from San Diego to Seattle with exhibitions, wine tastings and dinners in private homes.

Phillips is planning to open a saleroom in Hong Kong “as soon as possible”, says Edward Dolman, who joined the auction house as its chairman and chief executive in July. Dolman, who worked at Christie’s for 27 years where he launched salerooms in Paris, New York and Hong Kong, says he has spent “a lot of time” over the past ten years developing the auction business and recruiting in Hong Kong. “It’s a very exciting market,” he says.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s have long dominated the auction market for fine art. Now Phillips, the world’s third biggest auctioneer of international contemporary works, is about to open a new flagship salesroom here that it hopes could help challenge that duopoly.

The company, with auction rooms in New York and London, plus offices in eight other cities, has moved its European headquarters from Victoria, near one of London’s main railroad stations, to a 73,000-square-foot building at 30 Berkeley Square, in the heart of the wealthy Mayfair district

Sotheby’s auction house is betting big on the latest global art market boom with financial filings showing the house is increasing its borrowing from corporate lenders in order to extend more guarantees to potential consigners. According to an 8-K filing made with the SEC on August 25, Sotheby’s is upping the commitments from lender GE Capital to $850 million from $600 million.

Among the goals listed for the increased borrowing are raising “the maximum permissible amount of net outstanding auction guarantees (.i.e auction guarantees less the impact of related risk and reward sharing arrangements) from $300 million to $600 million.”

Marking the end of an era at the powerhouse art-fair organization Art Basel, Annette Schönholzer steps down this month to pursue other projects. As show manager of the first, now legendary, Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002, and later co-director with Marc Spiegler of all three Art Basel fairs worldwide, she oversaw the tremendous growth of the art-fair phenomenon and a far-reaching shake-up of power in the art world.

Her departure follows the surprising move in July by a key official of Art Basel, Magnus Renfrew, who served as director of its Hong Kong fair, to Bonhams auction house.  As Schönholzer had also been involved some months back in the establishment of Art Basel’s presence in China, the dual departures are seen complicating that newly minted expansion.

As established and start-up companies alike jump in the race to serve online auction bidders, several regional auction houses have announced a new platform. Bidsquare was developed by six houses—Brunk Auctions, Cowan’s Auctions, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Pook & Pook, Rago, and Skinner—with the aim of bringing together “like-minded audiences as well as exceptional property.” The new platform will provide access to a wide variety of property, from fine art and estate jewelry, to design, and historical artifacts. Lots will be available on an “intuitive, easy-to-use website” that will allow buyers and the auctioneers to conduct business directly in an online forum, according to a Bidsquare press release.