Displaying items by tag: Auction

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) will celebrate the Red Sox’s third World Series Championship in a decade by exhibiting Norman Rockwell’s “The Rookie (The Red Sox Locker Room)” before it heads to auction at Christie’s in New York on May 22. The museum will display the work for six days only, from April 29 through May 4.

Created in 1957, the painting depicts the Red Sox locker room during spring training in Sarasota, Florida. The work, which appeared on the cover of the March 2, 1957 “Saturday Evening Post,” has appeared on display at the MFA in 2005 and 2008, following the Red Sox’s World Series wins.

Malcolm Rogers, the Ann and Graham Gund Director at the MFA, said, “We are proud to celebrate our hometown team and Red Sox Nation by displaying a quintessential painting from one of New England and America’s most beloved artists, Norman Rockwell. Neighbors across the Fenway for over 100 years, the histories of the Red Sox and the MFA are inextricably linked.”

Rockwell, who lived in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, for the last 25 years of his life, is best known for his archetypical portrayals of American life as well as his cover illustrations for the “Saturday Evening Post.”

“The Rookie (The Red Sox Locker Room),” which is being offered by an anonymous owner, is expected to fetch between $20 million and $30 million.

Christie’s announced that it will offer Andy Warhol’s “White Marilyn” at auction in New York on May 13. The work, which was created in 1962 shortly after Marilyn Monroe’s untimely death, is regarded as one of the finest examples from Warhol’s seminal Death and Disasters series. It was also one of the Pop artist’s first silkscreens, which soon became his medium of choice.

“White Marilyn” carries a pre-sale estimate of $12 million-$18 million. The iconic portrait was one of eight Marilyn silkscreens selected for Warhol’s first one-man show at Eleanor Ward’s renowned Stable Gallery in New York, and was once part of the gallery owner’s personal collection.

Laura Paulson, Christie’s Chairman and International Director for Post-War and Contemporary Art, said, “We are extremely proud to present White Marilyn, one of the nucleuses of Warhol's first ever and most significant solo exhibition organized by Eleanor Ward for the Stable Gallery in 1962. With his unique ability to fuse painting and photography into an unforgettably iconic image, Warhol condensed all the themes of his art in this magnificent ‘White Marilyn’ which keeps one such icon alive and forever in style. Compared to the perfectly coiffed media propagated publicity images of the actress, in ‘White Marilyn’ she appears touched by humanity, and transcends reality to become a modern Saint. Warhol dedicated this work to Ward and expressed his gratitude scattering hearts on the reverse of the painting.”

In November 2013, Warhol’s “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)," another silkscreen from his Death and Disaster series, realized $105.4 million at Sotheby’s -- a record for the artist at auction.

On Wednesday, April 2, Italy’s Culture Ministry unveiled two paintings that were recovered by police specializing in locating stolen art. The works, which are by the French artists Paul Gauguin and Pierre Bonnard, had been hanging in an Italian factory worker’s kitchen for nearly 40 years. He was unaware of the spectacular value of the works in his possession.

The two paintings were stolen from a London home in 1970 and then abandoned on a train traveling from Paris to Turin. The works were stored in an Italian Railways lost and found facility until they were offered at a lost-property auction in 1975. A Fiat factory worker with a passion for art purchased the paintings for roughly $30. A friend of the factory worker alerted Italian heritage police last summer when he grew suspicious of the paintings’ value.

Gauguin’s “Fruits sur une Table ou Nature au Petit Chien” is estimated to be worth between 10 million and 30 million euros. The Bonnard painting, titled “Le Femme aux Deux Fauteuils,” is said to be worth around 650,000 euros. The investigation into how the paintings ended up in the Fiat worker’s kitchen are still ongoing. It is unclear who the works will be returned to since the original owners have passed away. 

In 2013, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art sold 3,290 objects worth a total of $5.4 million -- the institution’s highest revenue from such sales in eight years. So far, $3 million worth of paintings have been sold in 2014.

The works, which were offered at auction, previously resided in the museum’s storage facility. In 2013, the Met reported a $4.4 million operating deficit, which was said to be caused by Hurricane Sandy and other factors. The institution stated that the proceeds from the sales did not go toward its debt. Rather, the museum sold the works to refine its collection and to make room for future acquisitions. Museums are forbidden by the state Board of Regents from selling artworks in order to fund operating costs.

The Met sold Old Master paintings, Renaissance works, and clothing and accessories from its Costume Institute. The museum currently owns upward of 1.5 million objects.

The German power company EON SE announced that it will sell Jackson Pollock’s “Number 5 (Elegant Lady)” on May 13 at Christie’s in New York. The work, which was painted by the Abstract Expressionist master in 1951, is expected to fetch between $15 million and $20 million. Proceeds from the sale will support EON’s art and culture spending for the next few years. The company currently owns around 1,800 artworks and boasts one of the most important corporate art collections in the world.

The Pollock painting was acquired by EON’s predecessor company, Veba AG, from the German art dealer Alfred Schmela. Schmela had purchased the work from New York’s Knoedler Gallery in the 1970s. The work has hung in the Museum Kunstpalast next to EON’s headquarters in Dusseldorf since 2001. EON, which became Germany’s largest utility provider in 2000, has been forced to cut costs as renewable power sources have gained popularity, significantly lowering the company’s profits.

Before its sale in New York in May,  “Number 5 (Elegant Lady)” will be exhibited in Hong Kong and London.

Christie’s announced that it will sell the late billionaire philanthropist Edgar M. Bronfman Sr.’s substantial art collection, which includes works by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Egon Schiele, Milton Avery, and Henri Matisse. A selection of works from the collection will be offered during the auction house’s Impressionist and modern art evening sale in New York on May 6. The remaining 230 items, including decorative objects, jewelry, and antiquities, will be sold this year during sales in London, Hong Kong, and New York. Bronfman’s collection is expected to fetch more than $34 million. 

Highlights from the collection include Picasso’s “Mangeuse de Pasteque et Homme Ecrivant,” which is expected to bring $7 million to $10 million; a seascape by Matisse titled “Femme Aupres de la Fenetre,” which is estimated to fetch between $3 million and $5 million; and Monet’s “L’Escalier,” which is expect to garner between $1.5 million and $2.5 million. Most of the works being offered at Christie’s once hung in Bronfman’s Manhattan penthouse, which is on the market for $65 million.

Bronfman, who passed away in December, helmed the Seagram Company for 23 years before retiring in 1994. He also led the World Jewish Congress and helped establish it as the world’s preeminent Jewish organization.

The Tate Gallery in London has agreed to return John Constable’s “Beaching a Boat, Brighton” to the heirs of a Jewish Hungarian art collector. The painting, which is listed on the University of Oxford’s looted art registry, was stolen from Baron Ferenc Hatvany while he was in hiding during World War II. Documents show that Hatvany acquired the Constable painting in 1908 at an auction in Paris.

The Tate received “Beaching a Boat, Brighton” in 1986 from a donor identified as Mrs. P.M. Rainsford, who had acquired the work in 1962. After the Tate received the painting, it failed to make its complete provenance public. Two years ago, Hatvany’s heirs learned that the Constable painting was in the Tate’s collection and in 2013, they formally submitted a claim to the Spoliation Advisory Panel, which was established by the British government to settle looting claims on artworks in public collections. The panel criticized the Tate for failing to thoroughly investigate the painting’s provenance.

The Tate released a statement saying that it was “grateful for the care with which the Panel has examined the evidence and is pleased to follow the conclusions of the report...Tate will therefore recommend to its Trustees, when they next meet in May, that the work be returned to the claimants.”

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.

In 1911, Pennsylvania businessman George D. Horst began acquiring early-to-mid 20th century American and European works of art from th the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts’ annual exhibitions as well as from other fine art institutions, galleries, and auctions. Horst was the primary donor of the fledgling Reading Public Museum, which he helped establish. In 1924, after considerable growth, the Reading Museum began construction on a new location on the edge of town, which angered Horst as he felt it made his collection inaccessible to the public. Ultimately, Horst asked for the return of his paintings from the museum, as well as his financial donations.

On March 30, Freeman’s in Philadelphia will offer 64 paintings from Horst’s collection. The works, most of which remain in their original frames, have hung in Horst’s custom-built gallery since 1929. Since Horst’s death in 1934, the works have been loaned on occasion for exhibitions, but have mainly been hidden from public view. The collection is being offered by Horst’s grandchildren.

Horst’s collection includes works by American Impressionists such as Childe Hassam, Daniel Garber, Edward Willis Redfield, and Frank W. Benson as well as Barbizon works by Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Eugène Boudin, and Charles-François Daubigny. Estimates range from a few thousand dollars up to $300,000.  

On March 29-30, over 800 works from Academy Award-Winning Director Jonathan Demme’s art collection will be sold during an auction at Material Culture in Philadelphia. For 27 years, Demme has collected self-taught art by contemporary Jamaican intuitive painters and Haitian and American outsider artists. The 1,050-lot sale spans from the 1940s through present day.

After acquiring a small painting by the Haitian painter Wilson Bigaud in 1986, Demme made the first of many trips to Haiti. The director learned Creole, befriended many local artists, and became a regular at the Centre d’Art, which showcased some of Haiti’s greatest artistic masterpieces. In 1997, Demme curated “Island on Fire,” an exhibition in Manhattan that featured over 100 Haitian paintings from his collection.

A weeklong auction preview will be held at Material Culture from March 22-29. Haitian paintings and sculpture will be displayed by region, alongside works by American self-taught artists such as Purvis Young, Minnie Evans, and Walter Ellison. Demme’s collection also includes Americana wood carvings, tramp art, weathervanes, and canes.