Displaying items by tag: Auction

An historic mansion on Newport, RI’s famed Bellevue Avenue is scheduled to be sold via telephonic auction by noon on Saturday, October 19, 2013. Built in 1851, Swanhurst has an asking price of $4.4 million.

The contents of the mansion will be available at an estate sale being held from October 18 through the 20th from 9AM to 3PM. Offerings will include French and English antiques, fine art, furniture, decorative objects, tableware, silver, crystal, glassware and vintage clothing.

The mansion is being sold through California-based auction company, Premiere Estates. The 7,600-square-foot home was one of the first mansions built on Bellevue.

A “flawless” white diamond the size of a small egg sold for $30.6 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on October 7, setting the world record for a white diamond at auction. The previous auction record was set in May when a white diamond sold at Christie’s in Geneva for $26.7 million.

Mined two years ago in Africa, the 118-carat oval white diamond was the object of two phone bidders’ pleas. After six minutes, one of the bidders dropped out. The stone was estimated to sell for between $28 million and $35 million. The 330-lot auction, which netted $95 million in total, also included a 7.6-carat flawless, round, vivid blue diamond, which carried an estimate of $19 million. Unfortunately, that gem failed to find a buyer.

The world record for a jewel at auction was set in 2010 when London jeweler Laurence Graff paid $46 million for a 24.8-carat “fancy intense pink” diamond. The record could be shattered in November when Sotheby’s is slated to offer a 59.60-carat pink diamond that is expected to sell for over $60 million in Geneva.

A cast of Alberto Giacometti’s seminal Grande tête de Diego is expected to garner between $30 million and $50 million at Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist & Modern Art in New York on November 6, 2013. The work is part of a series of groundbreaking sculptures by Giacometti that personified the Existentialist movement during the Cold War. Grande tête de Diego, which was conceived in 1954 and cast in bronze a year later, will go on view in New York on November 1, 2013.

Simon Shaw, head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department in New York, said, “Of all his representations of the human figure, Grande tête de Diego is perhaps Giacometti’s most radical, visually engaging and emotionally impactful.” While Giacometti’s record at auction is $103.9 million, the world record for any piece of sculpture at auction, the most recent cast of Grande tête de Diego sold for $53.3 million at Christie’s in 2010.

Giacometti’s younger brother served as the model for Grande tête de Diego, which was made following the period that saw the creation of the artist’s recognizable, elongated figures. Giacometti’s works from the 1950s tend to be more solid, often executed with the matiére pétrie, or kneading method, which lent a more expressive quality to the figures.

Two monumental works by Andy Warhol could garner over $120 million when they head to auction this fall. Silver Car Crash (Double Distaster), a 8 x 13 foot silkscreen from the artist’s Death and Disaster series, will be offered during Sotheby’s contemporary art sale on November 13 and Coca-Cola (3), one of Warhol’s most famous pop art paintings, will be sold during Christie’s post-war and contemporary auction on November 12.

Silver Car Crash, which has only been seen in public once in the last 26 years, is expected to bring around $60 million while Warhol’s black-and-white portrait of a coca cola bottle will likely sell for $40-$60 million. Silver Car Crash has been in the same private collection since 1988 and will go on display at Sotheby’s London on October 12 and in New York on November 1.

A highly influential artist who continues to command high selling prices, Warhol’s works fetched $329 million at auction last year.

Christie’s held its first auction in Mainland China on Thursday, September 26, 2013. The sale included 39 paintings, sculpture, jewelry, watches and wine and garnered $24.9 million. A ruby and diamond necklace, which sold for $2.9 million was the top lot but failed to reach its high estimate of $4.6 million.

The modest sale marked the first time that an international auction house has been allowed to independently hold an auction in China. Christie’s received its license to conduct auctions in China in April and agreed not to sell any “cultural relics” dated before 1949 when the Communist Party took power.

China’s art market continues to grow at a rapid pace, making it an ideal location for international auction houses. The sale of art and antiques in China garnered $13.7 billion in 2012, making it the second largest market in the world behind the United States. The country’s strong buyer base has been active in Christie’s global auction centers in New York, London, Hong Kong, and Paris. In fact, the number of clients from Mainland China bidding at Christie’s international auctions has doubled since 2008. Christie’s presence in Shanghai will allow the auction house to sell directly to China’s growing number of wealthy buyers.  

China’s auction market is currently dominated by the country’s own Beijing Poly International and China Guardian. Sotheby’s joined forces with the state-owned Beijing GeHua Cultural Development Group last year to hold auctions in China. Sotheby’s own 80% of its venture with Beijing Gehua.

On November 13, 2013 Sotheby’s Geneva will auction a 59.60-carat oval cut fancy vivid pink diamond at its Magnificent Jewels sale. Known as “The Pink Star” the gem is the largest internally flawless diamond that has ever been graded by the Gemological Institute of America. The diamond is expected to garner over $60 million.

David Bennett, Chairman of Sotheby’s Jewelry Division in Europe and the Middle East, said, “I have had the privilege of examining some of the greatest gemstones in the world over the past 35 years, and I can say, without hesitation, that ‘The Pink Star’ is of immense importance.” The gem’s vibrant hue combined with its extraordinary size makes it the most exceptional pink diamond known to exist in State, Royal and private collections. The Pink Star belongs to a rare subgroup called “Type IIa,” which includes less than two percent of all gems.

The diamond was cut from a rough stone weighing 132.5 carats, which was mined in Africa in 1999 by De Beers. It was later cut, polished and transformed into its current form by Steinmetz Diamonds. The Pink Star has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution as well as the Natural History Museum in London.

On October 24, 2013 Sotheby’s will auction off a collection of centuries old furniture and artwork belonging to former Lehman Brothers President Joseph Gregory and his wife Niki. Before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008, Gregory often commuted to work by helicopter and was rumored to have a personal spending budget of more than $15 million a year.

The sale at Sotheby’s will include works by important cabinetmakers such as Thomas Chippendale, English and Continental furniture as well as ceramics and other decorations. A selection of Old Master paintings belonging to the Gregorys will be offered at Sotheby’s in January 2014. The auctions follow the sale of the couple’s home in Lloyd Harbor, New York in June 2013.

Works from the Gregory auction will be on display at Sotheby’s New York’s galleries beginning October 18, 2013.

Christie’s will sell a number of pieces from the collection of Jan Krugier, an art dealer who sold works for Pablo Picasso’s family. The sale will include over 150 lots and is expected to garner at least $170 million. The sale, A Dialogue Through Art: Works from the Jan Krugier Collection, will take place on November 4-5, 2013 at the auction house’s New York location.

Krugier, who died in 2008, was one of the leading dealers in premier 20^th century art for four decades. He operated galleries in Geneva and New York and exhibited at highly anticipated art fairs including Art Basel in Switzerland and TEFAF Masstricht in the Netherlands. Krugier’s Manhattan gallery closed in 2010 and his company no longer participates in fairs.

A Dialogue Through Art will present 30 works by Picasso including a maquette for the 65-foot sculpture Tete, which is located in Chicago. The work is expected to sell for $25 million to $35 million and is the most valuable piece in the sale. Other highlights include a bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti made for the Venice Biennale, which is expected to sell for $9 million to $12 million; a Fauvist period landscape by Wassily Kandinsky, which carries a $20 million to $25 million estimate; and a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which is expected to sell for $3 million to $4 million.

A selection of works from the upcoming sale will be on view at Christie’s headquarters in London through September 19, 2013.

A painting purchased at an auction in Canterbury, England ten years ago for $50 was recently revealed as an authentic work by the English landscape painter John Constable. Robin Darvell a retired consultant ophthalmic surgeon, purchased the postcard-sized painting after spotting a faint signature that read “J Constable” on the back of its frame. Darvell kept the painting stowed away in a drawer for years and never hung the work.

It wasn’t until Darvell’s son, Rob, presented the work to the experts on the English television program Treasure Detectives that the true value of the work was revealed. The show’s host, Curtis Dowling, appraised the painting as an original 19^th century landscape by the artist and put its worth at nearly $400,000. Dowling remarked, “To add this to John Constable’s canon of work is wonderful. A large section of the art world will be salivating to get their hands on it.”

Christie’s announced that its Buyer’s Premium will be an amount equal to 25% of the hammer price of each lot up to and including $100,000; 20% of the hammer price from $100,001 up to and including $2,000,000; and 12% of any sales above $2,000,001. Christie’s previously charged 25% of the hammer price up to and including $75,000; 20% on the amount from $75,001 to $1.5 million; and 12% on anything exceeding $1.5 million.

This is the second time that Christie’s has adjusted its Buyer’s Premium, a fee charged to buyers at auction, this year. Prior to the initial change, which went into effect on March 11, 2013, Christie’s Buyer’s Premium had been unchanged since 2008.