Phillips de Pury is opening a big, new space on Park Avenue this fall. They want the world to know about it. So they turned to an outsider to organize an auction. Under the heading of, “Carte Blanche,” they asked Philippe Segalot, a private New York dealer, to assemble whatever strikes his fancy. It’s not known what he’ll feature except a “Mechanical Pig.” It could go for $3.5 million.Before he went private, Segalot used to work for Christie’s in Contemporary Art where he became known for putting on unique sales and getting the artists, themselves, involved in installations that drew a lot of attention (and money). Phillips intends to replicate the Carte Blanche approach in London, engaging a dealer or an artist or collector or a museum curator to put on a single, headline making, sale of art of their choice.
“Carte Blanche” Auction
May 28, 2010
Kandinsky Leads Christie’s Impressionist Sale
June 19, 2013As expected, Wassily Kandinsky’s “Studie zu Improvisation” led Christie’s Impressionist auction in London yesterday evening. The painting brought in $21.2m, which was well within estimates, although shy of the $24.8m world record price for which the auction house had been hoping. Kandinsky’s work was one of 22 whose prices exceeded $1m in the event, which realized a solid $100.4m, midway between its high and low estimates.
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Lalanne Sheep Sells For $341,000
June 14, 2013When is a sheep worth $341,000? When it’s the product not of nature, but the late French artist and designer Francois-Xavier Lalanne. A circa 1986 example of his “Mouton” creation achieved that price this week at Sotheby’s 20th Century Design auction in New York, scurrying past its estimate of $200,000-$300,000.
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Russian Work Fetches Record $12.2m
June 6, 2013Steeped in the traditions of Russian Orthodox Christianity, artist Nikolai Roerich (1874-1947) often composed canvases filled with female imagery, in particular representations of the Virgin. He painted ‘Madonna Laboris,’ which depicts the Holy Virgin by the gates of Heaven, in 1931, during one of his many trips to India. Yesterday, at a Bonhams sale in London, it soared past its estimate of $1.25m-$1.9m to a price of $12.2m. That was a new world record for the artist as well as the highest price ever paid for a work at a Russian art auction.
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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
