It doesn’t happen very often, but in a marathon day-long sale of the late Nina Abrams’ art collection, Phillips de Pury managed to sell all 319 offerings. The auction, which featured an eclectic mix of paintings, sculptures, prints and photographs by such artists as Miro, Giacometti, and émigré Russian painter David Burliuk, fetched almost double the high estimate, bringing in $6,051,912.
Phillips kept expectations conservative for the collection, acquired over many years by Abrams and her late husband, the art publisher Harry Abrams. Giacometti’s 1956 Self-Portrait sold for $254,500, almost ten times its high estimate, while a series of seven photographs by M. F. Husain fetched $50,000, more than eighty times its high valuation. Top lot was Burliuk’s 1936 “Song of Harvest,” which brought in $422,500. The results,” said de Pury, “demonstrate that the market loves nothing more than a group of works of great provenance, assembled and collected with love over a number of decades.”
Read more at Art Info.
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/34308/phillips-waves-a-white-glove-after-abrams-sale/
