Of the 120 copies that are known to exist of John James Audubon’s 4-volume magnum opus, “Birds of America,” just 13 copies are in private hands. All the other copies of the set, generally considered the finest color-plate book of ornithology ever produced, are in private institutions. Sometime after 1838 the Duke of Portland bought the first edition that Christie’s will offer in New York on January 20th, when it’s expected to sell for $7m-$10m.Audubon originally issued the book on a subscription basis, with the plates produced over the course of a decade. The Duke, however, bought this example as a bound complete set. Since 1973, 24 copies of the book have been sold at auction. In December 2010, a complete first edition realized $11.5m at Sotheby’s.
$10m For “Birds of America?”
December 22, 2011
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
