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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Art
Most Successful Art Auction Ever
May 16, 2013With metronomic regularity, works of Contemporary Art soared to dizzying prices at Christie’s last night in New York, as the auction house achieved a record $496m, the highest ever in the history of art auctions. Most works exceeded their high estimates, and 15 new artist records were set, including the $58.4m that a buyer paid for Jackson Pollock’s “Number 19, 1948,” which turned out to be the star of the evening.
Read more...Bizarre Topless Photo of Jolie, $45,500
May 16, 2013A bizarre topless photo of Angelina Jolie called “Horseplay” sold at Christie’s London auction last night for $45,500. The “Wild Side of Photography” sale was scheduled well before Jolie’s double mastectomy announcement. Taken when she was 25, the photo also prominently displays a “Billy Bob” tattoo, referring to former husband Thornton who has since been removed from her shoulder and her life.
Read more...Spotlight On Contemporary Art In New York
May 13, 2013Last week in New York, as major auction houses took in more than $473m, the spotlight was on Impressionist & Modern Art. This week, the focus shifts to the more uncertain field of Contemporary Art, with several hundred works coming up for sale. The action starts tomorrow at Sotheby’s, where a blue abstract by Barnett Newman, “Onement VI,” owned by Microsoft founder Paul Allen, is expected to sell for $30m-$40m.
Read more...Rodin Statue Something To Think About At $15.3m
May 09, 2013There are only 28 casts of Auguste Rodin’s iconic “The Thinker” known to exist. One originally commissioned by Ralph Pulitzer in 1906 sold this week for $15.3m at Sotheby’s in New York. The statue bears a plaque certifying that Rodin, himself, supervised the casting. A similar cast sold for $12m three years ago.
Read more...Soutine & Chagall Lead Muted Christie’s Sale
May 09, 2013With a line-up of works less stellar than those Sotheby’s had offered the night before, Christie’s encountered a relatively muted response at its sale of Impressionist & Modern Art on Wednesday evening in New York. The top sellers were Soutine’s “Le Petit Pâtissier” from 1927, which generated just one bid and sold for its low $16m estimate, and Chagall’s 1926 canvas “Les Trois Acrobates.” A telephone bidder claimed the painting for $11.5m, well above its $6m-$9m estimate.
Read more...$230m Evening At Sotheby’s Kicks Off Major Art Sales
May 08, 2013Propelled by major works by Cezanne, Braque, Rodin and Leger that excelled expectations, Sotheby’s kicked off New York’s big spring auction season with a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art that brought in $230m, just below its $235m high estimate. The evening’s top seller, as expected, was “Les Pommes,” a Cézanne still life from 1889-90 that a telephone bidder bought for $37m, or $41.6m, including commissions.
Read more...Cezanne’s “Les Pommes” Headlines Impressionist Sale
May 02, 2013Along with the first hints of summer weather, May brings the major spring art sales in New York. First up will be Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art auction on May 7, when “Les Pommes,” a masterly still-life by Cezanne is likely to be the star, with an estimate of $25m-$35m. Expected to be just a bit less valuable, at $20m-$30m, is “L’Amazone,” an oil on canvas portrait by Modigliani. Proceeds from both works, along with 18 others, also from the collection of Alex and Elizabeth Lewyt, will go to a charitable foundation to be established in their names.
Read more...16th Century Bottle Sells for $683,000
April 24, 2013Together, two bottles and a rare temple step accounted for almost $2m at Bonhams’ Islamic and Indian art sale in London yesterday. The bottles, as one might imagine, were very special, 16th century Iznik vessels from the Ottoman Empire. One made a new world record at $683,000, and the other sold for $460,000. Both were from the collection of a Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, who paid $765 for them back in 1919.
Read more...Teenaged Rembrandt Peale Painted Washington
April 23, 2013Charles Wilson Peale, the famed painter of George Washington, took his 17-year old boy (named Rembrandt) along for a sitting with the Founding Father. The teenager painted to acclaim and went on to recreate portraits of Washington for decades. One of those, known as a “porthole” copy, will be offered by Heritage next month, with a high estimate of $175,000.
Read more...Eisenstadt’s ‘Kiss In Times Square’ Leica To Sell
April 22, 2013Better than any other, the image conveyed America’s joy and relief at the end of World War II. Now the Leica camera that famed photographer Alfred Eisenstadt used to capture a couple kissing in Times Square will be offered for sale in a German auction. When the Leica III rangefinder crosses the block at WesttLicht’s Photographica auction on May 24 in Vienna, it’s expected to sell for $26,000-$32,000.
Read more...Leo DiCaprio Teams With Christie’s
April 19, 2013Actor Leonardo DiCaprio will be stepping back into the public eye next month not just in Baz Luhrman’s screen adaptation of “The Great Gatsby,” but also with a charity art auction that he’ll be hosting in collaboration with Christie’s on May 13. Tapping a network of artists and collectors, he’s assembled 33 works from which he hopes to raise $15m for his foundation, which benefits environmental causes. One of the highlights will be Mark Grotjahn’s 2012 abstract, “Untitled (Standard Lotus No. 11, Bird of Paradise, Tiger Mouth Face 44.01),’ which is expected to sell for at least $1.5m.
Read more...Rodin’s “The Thinker” Stars At Sotheby’s
April 15, 2013It would be hard to come up with a sculpture better known than Rodin’s masterpiece, “Le Penseur”(The Thinker). The rare example that Sotheby’s will offer as the highlight of its Impressionist & Modern auction this spring was commissioned by publishing magnate Ralph Pulitzer in 1906, and produced at Paris’ Alexis Rudier foundry under Rodin’s supervision. A later cast of the sculpture sold for $11.8m in 2010. For this example, Sotheby’s is expecting a price of $8m-$12m at the May 7th event in New York.
Read more...$40m Portrait of Bacon’s Violent Lover
April 10, 2013Although he reportedly once threw the artist through a window and was famously violent, Peter Lacy was said to be the love of Francis Bacon’s life. In 1962, shortly after Lacy’s death Bacon painted a “PL” portrait not seen in public for the past 40-years. It will be auctioned at Sotheby’s next month. High estimate is $40m.
Read more...Madonna To Offer Leger For Charity
April 04, 2013What does a pop star do when she isn’t on stage? In Madonna’s case, she directs her famous energy (and means) towards collecting blue chip art. In 1990, she acquired Fernand Léger’s Trois femmes à la table rouge at Sotheby’s in New York. Now comes word that she’ll sell it at the auction house’s Impressionist & Modern Art evening sale in May. Benefiting from the expected $5m-$7m result will be the Ray of Light Foundation, a charity she established to support girls’ education projects in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.
Read more...Steve Wynn Sells Picasso’s “Le Reve” For $155m
March 27, 2013What’s the most expensive Picasso ever sold? According to reports in the New York Post as well as other sources, it’s now “Le Reve,” a portrait of the artist’s mistress Marie-Therese, for which billionaire hedge fund manager Steven Cohen paid casino owner Steve Wynn $155m. Although it’s not the highest price ever achieved by a painting—that record belongs to Cezanne’s “Card Players,” which sold to the royal family of Qatar for $250m—it is the highest amount a U.S. collector has ever paid for a work of art.
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