Auction News Network

High Expectations For Richter At Christie’s Sale

A variety of works by celebrated 20^th century British artists Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Peter Doig and Damien Hirst are in the lineup tonight for Christie’s auction of Post-war and Contemporary Art in London. A 2004 painting by Gerhard Richter, however, is expected to lead the February 13th sale. Although the auction house hasn’t released an estimate for “Abstraktes Bild,” its expectations are clearly high, and not without reason. Between just 2011 and 2012, Richter’s world record auction price has been broken four times, most recently by the $34.2m a mystery buyer paid last October for “Abstraktes Bild (809-4) from 1994.

Craven Heifer Portrait Sells For Fat Price

She was, in fact, just a fat cow, but this “Craven Heifer” was England’s heftiest heifer ever. She weighed 4,368 pounds, was 11-feet long, stood 7-feet tall and became famous as she toured England for the yokels who paid to see her. An unknown artist did her portrait that sold at Bonhams London last night for $25,568.

Painted Pugilist Didn’t Die In Vain

By his girth, it doesn’t appear George Stevenson spent a lot of time in the gym. Unfortunately, he died after a bare-knuckle fairground fight in 1741 with the British Champion who then felt compelled to write the first book of rules for pugilists.  The painting from the English School of portraits will be sold by Bonhams London at the end of the month. High estimate, $25,000.

The Other Yeats

Outside Ireland, the famous Yeats is the Nobel Prize winning poet, William Butler.  Within that country, however, his younger brother John “Jack” Butler is also an icon. The painter, whom Samuel Beckett called “the great of our time,” was known for his Expressionist depictions of modern Dublin and Irish subjects and landscapes. A work Yeats produced in 1929, “Crossing the City” will be the highlight of an Irish & British art auction at Whyte’s in Dublin on  October 1^st. A rendering of Dublin’s City center, it’s expected to realize $130,000-$196,000.

Flanagan’s Huge Bronzes For Sale

Barry Flanagan, a leading British sculptor, liked his bronzes big. Especially leaping rabbits, and elephants and horses.  Sotheby’s is installing 15 of Flanagan’s whimsical monumental works on the grounds of Chatsworth House in keeping with its annual “Beyond Limits” show. For the first time it will feature a single artist.  Price estimates were not given. The pre-sale will run through late October.

Canaletto Painting & Olympic Beach Volleyball

Art patrons and volleyball fans will recognize il Canaletto’s 1853 rendering of the Horse Guard Parade at St. James Park, currently the venue for the 2012 Olympics’ bikini clad volleyball competitors. Vienna’s Dorotheum is selling the painting.

Constable Sells for $35.1m At Christie’s

The last time John Constable’s “The Lock” came on the auction market in 1990, it was acquired by the late Baron Hans Thyssen-Bornemisza for $16.9m, then a record for an English painting. Today in London it sold almost double that amount, or $35.1m, at Christie’s Old Master and British Paintings sale of , which brought in $133.5m.

An Orrery & Other Curious Devices At London Sale

An orrery, as mavens of vintage scientific instruments may know, is a mechanical model of the solar system. W & S Jones produced the George III example that Christie’s will be offering on April 25th. The intricate 1794 device has a a disc showing phases of the moon, mounted on a complex multi-wheeled mechanism, with a secondary ring graduated with the signs of the Zodiac. Christie’s anticipates a price of $47,580-$79,300.

Rare Complete Audubon Octavo Offered

Most original octavo editions of Audubon’s famous Birds of North America were broken up as individual pictures were extracted and sold separately. The Waverly Auction house of Virginia is selling a rare first edition of the 500 illustrations completely intact on March 1, at Falls Church. The octavo, notably smaller and more portable than first double elephant folio, has a high estimate of $60,000.

Bacon & Rothko Lead London Sale

A work by Mark Rothko hasn’t been seen on the London auction market in a decade, much less one of the calibre of “Untitled”(1955), a canvas from Rothko’s classic period. Christie’s expectations for the work at its postwar and contemporary art auction tomorrow are high–$14.2m-$18.9m—but even higher for Francis Bacon’s “Portrait of Henrietta Moraes,” a work from 1963 that’s expected to bring $28.3m.

Rare J.M.W. Turner Watercolor At Bonhams

Some 127 years have passed since J.M.W. Turner’s watercolor of Kirkby Lonsdale Churchyard last came to auction. Previously in the collection of an English shipping titan who owned 57 of Turner’s watercolors and 14 of his oils, the landscape was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 2001-2. When Bonhams offers it in a London sale of 19^th Century Paintings on January 25^th, it’s expected to realize $309,000-$463,000.

Update: The watercolor sold within estimates, for $338,932.

Painting is “Nothing To Be Afraid Of”

One wag predicted there’s likely “to be a lot of copies” of this painting. He was talking about Bob Law’s canvas coming up for auction at Bonham’s London next month. It is just that: a huge, unpainted, white canvas on which the artist drew a black border and dated it with a laundry marker. Law titled it, “Nothing To Be Afraid Of.” Bonham’s expects bidding to be in the $100,000 range.

Thorburn Leads Bonhams 19th Century Art Sale

Birds were Scottish painter Archibald Thorburn’s special subject, and of all his works “Peacock and Peacock Butterfly” may have been among the most memorable. This week it sold at Bonhams in London for $407,000, more than double its high estimate. Thorburn later said that painting the eyes on the peacock feathers gave him nightmares. Bonhams enjoyed a better sort of dream, as the sale of 19^th century realized $6.1m.

Ryanair Founder’s Collection At Christie’s

Ryanair co-founder Dr. Tony Ryan bought Lyons Demesne, once one of Ireland’s finest houses, in 1996, after which the late billionaire restored the mansion and filled it with a vast amount of antique furniture and art. Of the 400-lots that Christie’s will offer on July 14^th in London, the most valuable item is likely to be an 18^th century portrait by Hugh Douglas Hamilton. Ryan paid over $600,000 for the pastel at Christie’s in 2000. On Thursday, it’s expected to fetch considerably less: $319,000-$478,00.

Update: The Hugh Douglas Hamilton portrait exceeded estimates at $537,239. In all, the sale brought in $4.7m, well above expectations.

Stubbs & Gainsborough Records In London

Modern and contemporary art may be the current rage, but it was considerably older paintings that ruled last night at Christie’s in London, where a sale of Old Masters brought in $80m. With one bid of $36m, a new world record was established for a work by George Stubbs, shortly after another had been set for Thomas Gainsborough, whose “Portrait of Mrs. William Villebois” scored $10.4m.