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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Contemporary
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...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...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...$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...World’s Best Selling Portrait Goes For $1.5m
March 20, 2013No, it’s not something from Warhol or Picasso or Dali, the best selling reproduction in the world, according to the BBC, is a portrait called, “The Chinese Girl,” by Vladimir Tretchikoff’. This week Bonhams in London sold the original oil canvas for $1.5m, almost double the original high estimate. The portrait is also sometimes called, “The Green Lady.”
Read more...Basquiat Tops Stellar Sale At Christie’s
February 14, 2013At $13.2m, Gerard Richter’s “Abrstraktes Bild (889-14)” wasn’t the top seller at Christie’s Postwar & Contemporary Art sale yesterday. That honor belonged to a massive acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat, “Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown” (1983), which sold to a Paris dealer for $14.6m. Together they led the stellar evening auction in London, which raised $127.7m, a total that exceeded the sale’s high estimate and eclipsed the results of a parallel auction at Sotheby’s the night before.
Read more...Francis Bacon Leads Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale
February 13, 2013Twenty works sold for more than $1m at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sale in London yesterday, but only one went for more than $20m. That was Francis Bacon’s oil on canvas triptych, “Three Studies For A Self-Portrait”(1980), which German collector Jurgen Hall claimed for $21.5m. All told, the evening auction totaled $117m, near the middle of its $95.7m-$132.2m estimate.
Read more...Andy Sale to The Masses Online
January 31, 2013Christie’s, in partnership with Warhol’s foundation, will launch its first on-line-only sale of 125 pieces from Andy’s oeuvre with the usual stratospheric prices brought down to the Internet masses, including a silk screened tee shirt with Warhol in a fright wig . High estimate, $20,000. On canvas, it would go for millions. The sale begins Feb.26 and closes Mar. 5th.
Read more...Bacon’s “Searing” Self-Images At Sotheby’s
January 10, 2013Francis Bacon had a peculiar view of himself, some call it grotesque or a “searing” self-image after viewing the triptych he painted called “Three Studies for a Self Portrait.” At its first Contemporary Art sale of the year Sotheby’s will be selling the work in London next month.
Read more...Christie’s Luxury Week
December 10, 2012Closing out its 2012 season, Christie’s will offer a Luxury Week series of sales, beginning today with an event in New York devoted to jewels, led by a 50.01 carat diamond ring by Graff, (est. $7m-$10m). In tomorrow’s sale, Christie’s will auction a collection of furniture, fine and decorative art from the estate of legendary director Billy Wilder, and in coming days, there will be sales, six in all, devoted to watches, wine, and 20th century design.
Read more...Huge Take At Sotheby’s Contemporary Auction
November 14, 2012The house cut was not revealed, but it wasn’t only the sellers who made a fortune at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sale last night in New York. Total take was $375m, a record for a single night. A Rothko went for $75m. A Pollock got second billing at $40.4m. A Bacon sold for $30m. A series of Warhols scooped up $54m. Sotheby’s has grossed more than $1 billion for the year (so far).
Read more...High Expectations At Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale
November 07, 2012Whether you credit scarcity, or the new reliance on blue chip art as an investment vehicle, the prices expected at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auction next week in New York are staggering. Nine works are expected to sell for more than $8.5m, at least five of them for more than $15m, and two for $25m or more. These last are Mark Rothko’s “No.1 (Royal Red and Blue),” which may exceed $50m, and Jackson Pollack’s “No.4-1951,” estimated at $25m-$35m.
Read more...Will Giacometti’s 7-foot Leg Fetch $15m?
October 23, 2012Fleeing Paris in WW11, Alberto Giacometti witnessed terrible carnage which he later captured in four bronze sculptures of isolated body parts: a hand, a nose, a head, and a 7-foot leg (‘la Jambe”) to be auctioned at Christie’s in early November with a high estimate of $15m.
Read more...Kippenberger Sets New Auction Record
October 12, 2012Since his death at just 44 in 1997, German artist Martin Kippenberger’s reputation has been steadily on the rise. Yesterday’s sale of Postwar & Contemporary art at Christie’s saw a new high for the artist, whose “Untitled” sold for more than $5m. It was a world record auction price for Kippenberger, and the top seller at the auction, which brought in over $62m.
Read more...Stupendous Prices Expected At Sotheby’s Sale
September 25, 2012Rothko’s prices seem to know no bounds, as Sotheby’s hopes to discover when it offers one of his seminal paintings in addition to important work by Pollock, de Kooning, Still, Kline, Gorky, Mitchell, Hoffman, Gottleib and Richter at its November Contemporary Art Sale. They’re estimating $50m alone for Rothko’s “No.1 (Royal Red and Blue.”
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