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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
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Impressionist & Modern Art
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...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...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...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.
Read more...Mark Birley Sale Doubles Estimates
March 22, 2013Mark Birley will always be associated with Annabel’s, the famed—and famously excusive—private club he founded in London in 1962. It was the place to be in London’s swinging 60’s, and is thriving to this day. Around England, however, he was just as well known for his tremendous taste and style, and for what his daughter called the “discrete splendor” of Thurloe Lodge, his home in London. Yesterday, six years after his death, Sotheby’s auctioned his personal effects, including works from his famed art collection, in a London sale that drew 850 registered bidders and at $5.9m, doubled estimates.
Read more...$42m Modigliani Crowns Christie’s Sale
February 07, 2013In London, this has been a good week for mistresses, and a better one for the art market. First Sotheby’s scored with the $44.8m sale of Picasso’s portrait of his “muse” Marie-Therese. Now Modigliani depiction of his lover Jeanne Heuterne has scored a $42.1m result, leading Christie’s sale of Impressionist & Modern Art. With a $214m final tally for the event, the auction house surpassed its highest expectations.
Read more...Picasso Portrait Leads Sotheby’s Sale
February 06, 2013Picasso’s mistress and frequent subject Marie-Therese Walter has been called his “golden muse,” and yesterday’s Impressionist & Modern Art sale at Sotheby’s in London confirmed her luster. An Asian buyer paid $44.8m for the artist’s portrait of her in “Femme Assise pres d’une fenetre” (Woman Seated by a window). Not content with that, the telephone bidder also claimed Egon Schiele’s “Lovers—Self Portrait with Wally” for $12.4m.
Read more...Eva Gonzales Pastel Rockets Past Estimates
January 30, 2013With its concentration on works by Tiepolo, El Greco, and Bernardo Bellotto, Sotheby’s auction this week of the late dealer Giancarlo Baroni’s collection provided a kind of kickoff to Old Masters week. It was an Impressionist painting that provided the highest price of the New York sale, however, when a pastel by Manet student Eva Gonzales, “La Demoiselle d’Honneur,” sold for $2,546,500, more than four times its high estimate of $600,000.
Read more...Rare Pissarro Leads Bonhams Impressionist Sale
January 29, 2013Impressionist Camille Pissarro painted just two depictions of the Normandy coastline, and the whereabouts of only one is known. That would be “Falaises aux Petites-Salles,” which will be the highlight at Bonhams Impressionist and Modern Art auction on February 5th in London. The rare canvas, dominated by the sea and a sky filled with storm clouds, is expected to bring $236,000-$315,000.
Read more...$56m For Picasso”s “Golden Muse”?
January 15, 2013Marie-Therese Walter is aptly called, “The Golden Muse.” As a teen mistress of Picasso and the subject of many portraits, one of his most famous of the costly muse will be sold at Sotheby’s as part of an Impressionist and Modern Art sale next month in London. High estimate is $56m.
Read more...Picasso, Monet Star At Uneven N.Y. Sales
November 09, 2012It took Picasso just two and a half hours in 1932 to paint “Still Life with Tulips,” rendering a basket of flowers beside a marble head. Last night it required fewer than five minutes for an anonymous phone buyer to claim it for $41.5m at a Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist & Modern art in New York. The canvas was one of five by Picasso that sold in the uneven auction, which brought in $163m, a tally that was below expectations.
Read more...Picasso’s Mistress Revealed In $50m Painting
October 16, 2012Picasso titled his painting innocently enough, “Still life with tulips,” but wife Olga spotted his secret mistress among the flowers, and knew the good times with Pablo would soon end. Sotheby’s will auction the iconic marriage buster with a high estimate of $50m next month.
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