Auction News Network

Flea Market Renoir Withdrawn From Auction

A small Renoir reported as a flea market find has been withdrawn from an auction scheduled for tomorrow. The Potomack Company took the step after The Baltimore Museum of Art raised questions about the painting’s provenance. Although the 5.5 by 6.6 inch painting hadn’t turned up in a search of the Art Loss Register, a Washington Post reporter unearthed evidence that led the Baltimore art institution to discover that the work had been stolen in 1951, while on loan to the Museum.

Basquiat Painting Expected To Set $20m Record

In the early 80’s Jean-Michel Basquiat moved from street art into art galleries with his wildly neo-expressionist paintings such as an untitled, partial self-portrait that became—like all of his work–increasingly valuable after his death from a heroin overdose at 27. Christie’s will offer “Untitled, 1981,” at its Spring sale in London for what’s expected to be a record $20m.

Renoir Found At Flea Market For Sale

It is the kind of story that drives a million flea market dreams.  For a few dollars, a woman in West Virginia bought a box of doodads including a small painting in a nice gold frame. She liked the frame. Not the painting. Her mother convinced her to get it appraised before she tossed it. Sure enough, it’s a Renoir to be sold by Potomac Company auctioneers at the end of the month in Alexandria. High estimate, $100,000.

Picasso Leads Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Art Sale

Led by the $13.4m achieved by Picasso’s “Femme assise,” Christie’s realized $145.5m at yesterday’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London. Fully 36 works sold for over $1m, 3 of those for over $10m, while new artist auction records were set for Giorgio Morandi and Kurt Schwitters.

Miro Leads Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Sale

In the mid 1920’s, Juan Miro began a series of works known as his “dream paintings,” which are generally considered to be his most pioneering and important. Of these, “Peinture (Etoile Blue)” or Blue Star, is a key example. Painted in 1927, at the height of surrealism, it’s been exhibited at Paris’ Musee de l’Art Moderne and Zurich’s Kunsthaus. When it comes up for auction at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art sale in London later this week, it’s expected to sell for $23.5m-$31.3m.

Update: The Miro sold for $36.9m, a new auction record for the artist.

Renoir’s “Baigneuse” Leads Impressionist Sale

Renoir’s “Baigneuse” hasn’t been seen on the auction market for 15 years. The last time around, in New York, the painting sold for $20.9m. When it comes up for sale later this month at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern art auction in London, the price is expected to be in a similar range, with a low estimate of $18.5m and a high of $27.8m. In all, 71 works will be offered at the June 20^th event, for which a total of $134.4m to $196.9m is anticipated.

What Are The Most Expensive Paintings Ever Sold At Auction?

When Edvard Munch’s “Scream” sold for $119.1m at Sotheby’s last week, it established a new world record for most expensive painting ever sold at auction. In these times of newly minted billionaires from Asia, Russia, and the Mideast, however, records don’t stand for long. During the past eight years, a variety or works have worn the crown. Read more about the paintings that drew the top ten prices ever paid at auction.

Matisse Holds His Own Against Cezanne

Cezanne got all the press at Christie’s modern and impressionists auction last week in New York, but the legacy of Henri Matisse more than held its own with the sale of his painting of a pot of pivoines (peonies) that went for $19.1m, $7m more than the high estimate. At the same sale Cezanne’s watercolor study for “The Card Players,” sold for the same price.

Munch’s “The Scream” Sets World Record

“The Scream” had them applauding at Sotheby’s last night as the bidding soared past the high estimate of $80m and kept climbing as two phone bidders got into it. The Munch piece  finally went for just under $120m, setting a record for a work of art at auction.  Last year a Picasso oil went for $106.5m. This 1895 version, one of four  the Norwegian produced over a period of years, was done in pastel on a board.

Cezanne Study Sells For $19.1m

Less than a year ago, the royal family of Qatar paid $250m for Cezanne’s “The Card Players,” establishing the painting as the world’s most expensive artwork. Last night at Christie’s in New York, a study for that painting sold for $19.1m. The watercolor, only recently unearthed in the collection of a Texas doctor, sold to an anonymous buyer at the upper end of its $15m-$20m estimate.

Cezanne “Card Player” Leads Christie’s Sale

All the big guns will be represented at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern art sale on May 1^st, which kicks off their spring series of art auctions in New York. Works by Monet, Matisse, Picasso, and Giacometti are each expected to sell for as much as $12m. The top estimated lot, however, is Cezanne’s “Joueur de cartes (card player), a watercolor that may realize $20m.

Dali to Test Surrealism Prices At Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s is staging a major modern and impressionist auction that will test the surging market in late 20^th Century artists such as surrealist Salvador Dali whose painting, “Printemps Necrophilique,” comes with a $12m estimate at the May 2 sale in New York.

Cezanne’s “Card Players” Study To Sell

When it sold for a reportedly $250m to the Qatar royal family last year, Cezanne’s “The Card Players” became the most expensive artwork ever sold. Now a long-hidden study for the painting, last seen in 1953, has been rediscovered among the works owned by a Texas art collector. When Christie’s offers it during their Impressionist sale in New York on May 1, it’s expected to sell for $15m-$20m.

Lost Lempicka Canvas To Sell For Millions

The painter Tamara de Lempicka came roaring out of the 1920’s with her Art Deco styled nudes to become lionized in Parisian art circles. One of her sensual paintings, “Nu adossé I,” was shown in a 1925 Milan exhibit, but then disappeared. The work has re-emerged and Sotheby’s will offer it in early May with a high estimate of $5m.

High Estimate For Rare Irma Stern Painting

Irma Stern was born in South Africa. In her 20’s she gained some recognition in Europe, but hometown reviewers called her work “ugliness as a cult.” Stern died in 1966 and has had the last word as her paintings now sell in the millions, and there’s a museum in Cape Town dedicated to her art. Bonham’s is selling “The Pink Sari,” never before on the market, at its South Africa sale later this month.