Auction News Network

Bookies Bet Munch Will Post Past $80m

Who knows better, London bookies or Sotheby’s? The auction house has placed an $80m estimate on Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” for its May 2^nd sale of impressionist and modern art in New York. Bookies at Ladbrokes, a London-based “gaming” company, think it will go considerably higher. Current odds are 6/4 that the painting will sell for $100m-$150m, and 3/1 that it will reach $200m.

$183m Result For Elizabeth Taylor Auctions

When the gavel came down in London on the last of 1,817 lots that Christie’s offered from Elizabeth Taylor’s estate, a staggering $183m had changed hands. Remarkably, every single lot in the series of auctions sold, some at 50 times their pre-sale estimates. The top item, as we reported yesterday, was Taylor’s Van Gogh landscape, which realized $16m. In all, the last chapter of the sale, in which Christie’s auctioned 38 paintings from Taylor’s collection, added $24.6m to the final tally.

Picasso Leads Bonhams Impressionist & Modern Art Sale

If the Picasso depicting Notre Dame and its environs that Bonhams offered at its Impressionist & Modern art sale seems notably bright and buoyant, it isn’t accidental. The legendary painter had just met Jacqueline Roque, who would become his wife, and the canvas appears suffused with his happiness. Painted in 1954 and one of Picasso’s later landscapes, “Notre Dame de Paris” led the field at the auction in London, where it fetched $1.15m.

Elizabeth Taylor’s Van Gogh Doubles Estimate

Clearly, collectors can’t get enough of Elizabeth Taylor. Yesterday, “Vue de l’Asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy,”an unsigned Van Gogh in the late actress’s  possession since 1963 sold for $16m, or double its estimate. Two other works from Taylor’s collection also doubled their anticipated prices. Pissarro’s “Pommiers a Eragny” sold for $4.6m, and Egas’ “Autoportrait” fetched $1.1m.

Miro Record At Impressionist & Modern Art Sale

The  $9.4m-$14.1m estimate that Christie’s set for Joan Miro’s “Painting-Poem” was a measure of the work’s importance and rarity. Evidently buyers held it in still greater esteem, as it sold at yesterday’s Impressionist & Modern Art auction in London for almost twice that much, or $26.6m. The price for the painting, which had been in a private New York collection, was the highest ever for a Miro at auction.

The World’s Most Expensive Artwork

Cezanne’s “The Card Players” recently sold to Qatar’s royal family for a $250m, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold—by a margin of more than $100m. Vanity Fair reported the 2011 sale this week, and all parties associated with the secret transaction refused comment, having signed confidentiality agreements.

Miro & Klimt Lead Sotheby’s Sale

“Peinture,” a modernist work that Joan Miro painted in the single day of April 29, 1933 during a period of exceptional creative ferment, is expected to fetch $11m-$15.7m when it comes up for auction at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art sale in London on February 8^th. Anticipated to be a bit less valuable is a recently rediscovered landscape from 1901 by Gustav Klimt, “Seeufer Mit Birken (Lakeshore With Birches.’ In one family’s possession for a century and not seen publicly since 1902, it carries an estimate of $9.4m-$12.6m.

Update: Miro’s “Peinture” failed to find a buyer at the auction, in which Klimt’s “Seeufer Mit Birken” realized $8.8m, below estimates. In all, the evening sale brought in $125.5m.

Juan Gris–And Elizabeth Taylor–Lead Impressionist Sale

Of the 51 lots that Christie’s will offer at its Impressionist & Modern Art auction in London on February 7^th, the standout is “Le livre (the book), ” a transitional work by Juan Gris that the painter created between the end of 1913 and the beginning of 1915. Not seen for some 30 years before its inclusion in a 2005 retrospective in Madrid, the painting is expected to bring $18.6m-$27.9m.

Almost $1m For Contents Of Michael Jackson’s Home

The 524 items from Michael Jackson’s last residence had been expected to realize $200,000-$400,000 at a weekend sale in Beverly Hills. Instead, bidders shelled out almost $1m at Julien’s Auction for the late pop star’s belongings. The highest priced lots were a $35,200 Utrillo watercolor, and a $46,875 oil by Adelsteen Normann, but buyers offered extravagant amounts for other offerings as well, like the $25,750 paid for a mirrored armoire on which Jackson scribbled a message to himself: “Train, perfection March April Full out May.”

$40m Klimt Boosts Sotheby’s Tally

What a difference a day makes. Paced by a $40m sale of a rare Klimt painting, Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art auction yesterday in New York was a notable success, and a major boost to the flagging Impressionist market. Unlike Christie’s tepid result at its parallel event the night before, Sotheby’s sold all but 13 lots for a total of almost $200m.

Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Sale Falls Flat

Blame it on the high estimates, said art dealers. The result? Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art sale yesterday in New York was something of a flop. 38% of the 82 lots failed to find buyers, including two of the highest estimated lots–a bronze sculpture by Degas, which had been expected to bring as much as $35m, and a 1935 portrait by Picasso, valued at $12m-18m.

Impressionist & Modern Sales Begin In N.Y.

The spotlight turns to Impressionist and Modern art next week as the major auction houses kick off their autumn art sales in New York. Leading the pack at Christie’s on November 1^st is one of Degas’s most famous sculptures, “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans” (est. $25m-35m), followed by a lineup that includes Picasso’s “Femme endorme” (est. $12m-18m), and “Tete de femme au chapeau mauve” (est. $12m-$18m), as well as Giacometti’s work in bronze, “Femme de Venise VII” (est. $10m-15m).

Matisse Sculptures Too Valuable To Keep

The four Matisse bronze sculptures of a woman’s back are too valuable to justify keeping by the Burnett Foundation in Fort Worth so the philanthropic institution is putting them up for auction next month. Sotheby’s tried to sell them privately as one group for $200m, but couldn’t get it so they will be sold individually, starting with “Back I” on Nov.2.  High estimate is in the $30m range.

American Impressionist Leads Skinner Sale

There are works by better known artists than Theodore Robinson at Skinner’s auction of paintings, prints and photographs early next month – Andy Warhol, Alexander Calder, and Maurice Utrillo are just a few. There are no more highly valued paintings, however, than the noted American Impressionist’s “Hansom Cabs,” an evocative late 19^th century depiction of New York carriages that’s estimated at $120,000-180,000.

Monet Caps Jeffrey Archer Sale

Only about half the works that novelist and former MP Lord Jeffrey Archer offered at Christie’s yesterday found buyers, but one of them made all the difference. An impressionist oil by Monet sold for $4.9m, almost doubling its estimate, and propelling the London sale, which also included works by Rodin and Warhol, to an $8.2m total.