Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Modern Art
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...Munch Mystery Solved, Guessing Begins
July 13, 2012When Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” sold for a record $119.1m earlier this year, the buyer’s identity remained a secret, leading to widespread speculation. Now that the mystery has been solved—the painting’s new owner is billlionaire Leon Black, whose art collection is valued at $750m—the guessing game has focused on where the iconic artwork will wind up.
Read more...Huge Prices Expected At Spring Art Sales
May 01, 2012Much of the speculation about the series of modern art auctions beginning in New York tomorrow has focused on Edvard Munch’s “Scream,” which is expected to sell at Sotheby’s for more than $106.4m. This would make it the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. There are a variety of other high value offerings, however, that in any other season would be getting the attention. These include Mark Rothko’s “Orange, Red, Yellow,” for which Christie’s expects a price of $35m-$45m, Andy Warhol’s “Double Elvis,” which carries a $30m-$50m estimate at Sotheby’s, and Roy Lichtenstein’s “Sleeping Girl,” which Sotheby’s estimates at $30m-$40m.
Read more...Cezanne “Card Player” Leads Christie’s Sale
April 23, 2012All the big guns will be represented at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern art sale on May 1st, 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.
Read more...Dali to Test Surrealism Prices At Sotheby’s
April 09, 2012Sotheby’s is staging a major modern and impressionist auction that will test the surging market in late 20th Century artists such as surrealist Salvador Dali whose painting, “Printemps Necrophilique,” comes with a $12m estimate at the May 2 sale in New York.
Read more...Hockney’s Works On Paper At Christie’s
February 15, 2012Several years ago, David Hockney returned from California to his native England and began producing a series of landscapes, making use of his iPad, among other technologies. Today these works fill the galleries of London’s Royal Academy in a massive show that will last until June. Inspired by that exhibition, Christie’s will offer a sale of 147 of his works on paper. “Rake’s Progress,” the top lot at the February 16th auction in London, is a set of 16 etchings with aquatint in black and red, estimated at $235,500-$314,000.
Read more...Nazi Loot: $1.2m For Disputed Kandinsky?
December 01, 2011Cologne auction house Kunsthaus Lempertz is auctioning a Wassily Kandinsky watercolor the Nazis looted from a museum in Hanover. But there is a question of who rightfully owns “Two Black Spots” and the original owners’ heirs want it back. Lempertz says the painting was “given away” by the owners to a family nanny in the 1920’s. Bloomberg reports Lempertz is selling it without warning about the provenance question. It remains to be seen if it will fetch its high estimate of $1.2m.
Read more...Art Forger’s Latest Con: Light Sentence
November 03, 2011The art forger who defrauded scores of collectors including Steve Martin, waltzed to a German jail with a smile after confessing to 14 counterfeits in exchange for a plea bargain that puts him behind bars for scarcely 3 more years. Wolfgang Beltracchi and his wife Helene, and two accomplices, admitted to ripping off at least $22m.
Read more...Impressionist & Modern Sales Begin In N.Y.
October 28, 2011The 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 1st 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).
Read more...London’s Frieze Week Tests Art Market
October 11, 2011London’s “Freize Week” is a mix of art exhibitions, fairs, lectures, and perhaps most visibly, auctions. Over the course of the festival, 1,178 lots will be offered worth some $173m. “This week is going to be a big test of the market,” said art dealer Nicholas McLean. Items to keep an eye on: Gerhard Richter’s 1982 work “Kerze (Candle),” the highlight of Christie’s sale on Friday, and Lucian Freud’s small portrait, “Head of a Boy”(1952), which leads Sotheby’s auction on Thursday.
Read more...Boetti Leads Bonhams Contemporary Art Sale
October 07, 2011To create his monumental work,”Anno 1984,” the late Italian conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti sent his assistants out to newsstands in Rome. Each month they collected popular magazines, the covers of which he’d reproduce in pencil. When he finished his unique record of the year, he had a total of 216 panels—18 for each month—each a window into passing time, as well as a record of it. At Bonhams Contemporary art sale next week in London, it’s expected to sell for $1.9m-$2.8m.
Read more...Allan Stone Collection At Sotheby’s
September 20, 2011Lawyer turned art dealer Allan Stone (1932-2006) was as well known for his passionate collecting as his gallery. He was drawn to a vast range of material, from primative, folk, and “junk” art, to Bugatti automobiles and the works of Wayne Thibaud and Willem de Kooning. When Sotheby’s sold the bulk of Stone’s collection last spring in a two-part sale, it realized $54.8m. On September 23 in New York, the auction house will offer the third and last part. Wayne Thibaud’s “Standing Man,” estimated at $1.2-1.8m, is likely to be the event’s top seller.
Read more...May Art Sales Will Test Recovery
May 02, 2011With May come the marquis art sales at major New York auction houses. All told, nearly $1 billion of impressionist, modern and contemporary art will be offered this spring, with no fewer than a dozen works valued near $20 million. In recent months, the market’s been in full recovery mode, with sizzling prices for familiar works. Will the streak continue? First test is Sotheby’s May 3rd sale of Impressionist& Modern Art, in which 10 Picassos will be featured.
Read more...Sotheby’s Begins Spring Hong Kong Sales
March 31, 2011Watches, wine, art, jewelry, Chinese ceramics, and porcelain – they’ll all be featured as Sotheby’s begins its series of Asia Week auctions tomorrow in Hong Kong. There will even be a sale devoted to Rhinocerus Horn Carvings. Kicking off the series will be a wine auction, The Classic Cellar from a Great American Collector, featuring 69 lots of Mouton Rothschild, for which Hong Kong buyers have demonstrated a notable thirst. Included are 6 Jeroboams and 6 Imperials, estimated to sell for as much as $18,000 each.
Read more...Christie’s Will Sell Jeffrey Archer’s Art
March 30, 2011Jeffrey Archer has been a man of many parts: best-selling author, member of British Parliament, lifetime peer, convicted felon. And art collector. Now that he’s turned 70, Archer said he’s winnowing his collection, from which Christie’s London will offer 150 works, expected to bring in some $8 million.
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