Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Art
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...Imperial Price For Qianlong Jade Seal
March 21, 2013Stories of unlikely discovery have highlighted Sotheby’s Asia Week in New York, the latest being the one concerning an imperial seal of the Qianlong emperor. Until a Washington family submitted it for evaluation, they had no idea of its value. It developed that the seal was among the most significant of those created to mark the Emperor’s 70th birthday. With that rarity in mind, Sotheby’s assigned an estimate of $1m-$1.5m. This, as it happened, was modest. This week the seal fetched $3.4m, more than double expectations.
Read more...$3 Tag Sale Bowl Realizes $2.2m
March 20, 2013What collector hasn’t had this fantasy? Yesterday in New York, a Chinese bowl purchased for $3 at a 2007 tag sale sold at Sotheby’s for $2.2m. Curiosity about the 1000-year old ‘Ding’ bowl’s origins led to its eventual consignment with Sotheby’s, which set an estimate of $200,000-$300,000. After a bidding war with three other contenders, London-based dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi claimed the Northern Soon Dynasty bowl for $2.225m, including commission.
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...Vershbow Book Collection To Auction In April
March 13, 2013Describing what Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow assembled over their lifetimes as a mere book collection doesn’t do it justice. It will take four separate sales for Christie’s to dispose of it, beginning next month with an auction devoted to a wide range works, from 15th century engraver and painter Martin Schongauer to Marc Chagall. Leading the April 9th evening sale in New York will be a complete first edition of Francisco Goya’s 33-plate La Tauromaquia, estimated at $400,000-$600,000.
Read more...Iwo Jima Monument To Sell
February 21, 2013Iconic monuments don’t come on the market as a rule, but tomorrow is the exception. At a sale of World War II artifacts in New York, Bonhams will offer the original Iwo Jima Monument, as sculpted in Washington, D.C in June-September 1945. Felix de Weldon conceived the depiction of Marines raising the stars and stripes on Mount Suribaci, following a photograph by Joe Rosenthal. Last displayed on the hangar deck of the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York, the statue comes with all sorts of related materials, including original pencil sketches for its design. To take home the 10,000 pound icon, expected to pay $1.2m-$1.8m. Plus shipping, of course.
Read more...As Much As $600,000 Expected For Piano From SS Normandie
February 15, 2013Of the many luxurious ocean liners that plied the transatlantic routes in the years between the two world wars, the SS Normandie may have been the most glamorous. Her beautiful interiors and innovative designs set the bar high. An example of that is the ship’s Emile-Jacques Ruhlman-designed art-deco piano, composed of a stunning array of woods and veneers. In a private collection since the 1940’s, when the ship’s contents were first sold, it will be the centerpiece at Sotheby’s 20th Century Design auction on March 6th, when it’s expected to cross the block at $400,000-$600,000.
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...High Expectations For Richter At Christie’s Sale
February 12, 2013A variety of works by celebrated 20th century British artists Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Peter Doig and Damien Hirst are in the lineup tonight for Christie’s auction of Post-war and Contemporary Art in London. A 2004 painting by Gerhard Richter, however, is expected to lead the February 13th sale. Although the auction house hasn’t released an estimate for “Abstraktes Bild,” its expectations are clearly high, and not without reason. Between just 2011 and 2012, Richter’s world record auction price has been broken four times, most recently by the $34.2m a mystery buyer paid last October for “Abstraktes Bild (809-4) from 1994.
Read more...More Than $150,000 Expected For Totem Used As Coat Stand
February 11, 2013For the past 30 years, it’s been used as a coat stand in a home in Dorset, England. Then an auctioneer, visiting to assess the value of some other items, happened to see it, draped with coats and scarves in a back room of the house. Next week the early 20th century Native American totem pole will be auctioned at Dukes in Dorchester, where it’s expected to sell for as much as $157,000.
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...Lalique Glass Hood Ornament At Bonhams
February 04, 2013Back in the day the owner of a Citroen, Bentley, Mercedes, Packard or some other fancy car, often installed his own hood ornament. They were called “mascots.” Nobody made more iconic glass mascots than Rene Lalique. At its first Decorative Arts auction in France, Bonhams is selling a Lalique design known as “Victoire”.
Read more...$500,000 Expected For Batman Comic
February 01, 2013The last time the copy of Detective Comics #27 that Heritage is currently offering came up for auction, it sold for $68,500. That was in 1995 at Sotheby’s. Since then this mid-rated 1939 book, which marked the debut of Batman, has soared in value. By the time the bidding ends at the Vintage Comics & Comic Art auction in New York on February 21-23, the Batman comic is expected to sell for at least $500,000.
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