Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Archive for May, 2011
Christie’s Mines Gold In Hong Kong
May 31, 2011The price of a painting by Chinese master Zhang Daqian soared seven times over its estimate to $7.3m, a matching pair of “singing bird” pistols found a $5.87m target, and six magnums of 1961 Chateau Latour pulled in a sobering $232,000. All that happened at Christie’s series of wine, art, jewelry, and watch auctions over the weekend in Hong Kong. Our roundup covering the highlights follows.
Read more...Steve Martin Misses Art Forger’s Sting
May 31, 2011Actor Steve Martin bought a Heinrich Campendonk painting in 2004 for $850,000, and sold it two years later at a loss of $200,000, but the Swiss collector who bought it at such a bargain has just found out the work, “Landscape With Horses,” is a fake. Martin says he had no idea it was a forgery. Martin didn’t say why he sold it at such a loss.
Read more...Bonhams Offers A Frank Stella BMW
May 27, 2011Back in 1975 BMW began commissioning famous artists to paint exceptional cars. Alexander Calder painted the first car, which raced at Le Mans. Later contributors included Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and David Hockney. The 1979 BMW M1 Pro Car that Bonhams is featuring at its Quail Lodge sale this summer was painted by Frank Stella. New York’s Guggenheim Museum is selling the car, which it received as a gift in 1999. Proceeds of the sale will go toward the museum’s art acquisition program.
Read more...Part Time Painter’s Work Snags $9m
May 27, 2011Laurence Stephen Lowry was only a part time British painter who died in 1976, but his work continues to set auction records. Last night at Christie’s in London his painting of a soccer match with hundreds of tiny figures, surrounded by factories and smoke stacks sold for $9.2m, more than ever paid for a Lowry creation.
Read more...A Chinese Master’s Works
May 26, 2011Over the course of 50 years, Kao Ling-mei and his wife assembled what’s recognized as the world’s most comprehensive collection of paintings by Zhang Daqian (1899-1983, one of China’s best known artists of the 20th century. The 25 works that Sotheby’s will auction on May 31st have never appeared on the market before, and are expected to sell for some $16.7m.
Read more...A Car Mogul’s Unique Watches
May 26, 2011James Ward Packard was crazy enough about cars to found a motor company. He was also crazy about collecting watches. For the past 60-years, the family kept four of his most prized pocket watches in a bank vault. Next month, Christie’s is selling them as part of its Important Watches sale.
Read more...Heady Snuff Bottle Sale In Hong Kong
May 25, 2011Taking snuff may not have been a common practice since the 17th century, but you’d never have known it at Bonhams’ sale of Chinese Snuff bottles in Hong Kong today. Buyers snapped up all 142 lots at the auction, with top honors going to a gold-ground enameled copper Imperial bottle manufactured around 1770 in the Beijing Palace Workshops. It sold for $544,000.
Read more...Half Million For Unpublished Jane Austen?
May 25, 2011The extraordinarily reclusive Jane Austen , of whom there is only one amateur likeness done by her sister, published six novels. An unfinished one, “The Watsons,” comes up for auction in July by Sotheby’s in London. It’s the last handwritten, autographed manuscript of her major work privately held. The high estimate is $485,000.
Read more...Available: A $59m Riviera Villa
May 25, 2011The real estate boom must seem very distant to Irish financier Derek Quinlan. At the top of the craze, he paid $141m for Villa La Carriere, a stunning seaside retreat in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on the French Riviera, for which Barclays Bank loaned him $84.5m. Now that Quinlan’s empire –and the real estate market–has collapsed, however, Barclays has been left holding the bag. For a “proposed” fire-sale price of $59m, the bank will offer the house at a July 7th auction in Nice.
Read more...Highest Price Ever Paid For Chinese Painting
May 24, 2011A work by Qi Baishi sold this week for $65m, the highest price ever paid for a modern Chinese painting. It came after 30-minutes of fierce bidding. Entitled, “A Long Life, A Peaceful World,” It was done in traditional Chinese style in 1946 and personally given to Chiang Kai-Shek by the artist. Qi died in 1957, at the age of 93. The sale was held in Beijing at China Guardian Auctions.
Read more...The Late Colin Tennant’s Estate
May 24, 2011Colin Tennant, more lately the 3rd Lord Glenconner, was “born into great privilege,” he once said, and used some of its trappings to acquire and transform the Carribbean island of Mustique. He shaped it into one of the storied playgrounds of the 1960s and ‘70s, a jet set haven for rock stars and royalty. Then he moved on, with his pet elephant, to a fabulous villa in St. Lucia. Bonhams will sell its highly unusual contents this September in London.
Read more...Sky High Price For Basement Art
May 24, 2011It’s everyone’s fantasy: a couple of old paintings hanging by the ping pong table in the family’s basement turn out to be the kind of masterpieces that sold last week for $800,000. The outdoor scenes were done by Jasper F. Cropsey, a painter from the Hudson River School. The top lot, a winter hunting scene at Niagara Falls, went for $552,000.
Read more...High Expectations For Hong Kong Art Sale
May 24, 2011Training their sights on deep-pocketed mainland Chinese collectors, Christie’s launches a series of Hong Kong auctions this weekend, with sales of ceramics, wine, watches, jewels, and Chinese Art. Expectations are especially high for their auction of 20th century and contemporary art, for which Asians collectors have shown such avid interest. Fifteen of the 45 lots are expected to sell for more than $1m. Leading the way, with an estimate of $3.2m is Zeng Fanzhi’s 1966 self-portrait.
Read more...Lloyd Webber Giving Away $52M
May 23, 2011Last year Andrew Lloyd Webber sold ,“The Absinthe Drinker,” a well known Picasso portrait of a bluish-green man who looks like he has been drinking something strong, for nearly $52m. This week Webber announced he’s giving away all the proceeds from that Christie’s sale.
Read more...Ferrari Corners $4.7m At Villa d’Este
May 23, 2011RM was hoping for some huge prices at its inaugural Villa d’Este auction, and even if the results weren’t quite as spectacular as the Lake Como shoreline, they were still impressive. As expected, a beautiful 1955 Ferrari 375 MM Berlinetta was the top seller at $4.7m, near the low end of its $4.5-$5.9m estimate. Almost as expensive was a 1938 Tabot-Lago T150-C SS Teardrop Coupe, which fetched $4.4m, also close to its low estimate of $4.35m.
Read more...
Picasso Prices@Sotheby's 
Ask Alan A Question