Contributors
Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
Archive for February, 2012
High-End Real Estate Roundup
February 20, 2012Snow hasn’t been plentiful this year. Real estate opportunities, however, are abundant. Just in time for spring skiing, four substantial logs homes are coming on the auction market soon in Big Sky, Montana, and there are another three in Aspen, Colorado. Read more in our high-end real estate roundup.
Read more...Over $200,000 Expected For Spitfire Remnant
February 16, 2012In its last wartime mission, a training flight in 1944, the Spitfire fighter plane with the call sign NK-K didn’t fare well. It crashed and its Australian pilot perished. Since that time, its parts have been assembled in a fuselage and cockpit display that a local English scout troop used for promotional purposes. This weekend, the English auctioneer Historics at Brooklands will auction the historic plane—or what remains of it—in a sale at Mercedes-Benz World in Surrey, where it’s expected to fetch $190,000-$237,000.
Read more...Before Google,18th Century Encyclopedia At Auction
February 16, 2012When first published in 1751, this Encylopedia was the greatest collection of knowledge and reason under one cover—or 17 covers to be exact. Today, it would all fit on a single DVD. Translated into French, the volumes will be sold by PBA Auctions in San Francisco next month. High estimate, $47,000.
Read more...Muhammad Ali’s Boxing Gloves
February 16, 2012In 1960, back in the days when he was still known as Cassius Clay, boxing great Muhammad Ali won the National AAU light heavyweight boxing championship by stopping a fighter named Jeff Davis in the second round. On April 7 at its Sports Collectibles auction in Dallas, Heritage will offer the boxing gloves he wore in that bout. They’re expected to knock down a price of at least $20,000.
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...1941 Chrysler Indy 500 Pace Car At Amelia Island
February 15, 2012Not surprisingly, there are some stunning cars in the lineup for RM’s Amelia Island auction next month. Among the rarest is a 1941 Chrysler Newport Dual Cowl Phaeton by Le Baron, one of only 5 ever produced. This example, designed and built in just 90 days, was the pace car for the Indianapolis 500 in 1941. Formerly owned by Walter P. Chrysler Jr., it’s expected to sell for $1.5m-$2m.
Read more...Hong Kong Embraces Burgundy At Christie’s
February 14, 2012Not long ago, only high-value Bordeaux seemed to impress Hong Kong buyers. Those days seemed distant this past weekend, when Christie’s offered a variety of Burgundies from the cellar of Henri Jayer. Every lot sold, many above estimates, as the February 10th auction realized $8.5m. The star attraction was a 12-bottle offering of 1985 Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru “Cros Parantoux,” which soared to $266,498. more than twice its high estimate.
Read more...Bacon & Rothko Lead London Sale
February 13, 2012A work by Mark Rothko hasn’t been seen on the London auction market in a decade, much less one of the calibre of “Untitled”(1955), a canvas from Rothko’s classic period. Christie’s expectations for the work at its postwar and contemporary art auction tomorrow are high–$14.2m-$18.9m—but even higher for Francis Bacon’s “Portrait of Henrietta Moraes,” a work from 1963 that’s expected to bring $28.3m.
Read more...Antiquorum Featured Patek Philippe In Hong Kong
February 13, 2012The top items in Antiquorum’s upcoming sale in Hong Kong are of relatively recent vintage, led by an 18K pink gold minute repeating Patek Philippe Ref. 3939R wristwatch with tourbillon regulator. Produced in 2010, it’s estimated at $354,660-$419,143 at the event on February 26.
Read more...$183m Result For Elizabeth Taylor Auctions
February 09, 2012When 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.
Read more...Picasso Leads Bonhams Impressionist & Modern Art Sale
February 09, 2012If 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.
Read more...Elizabeth Taylor’s Van Gogh Doubles Estimate
February 08, 2012Clearly, 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.
Read more...Miro Record At Impressionist & Modern Art Sale
February 08, 2012The $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.
Read more...The World’s Most Expensive Artwork
February 07, 2012Cezanne’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.
Read more...$5.8m For Roger Vadim’s Ferrari
February 07, 2012The fact that the 1959 Ferrari 250 California GT LWB that Artcuriel offered in Paris was once owned by famed French director—and former husband of Brigitte Bardot—Roger Vadim certainly didn’t diminish its value. This weekend a telephone bidder paid $5.8m for the silver Italian convertible at the Retromobile auction. The price was well above its $3.9-$5.3m estimate
Read more...
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