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Go Out Of This World With DiCaprio For $1.5m

andrewb — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:44:45 +0000

Leonard DiCaprio is going into space on Richard Branson’s rocket this fall. Last night at a Cannes charity auction a Russian bid $1.5m to go with him. They will undergo astronaut training for 3-days before they blast off in the mothership from a California desert, detach, and go into orbit for nearly 3-hours. Nicole Kidman and Sharon Stone were the guest auctioneers.Branson’s Virgin Galatic is one of several commercial ships replacing the space shuttles with an eye toward space tourism. There will be two pilots and a total of six passengers on the virgin flight. Cinematically, DiCaprio has had some interesting journeys, including a seat on the Titanic, and as Howard Hughes crash landing a plane in the The Aviator.

Potter’s First Edition (with scribbles): $228,000

andrewb — Thu, 23 May 2013 18:04:04 +0000

For some reason, many authors have a compulsion to write and draw on first editions of their books, as R.K. Rowling did when she scribbled and drew on 43 pages of “Harry Pottter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (“Sorcerer’s Stone” to Yanks). That copy sold at a charity auction in London this week for $228,000 after fierce bidding. It went to an anonymous buyer on the phone.

Only 500 first editions of the original Potter book exist, the first of seven novels that that became the foundation of a multibillion dollar enterprise. The auction featured 51 first editions with different authors’ annotations. Proceeds went to the English chapter of PEN which promotes freedom of expression.

James Bond Barn Find: $90K ‘Thunderball’ Watch

andrewb — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:21:39 +0000

The latest dramatic barn find involves a Breitling Top Time, the very watch Sean Connery wore in “Thunderball.” Several years ago a collector snapped it up at a yard sale for less than $40. Suspecting a higher value, the anonymous buyer took it to an expert for evaluation. The savvy collector wasn’t wrong: when the watch appears at a Christie’s auction next month in London, it’s expected to sell for as much as $90,000.In the film, this is watch that the British Secret Service’s notoriously fastidious “Q” modified to incorporate a Geiger counter that plays a pivotal role in the movie’s plot. After the film’s completion the watch went missing. The U.K.’s Telegraph reported that the timepiece “is thought to have been passed on by someone who worked at Pinewood Studios where the film was shot.”

Aston Martin Sells For Record $4.95m

andrewb — Mon, 20 May 2013 17:28:46 +0000

Until this past weekend, the record for an Aston Martin at auction was the $4.6m paid for a DB5 with celebrity credentials, having seen use in “Goldfinger.” That price was eclipsed on Saturday, when a factory-restored 1960 DB4GT “Jet” Coupé sold for $4.95m at a Bonhams auction in the UK. Offered for the first time in 30 years, the unique car — the only GT with body by Bertone — has won various Concours d’Elegance awards, including ‘Best In Show’ at the Villa d’Este and 1^st in the Italian Coachworks Class at Pebble Beach.

The sale occurred at Bonhams’ annual auction of Aston Martins at the automaker’s factory in Newport Pagnell. Prices were particularly strong at this year’s event, with one notable example being the $486,000 a collector paid for a 1964 DB5 discovered after 30 years in an old garage with a mouse-nest in its engine. Another ‘barn-find,’ a1966 DB6 Vantage Sports Saloon, sold for $164,000.

“Harry Legacy” Sells For $26.m

andrewb — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:11:03 +0000

Money has been flooding into the rapidly rising diamond market in recent months, as collectors seek remunerative parking spots for their investment dollars. The latest example is the $26.7m that jeweler Harry Winston paid this week at a Christie’s auction in Geneva for a flawless 101.73-carat “colorless” diamond. The price was a new high for a diamond of this type, exceeding the last auction price record by more than $10m.As the first buyer of the stone, Harry Winston also acquired naming rights for the diamond, which it dubbed the “Harry Legacy,” recalling the firm’s late founder. The jewel, 236-carats in its original state, was taken from the Jwaneng Mine in Botswana, then sculpted for 21 months, according to Christie’s. Swiss watchmaker Swatch acquired Harry Winston earlier this year in a deal said to be worth $1 billion.

Most Successful Art Auction Ever

andrewb — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:19:54 +0000

With metronomic regularity, works of Contemporary Art soared to dizzying prices at Christie’s last night in New York, as the auction house achieved a record $496m, the highest ever in the history of art auctions. Most works exceeded their high estimates, and 15 new artist records were set, including the $58.4m that a buyer paid for Jackson Pollock’s “Number 19, 1948,” which turned out to be the star of the evening.Another was Roy Lichtenstein’s “Woman with Flowered Hat,” which realized almost as much, claiming $56.1m instead of its $30m high estimate. The next most valuable work was Jan-Michel Basquiat’s “Dustheads,” which sold for $48.8m, trailed by an untitled work from 1958 by Mark Rothko ($27m), Philip Guston’s “To Fellini” ($25.9m), and Lichtenstein’s “Nude with Yellow Flower” ($23.6m). The auction was a more successful replay of the previous evening’s sale of contemporary art at Sotheby’s, which saw new artist’s auction records for Barnett Newman, whose “Onement VI” sold for $43.84m, well above its $30m-$40m estimate, and Germany’s Gerhard Richter, whose photo-painting rendering of Milan’s cathedral square, “Domplatz, Mailand,” closed at $37.1m. That was a record for any living artist at auction. “We are in a new era of the art market,” said Christie’s Jussi Pylkkanen, who presided as auctioneer. “There is global competition that we have never seen in the art world before.”

Bizarre Topless Photo of Jolie, $45,500

andrewb — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:23:07 +0000

A bizarre topless photo of Angelina Jolie called “Horseplay” sold at Christie’s London auction last night for $45,500. The “Wild Side of Photography” sale was scheduled well before Jolie’s double mastectomy announcement. Taken when she was 25, the photo also prominently displays a “Billy Bob” tattoo, referring to former husband Thornton who has since been removed from her shoulder and her life.

The tabloids claimed Brad Pitt found the picture by celebrated photographer David LaChapelle “sexy,” but also was not pleased with her former husband’s tattoo and was “desperate” to buy the print. Such claims have been dismissed as mere tabloid fodder, but Christie’s did not reveal the buyer. Pitt and Jolie, not yet married, have six children.

Spotlight On Contemporary Art In New York

andrewb — Mon, 13 May 2013 18:53:49 +0000

Last week in New York, as major auction houses took in more than $473m, the spotlight was on Impressionist & Modern Art. This week, the focus shifts to the more uncertain field of Contemporary Art, with several hundred works coming up for sale. The action starts tomorrow at Sotheby’s, where a blue abstract by Barnett Newman, “Onement VI,” owned by Microsoft founder Paul Allen, is expected to sell for $30m-$40m.Sotheby’s anticipates another highlight will be an untitled blue sponge sculpture from 1959 by Yves Klein, with a low estimate of $20m. The following evening at Christie’s the stars will be Roy Lichtenstein’s “Woman with Flowered Hat,” for which the auction house didn’t provide an estimate, and works by Jean-Michel Basquiat (“Dustheads,” est. $25m-$35m), Jackson Pollack (“Number 19, 1948,” est. $25m-$35m), and Francis Bacon (“Study for Portrait,” est. $18m-$25m).

“Paul Newman” Rolex May Fetch Half-Million

andrewb — Sat, 11 May 2013 00:02:28 +0000

When the “Daytona Paul Newman” Rolex watches first came out they didn’t cause much stir and were relatively inexpensive. Today, some call them the “Holy Grail” of Rolexes. Antiquorum will auction one with a low serial number and its distinctive lemon yellow coloration this Sunday in Geneva. High estimate is $550,000.Some remember Paul Newman as an actor. Rolex commemorated his Daytona racing prowess. Newman’s wife gave him a namesake model as a gift when he took up racing. Reportedly the actor/racer wore the watch for more than 35-years, right up to his death in 2008.

Rodin Statue Something To Think About At $15.3m

andrewb — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:20:10 +0000

There are only 28 casts of Auguste Rodin’s iconic “The Thinker” known to exist. One originally commissioned by Ralph Pulitzer in 1906 sold this week for $15.3m at Sotheby’s in New York. The statue bears a plaque certifying that Rodin, himself, supervised the casting. A similar cast sold for $12m three years ago.

William Paley, the late founder of CBS, once owned the piece after Pulitzer. The best known bronze cast known the world over is in a Paris museum. The statue was consigned by a private collector and the buyer was not revealed.

Soutine & Chagall Lead Muted Christie’s Sale

andrewb — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:07:46 +0000

With a line-up of works less stellar than those Sotheby’s had offered the night before, Christie’s encountered a relatively muted response at its sale of Impressionist & Modern Art on Wednesday evening in New York. The top sellers were Soutine’s “Le Petit Pâtissier” from 1927, which generated just one bid and sold for its low $16m estimate, and Chagall’s 1926 canvas “Les Trois Acrobates.” A telephone bidder claimed the painting for $11.5m, well above its $6m-$9m estimate.

All told, Christie’s realized a total of $158.5m, above its low estimate of $131.4m for the evening, but far short of the $190.5 high estimate. Of the 47 works on offer, just three failed to find buyers. Among these, the big disappointment was André Derain’s 1905 portrait of Matisse’s wife, “Madame Matisse au Kimono.” No bids emerged for the work, which had been valued at $15m-$20m. A happier surprise was the $11.3m a buyer paid for Schiele’s “Selbstbildnis mit Modell (Fragment),” a massive self-portrait from 1913 that had been estimated at $5m-$7m. Next week the action in New York moves on to contemporary works.