Auction News Network | Auction Reports | Art Auction News | Online Auction Newspaper

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.

$230m Evening At Sotheby’s Kicks Off Major Art Sales

andrewb — Wed, 08 May 2013 19:14:03 +0000

Propelled by major works by Cezanne, Braque, Rodin and Leger that excelled expectations, Sotheby’s kicked off New York’s big spring auction season with a sale of Impressionist and Modern Art that brought in $230m, just below its $235m high estimate. The evening’s top seller, as expected, was “Les Pommes,” a Cézanne still life from 1889-90 that a telephone bidder bought for $37m, or $41.6m, including commissions.“Les Pommes,” like several other top sellers, came from the estate of Alex Lewyt, a vacuum cleaner inventor, who died in 1998, and his wife, who died in December. Together, they’d collected some 200 paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Renoir, Degas, and Modigliani, among others. It was a 1909 portrait by Modigliani from their collection, “Amazone,” that claimed the evening’s second highest price of $23m, or $25.9m with commissions. Other highlights at the evening auction included a rare 1906 cast of Rodin’s “The Thinker,” which sold for $15.3m, exceeding its $12m high estimate, and Léger’s 1921 “Trois Femmes à La Table Rouge,” which had hung in Madonna’s bedroom. The painting sold for $6.2m or $7.2m with fees, well within its $5m-$7m estimate. Proceeds will benefit the entertainer’s charity, which focuses on education for young women abroad.

Milton Berle’s Jokes Laugh To The Bank

andrewb — Wed, 08 May 2013 13:49:57 +0000

For $158,000 a bidder got Milton Berle’s library, including books and boxes of bound scripts and personal correspondence, but he didn’t get the comedian’s thousands of one-liners and jokes carefully catalogued over the decades. That file went for another $65,000 at Bonham’s Entertainment auction this week.

As fragmented as television viewing is today, most young people don’t know who Milton Berle was. He died more than 10-years ago. But he’s credited as being a major reason American’s bought and watched television in the late ‘40’s and 50’s. Perhaps the closest any single entertainer and comedian came to Berle was Johnny Carson who died 3-years after Milton.

$3.6m Expected For Australia’s First Banknote

andrewb — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:10:45 +0000

Australia’s first banknote, issued 100 years ago, is expected to realize $3.6m in a private sale at Coinworks in Melbourne. If it does, it will be the highest price ever paid for an Australian coin or banknote. The 10 shilling bill, hand-numbered M000001 and issued May 1, 1913, was discovered 12 years ago among the effects of Judith Denman, daughter of Lord Denman, Australia’s governor-general at the time of the currency’s issue. The historic banknote last sold at auction for $1.9m.

Australian Prime Minister Andrew Fisher presented the note to Judith Denman in 1913, when she was a five-year old. Discovered nearly 12 years after her death, the bill was acquired by a private collector in 2000 for $1m and has steadily risen in value since. ”I would love it to be on permanent display somewhere,” said Coinworks chief execute Belinda Downie. “It is a great piece of Australian history and everyone should savor it. It is unique.”