“The Scream” had them applauding at Sotheby’s last night as the bidding soared past the high estimate of $80m and kept climbing as two phone bidders got into it. The Munch piece finally went for just under $120m, setting a record for a work of art at auction. Last year a Picasso oil went for $106.5m. This 1895 version, one of four the Norwegian produced over a period of years, was done in pastel on a board.The winning bidder was not immediately revealed. Speculation centered on certain financiers, a software mogul, and members of the royal family from Qatrar who paid $250m for a Cezanne earlier this year in a private sale. Prior to the auction, Sotheby’s staged an aggressive promotional campaign and stands to make $14m if conventional commission rates apply. “The Scream” consignment came from a family that once were neighbors of Munch.
Munch’s “The Scream” Sets World Record
May 03, 2012
Lalanne Sheep Sells For $341,000
June 14, 2013When is a sheep worth $341,000? When it’s the product not of nature, but the late French artist and designer Francois-Xavier Lalanne. A circa 1986 example of his “Mouton” creation achieved that price this week at Sotheby’s 20th Century Design auction in New York, scurrying past its estimate of $200,000-$300,000.
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Russian Work Fetches Record $12.2m
June 6, 2013Steeped in the traditions of Russian Orthodox Christianity, artist Nikolai Roerich (1874-1947) often composed canvases filled with female imagery, in particular representations of the Virgin. He painted ‘Madonna Laboris,’ which depicts the Holy Virgin by the gates of Heaven, in 1931, during one of his many trips to India. Yesterday, at a Bonhams sale in London, it soared past its estimate of $1.25m-$1.9m to a price of $12.2m. That was a new world record for the artist as well as the highest price ever paid for a work at a Russian art auction.
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Photos By Chimp Sell For $76,680
June 5, 2013A set of images taken by a chimpanzee sold earlier today at Sotheby’s in London for $76,680, setting off a fusillade of puns. Was this monkey business? Had the art world gone bananas? To the buyer, a Russian collector named Kira Flanzaich, the blurry images of Moscow’s Red Square were an excellent example of conceptual art.
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Rising Value of Unrestored Cars
By Malcolm Welford, Vintage Car Specialist
