September 14, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 9:30 am
Christie’s has published the new catalogue for the upcoming sale of the artwork that framed the headquarters for Lehman Brothers that will be auctioned off on September 29th and the collection looks more like what you may find at a manor house or from the East India Company than what you would expect to find from a former investment bank.
Regardless, there will be 300 lots up for grabs on the exact date of the second year since the investment bank’s collapse was announced. Despite the randomness of the collection, a few pieces in particular may spark some interest from contemporary art collectors such as a piece by Matthew Ritchie that is predicted to go for about £100,000.
Also listed in the catalogue of interest is a drawing by Jim Hodges titled ‘All To One’ expected to grab around £50,000 and a painting from Gary Hume listed at about £100,000.
When you get into the contemporary works of art what you will find is that most are unique one-offs such as two Chinese garden seats that could fetch up to £2,000, a pair of binoculars fashioned out of faux croc skin listed for about £600, and an ornate mirror made of giltwood expected to fetch about £1,500.
Also included in the collection are a wide array of books and Victorian prints including notable collections such as volumes by John Glasworthy valued at £800 and a collection of books by Lord Byron which may fetch between £200 and £300.
Altogether the administrator of Lehman Brothers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, is hoping that the auction will take in at least £2m which is only a small portion of the billions that the firm owes creditors.
August 21, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 12:32 am
Art dealers are looking into how they can get one of the most valuable paintings in Wales valued around £40m. The painting by Rembrandt is called Portrait of Catrina Hooghsaet and is currently on display in Gwynedd at the Penrhyn Castle in Bangor.
Stephen Somerville, the art adviser to the Penrhyn Settled Estates, said that over the last month he has received three calls regarding the painting.
Three years ago the Dutch Culture Ministry attempted to purchase the painting for an Amsterdam museum but they were unable to come up with enough funds for the high £40m price tag. After negotiating for six months, the museum was forced to pull out with only £26.4m available in funds.
Somerville stated that even though the painting is not actively available on the market as part of his job responsibilities he does pass on interest and inquiries to the Penrhyn Settled Estates Trust. The trust acts for the Douglas Pennant family who originally owned the Rembrant and is its true owners.
The family also owns the castle and trustee and poet Richard Douglass Pennant still lives on the castle grounds along with his wife although the home itself is actually owned now by the National Trust.
Somerville stated that during last month while he was in Italy he received three inquiries about the painting from agents and dealers that stated they wanted to get a client intrigued in purchasing it. As of the moment he added that that nothing had happened any further with the inquiries.
The last painting the Douglass Pennant family sold was the Jan Steen piece, The Burgomaster of Delft.
August 11, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 3:45 am
Almost two years ago Lehman Brothers were the largest victim of the financial fallout when the titan collapsed and fell off Wall Street. Although time has passed, administrators are still sorting through the mess as they are working to start auctioning off the art collection from the company in an effort to pay some of its creditors back.
Christie’s will hold the auction as denoted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and sell off a large amount of precious porcelain, paintings, and sketches that used to adorn its old Canary Wharf headquarters.
Even more as part of an attempt to get as much money as possible out of the auction old cigar boxes, tea caddies, and books from the headquarters will also be listed on the auction.
Those who want a more obvious piece of the company can bid on the building’s front sign predicted to go for anywhere from £2,000 to £3,000.
Back before the credit crisis, Lehman would entertain its top guests and clients by treating to the gallery of the London hallways and then offering them a gourmet lunch.
The auction for the Lehman goods is scheduled for September 29th with 300 lots on the rooster.
Included in the collection will be Gary Hume’s Madonna, which is estimated to fetch anywhere from £70,000 to £100,000 and works by the old masters as well such as Thomas Luny’s Dover Coast expected to fetch from £10,000 to £15,000.
PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Barry Gilbertson stated that there are many people spread out throughout the world that would love to have their hands on a piece of art from the Lehman connection.
June 23, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 4:35 am
This week analysts estimate that anywhere between £300m and £450m will be spent at London Impressionist and Modern Art sales this week making it one of the largest series of auctions to take place in Britain ever.
The current largest sale took place in June of 2008 and achieved £298m when a Monet water lily painting took in £41m. After this record the slump followed, in which paintings were not sold and last June sales reached a low £96m.
However, the money was still there to purchase art if great works had appeared given that last year in Paris at the Yves Saint Laurent sale records were achieved for Brancusi, Matisse, and Mondrian paintings. Also high sales were hundred million dollar sales of Picasso and Giacometti works.
The theory behind this is that the super rich across the globe are choosing to invest their money in art instead of investing it in the unstable stock market or the banking system. This is due to the fact that art is not only a status symbol, but also a way to hedge inflation so long as it is the best art available.
The fair opening in London next week has been titled the Masterpiece fair and will feature works that are said to be the ‘best of the best’ in the categories of art, wine, classic cars, antiques, and jewellery.
The success of the fair however will lie in the interest of the public when it comes down to the top ten paintings up for auction that have been termed the masterpieces which include works by Matisse, Derain, Manet, Picasso, Chaim Soutine, and Monet.
June 9, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 9:39 pm
Business tycoons from Ukraine and Russia have been some of the top art bidders around the globe for the last few years, which has helped boost the price of impressionist, contemporary, and Russian art.
With new fine art pieces starting to hit new selling records after a slump caused by the economic crisis, auction houses are once again firm in the belief that Russian arts, manuscripts, and paintings will continue to fetch high bids.
Director of the specialist Russian auction house MacDougall’s, William MacDougall, stated that they are expecting to see even more business now that the market is starting to improve and expects to see over 12m pounds of art sell during the next week.
During this time period, MacDougall’s will also be hosting a side sale of Russian works that were compiled in order to attract middle class bidders that are not able to afford major painting sales.
One of the highlights at the upcoming MacDougall show is “Arsenal Hill at Night” by Niko Pirosami from Georgia, which is valued to fetch between .9m -1.2m pounds. For the past several years the piece of art has been in the Moscow apartment of Lily Brik whom was the muse of Vladmir Mayakovsjy the poet.
This week Sotheby’s will also hold three auctions, out of which it predicts to pull in about 19 million pounds which will be the same amount fetched during the end of 2009.
For Sotheby’s, the top sellers are expected to be “Portrait of Zinovil Grzhebin” by Yuri Annenkov and “The Dark Wood” by Ivan Shishkin. The paintings are expected to fetch 1.2m pounds and 1.5m pounds respectfully.
May 29, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 5:03 am
Over the past year the art world has often been considered saved by Asian buyers. As the international art community once again is gearing up to commence in Hong Kong for another round of large scale sales, the major publicity is settling in around the world of Andy Warhol.
Up for sale at the Christie’s sale of contemporary Asian art on May 29 will be the ‘Mao’ Andy Warhol series along with a silkscreen ink print titled Myths. Both the series and piece of art will be on display at the 2010 Hong Kong International Art Fair which will span from May 27th to May 30th.
Of particular note is Myths which is slated to sell for US $12m and is thought to be the most expensive piece of art available at the Art Fair this year.
One preliminary fact that represents the international interest that is already building in the Asian art world is the fact that online bids are already being accepted for pieces at the sales along with sales that will soon take place from Bonham’s at the International Art Fair.
Regional managing director of Christie’s Asia, Jonathon Stone, stated that the auction market is slowly starting to recovery globally due to the high demand coming out of Asia, which is expected to continue to fuel growth throughout 2010.
In fact, in 2009 Asian art was the largest type of art category that was sold via Christie’s auctions and represents roughly 15% of all art sales outside of the leading categories of modern art and Impressionist.
April 23, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 5:37 pm
A large treasure trove of books, paintings, drawings, and prints from some of the premier 20th century artists is slated to be auctioned off after sitting in storage and kept from the public eye for about seventy years.
The works are from Derain, Cezanne, Picasso, Renoir, and Gauguin and are billed as the ‘Tresors du Coffre Vollard.’ Together they compile a timeline from some of the key composers of modern art and outline the previous century’s most historical moments.
Altogether there are 140 works, which were placed in a Paris safety deposit box in 1939 and stayed there for forty years. However, now they will soon go up for sale at the Sotheby’s in London and Paris.
Vice chairman of Sotheby’s modern art and impressionist department, Helena Newman, stated that the sale is like exploring a lost world as she only saw the collection for the first time just a couple of weeks ago. Newman continued to say that it was like taking a step back in time because a great many of the works had not actually been viewed since 1939.
The collection at one point belonged to the imminent art dealer Ambroise Vollard who was killed in 1939 in a car crash. A young Jew was in charge of his works and as the Nazis got closer he decided to put 140 of the works into a bank vault.
In 1942 the young man was killed at the Sajmiste concentration camp and the vault remained unopened due to the fact that French law mandates forty years must pass before the bank can sell the pieces to cover storage fees.
March 26, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 2:25 am
Christie’s announced that modern masterpieces by Jasper John, Picasso, and Roy Lichtenstein collected by Michael Crichton will be auctioned off following his passing.
Crichton, known best as the author of ‘The Andromeda Stain’ and ‘Jurassic Park’ was an avid art collector purchasing works straight from artists up until he succumbed to cancer back in 2008.
The sale will take place in New York at Christie’s on May 11th and will literally be a collection of Who’s Who from the world of 20th century art. In particular the collection of Jasper John pieces should draw attention given that the collection is one of the most complete on the market and contains pieces from John’s entire career. One of these items is ‘Flag’ which has the Stars and Stripes and has not been publicly seen for almost twenty years.
Other artists that will be up for auction include Jeff Koons, David Hockney, Robert Rauschenberg, Claes Oldenburg, Wayne Thiebaud, Ed Ruscha, and Andy Warhol. Other highlights include three pieces from Pbalo Picasso and the Lichtenstain paintings ‘Girl in Water’ and ‘Figures in Landscape.’
Deputy Chairman of the American Christie’s, Brett Gorvy, stated that the show will present a unique chance for institutions and collectors to gain access to a private collection that is simply amazing.
Gorvy continues to say that Crichton was an extraordinary collector because he collected artwork that allowed him to see the true depth of the artists.
Over his lifetime, Crichton penned several blockbuster movies and created ER the television drama which was an international hit.
February 11, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 9:43 am
A sketch composed by Peter Howson that originally was sold for only a penny, fetched £1,680 at a Glasgow auction.
The sketch is titled Mr. Ness after a teacher that he drew at age 12, while in class in 1970.
The sketch was just one of the 80 pieces that was auctioned off at the sale that took place yesterday by McTear’s auctioneers.
A representative from McTear’s, Magda Ketterer, stated that they always knew that the early sketch would draw an immense amount of attention, which is why it was not surprising that it sold for such a great price.
Ketterer also stated that the simple sketch shows the ability and insight of the renowned artist even from a young age.
Howson was born in London, and after moving to Ayrshire in his youth, later studied at the Glasgow School of Art.
In the 1990s he was declared the ‘war artist’ of the Bosnia conflict by the Imperial War Museum. Most of his work contains themes of down and out subjects with biblical overtures.
The highest priced painting by Howson entitled Three Faces of Eve sold in 2008 for £300,500.
February 10, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 9:50 am
Due to the battle among avid art collectors for works by Yves Klein, Peter Doig, Willem de Kooning, Lucio Fontana, and Frank Auerbach, a London auction finished up with total sales of £54.1m
One of the paintings, a self-portrait by Lucian Freud, was the second highest priced painting sold at a Sotheby’s auction this month, selling for £2.8m. There were 77 lots at the auction, out of which, all but three were sold.
Christophe Van de Weghe, a New York based dealer, stated that people are starting to gain confidence in purchasing art again, because with the erratic stock market, and a lack of bank interest, art is now a great investment opportunity.
Artwork investors have also been encouraged by the record price of £43.8m that the painting sold for at a New York Sotheby’s auction last November.
According to ArtTactic, the Confidence Indicator for both the European and US art markets has increased up to 58 from 28, which is the highest it has been since November of 2007.
The highest winning bid at last night’s auction was £4m offered by a telephone buyer for an abstract painting by Kooning titled ‘Untitled XIV.’
Also secured for a high price by a telephone buyer was ‘Saint Anton’ by Doig, which went for a bid of £2.8m.
The majority of the auction’s publicity came from the 1978 painting by Freud entitled “Self Portrait with a Black Eye” which sold for £2.8m to Elana Guena the former Sotheby’s Europe director.
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