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.
February 5, 2010
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 5:50 am
An Alberto Giacometti sculpture broke records at the auction house last night by becoming the highest priced artwork sold via an auction with a stunning final bid of £65m.
The auction took place at London’s Sotheby’s and brought in five times more than its pre-sale estimate of £12 to £18m. It also beat the current record for the top selling auction piece set in 2004 by a Picasso artwork.
Adding to the surprise of course is the fact that the piece sold so well even in the midst of the recession, a fact made more ironic given the fact it was up for auction due to the recession, given it was part of a collection that Dresdner Bank’s new owners chose to sell off.
For buyers the Giacometti auction was extra important given the fact that the sculpture is often considered to be one of his most respected 20th century artworks. This created quite a buzz throughout the auction room with interest in the sculpture clear as people started bidding without prompting from the auctioneer.
Ten bidders competed for the piece in all with two telephone bidders who continued to vie for the piece after it reached past £35m to the astonishment of most in the room.
Co-chairmen of Sotheby’s, Melanie Clore, stated that they were thrilled with the result of the sale which was the highest sale made at a London auction house as well.
For now the auction house refuses to reveal who the telephone bidder was that won the painting.
December 23, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 6:58 am
A portrait by Peter Paul Rubens that features a mystery woman could realize as much as six million pounds once the auction is completed next week in London.
The unknown female is believed to be Spanish although the painting is not complete making it hard to tell.
Experts estimate that the painting dates back to the beginning of the 17th century during the regular travels to the Mediterranean by Flemish artists.
Although the history of the painting is fuzzy, it is believed that the painting remained in Venice until it was moved to Italy during the 19th century.
At this time it became part of the Hammer family collection and remained in Wales until it was put up for auction this month.
Rubens may have started the painting as an aristocratic commission but it is not clear why the painting was not finished or if it was an actual commissioned piece. The famous painter set a record in 2002 for the auction price of Massacre of the Innocents which sold for about £50m setting a record for an Old Master piece.
December 21, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 10:03 am
The BBC is under scrutiny after spending an estimated £3m on art in order to redecorate its flagship office building. The popular broadcaster received criticism for spending money from licence payees on artwork in a decade in which the company has made 3,000 people redundant and at a period when the amount it pays celebrities is under fire.
Aside from these basic concerns, even art critics have a gear to grind as they claim that the BBC only choose trendy pieces, and not lasting classic artwork.
One such piece is a pieced named the World by artist Mark Pimlott which is a series of white lines that make a figure that looks like a globe. The price on the Canadian painting which will hang outside of the Central London Broadcasting House is a whopping £1.5m.
A second piece was purchased for £897,000 is a glass cone that is 33ft tall and is located on the roof of the building. The cone was created by Jaume Plensa to honour journalists who have passed away while on assignment.
Editor of art magazine Jackdaw, David Lee, stated that the BBC spent a very large amount of money on artwork that the average person will not get. Lee went on to state that he is not sure why the BBC would not have chosen artwork that was more traditional such as paintings.
Chairman of the campaign group Voice of the Viewer and Listener, Richard Lindley, was more concerned with how the money was spent stating that the BBC should keep in mind that viewers would want their licence fee be spent on programming.
December 9, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 8:58 am
Last night the most expensive item at the Christie’s auction sold for £29,171, 250. The painting was a drawing by Raphael that was expected to only sell at £12 to £16 million.
Head of a Muse was drawn as part of a study in Parmasssus and is part of a series of Frescoes that were completed in the Vatican at the Stanze della Segnatura.
It was produced back to 1508-15011 and was commissioned by Pope Julius II.
Before last night, the highest price for a drawing at an auction was a Degas that sold at a 2008 New York auction for £22,742,106.
This was the first time that the Raphael drawing was involved in a public auction in over 150 years. During the same sale, a Rembrandt first broke a record when it reached an auction price of £20.2m,
The Rembrandt, Portrait of A Man, Half-Length with His Hands Akimbo was given the largest pre sale estimate that has been seen for an Old Master painting.
The highest Old Master record for an auction was set in 2002 when a painting by Ruben far exceeded a six million pound estimate and sold for £50m.
Still, the Rembrandt is now fourth on the list of Old Master artworks that sold for millions at the auction house.
The extremely rich consider high ticket artworks to be a viable investment option in a year when the art market has continued to take a beating.
December 5, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 6:23 am
Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Man was on display Friday at Christie’s in lieu of its sale this coming Tuesday. This was the first showing of the portrait since 1970.
Currently the highest amount that a Rembrandt has sold for was £19.8 in December of 2000, beating pre-sale estimates that placed its value around £5m.
Since that stunning sale, experts at Christie’s expect that Portrait of a Man my garnish anywhere between £18m and £25m, although it could possibly go for much more, as the last few auctions of famous works have been setting their own records.
Head of the Christie’s Old Masters department, Richard Knight, said that the painting was completed two years after Rembrandt was said to have become bankrupt.
Rembrandt did compile a large amount of savings during his most productive years, 1630-1650, but spent most of his money quickly on other notable pieces of art. After he became broke, he had to sell his home and his collection.
Knight commented that the painting shows Rembrandt’s genius due to the fact that the style of painting was ahead of its time and showed Rembrandt’s strong use of expressive colour.
The painting was originally first discovered in 1847, almost two centuries after it was first painted, and owned in the 20th century by an heir to a supermarket, who later donated it to Columbia University, who then sold it to a private owner.
Rembrandt’s monumental painting will be included in the Christie’s sale on December 8th that is a collection of 19th century art and Old Masters collection.
November 12, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 7:10 am
Pieces of art by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol have not sold despite high hopes at a contemporary art auction that took place in New York.
However, although they did not sell, the rest of the pieces at the Christie’s sale added up to a total of about £45m which the auctioneers declared were closer to the sale totals of auctions before the recession hit.
The auction house felt that the Warhol and Basquiat pieces did not sell due to the fact they only had an appeal for collectors of the artists. The pieces were expected to have sold for about £4.5m and £7.1m respectively.
At the same time that the two collectors’ pieces did not amass any bids, other pieces by artists such as Jasper Johns and Jeff Koons sold past expectations. In fact, some items sold double what was estimated although estimates were low to encourage bidders to show.
One Warhol piece that did perform well at the auction was a £485,000 portrait of Michael Jackson. The last owner of the Jackson painting was said to have purchased it from the New York Jackson foundation.
November 11, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 7:14 am
The National Museum Wales just bought the first oil painting ever created by Pablo Picasso the ‘Still Work with Poron’ which was painted in December of 1948.
The gallery paid over £1.4m for the work and was purchased through the museum’s Centenary Fund. The Art Fund charity also donated £100,000 towards the cost of the Picasso painting.
Heritage Minister Alun Fred Jones stated that the new acquisition shows the commitment by the museum to make the National Museum a place to see ‘world-class art.’
The painting has a lemon, lobster, and a Spanish wine pitcher in it that references Cubism which was developed by Picasso in the first decade of the 20th century.
Oliver Fairclough, the keeper of art for the National Museum Wales said that the purchase is an important move for the museum which currently has four Picasso works and a decent amount of ceramics which were purchased last year through the Centenary Fund.
Fairclough continued to say that the acquisition of the oil painting is the last component of the museum’s portrayal of Picasso as one of great artists of the twentieth century.
Outside of Picasso, the museum also has a large collection of Monet, Van Gogh, and Cezenne paintings. It also includes paintings from after the war period from such artists as Graham Sutherland and Ceri Richards.
The museum’s director general, Michael Houlihan, said that the museum is grateful to the different trusts that have made the purchase a reality including the partners in the Centenary Fund, the Derek Williams Trust, and The Art Fund.
November 6, 2009
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 7:19 am
As the number of Chinese art buyers heading to Britain mushrooms, London auction houses have added about 16 million pounds worth of Asian artwork to their bidding lists.
Gallery shows and sales have attracted Chinese collectors, with the main focus on a jade Imperial seal that went for 3.6m pounds, which is over six times what was expected.
Nicholas Chow, the internal head of Chinese ceramics at Sotheby’s said that the last few seasons of sales have seen in influx in Chinese collectors. These collectors seem to be only interested in items that are of top quality
Dealers have seen that Chinese businessman and women, who are newly wealthy, are most likely to chase high value objects that represent their heritage, in particular those that are from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Even though mainland collectors need to receive a formal invitation in order to travel to the UK for an art exhibition, the 12th annual Asian Art in London showing attracted more Chinese collectors than previous years.
As the demand for these items continues to rise, Christie’s International and Sotheby’s invite about 210 collectors each.
Outside of auction houses, around 40 different commercial galleries throughout London are offering artwork and antique objects for sale that are from all parts of Asia, from Japan to the Middle East. Out of this week’s offerings many are originally from China.
Christie’s stated that in their last auction 90% of the most expensive items in the catalogue were purchased by Asian buyers.
Next Page »
