Art News Galore

Sotheby’s offers rare Turner

Filed under: Art events — Alan @ 3:26 am

Sotheby’s will offer up the Turner painting Modern Rome- Campo Vaccino for sale at its London location.  Due to the fact that it one of the most well known Turner paintings and has not been on the market for the last 132 years the auction house is confident that it will topple records especially since Turner’s works are currently receiving an open reception from the art market.

Senior specialist in Early British Paintings and deputy chairman of the UK Sotheby, David Moore-Gwyn, said that they expect Modern Rome to break the previous world record for a Turner painting which is currently held by the Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio set at £20.5m in 2006.

Sotheby’s has placed a price range of £12m to 18m on Modern Rome which is the same price range it put on L’Homme Qui Marche I by Alberto Giacometti in January which went on to sell for a bit over £65m.

Moore-Gwyn is also aware that the market may even bring in a higher price due to the fact that the art market is currently filled with competitive and super wealthy collectors from all over of the world who are desperately seeking masterpieces from top artists.

Christie’s also has three paintings coming up to auction in New York and London that could make a solid attempt at beating the Giacometti record, a Jasper Johns Flag and two works by Picasso.

The components that demand a huge price in a piece of artwork are the place the work was completed, the condition of the piece, its rarity, and the name of the artist all of which Modern Rome has.

Richard Attenborough auctions part of his art collection

Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 8:56 am

Most people know Richard Attenborough as an entrepreneur, director, and actor, but it turns out he was also a collector, who over the years collected many pieces of British 20th century art.

For those interested in this time period, the news that 51 works from Attenborough’s collection will be sold at a Sotheby’s auction on November 11th may come as a nice surprise.

According to the Attenborough’s, the couple decided to sell the pieces because they do not have enough display space in their home for their entire collection. Some of the artists that are available for purchase are Graham Sutherland, Henry Moor, LS Lowry, Christopher Wood, and Barbara Hepworth.

Lord Attenborough spoke highly of the collection stating that some of the pieces have even inspired his work as a film director. This is not a small feat given that he has received three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards over his career.

Among the top pieces in the collection is the Lowry piece “Old Houses” which is a scene that shows men around a group of tired horses. Although the picture has a lot of motion in it, there is a general consensus that many of the men in the painting are unemployed.