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Gino Severini (1883-1966)  – La Modiste 1915 (400,000-600,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 421,500

A selection of rare works on paper from the Triton Collection Foundation, spanning over three centuries of art history, will be offered at Christie’s in Paris and London in 2015 and early 2016.  The sales will begin with a single owner evening sale of 49 works in Paris on March 25 during the Salon du Dessin.   The collection includes works by Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cézanne, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, Gino Severini, Odilon Redon, André Derain and Salvador Dalí. Many will be offered at auction for the first time.

The privately owned Triton Collection Foundation holds one of the most important collections of the 19th and 20th Century avant-garde art in private hands worldwide. The Triton Collection was built over twenty years by Rotterdam oil and shipping magnate Willem Cordia and his wife Marijke van der Laan.  The Foundation was formed in 2011 after his death. It comprises a few hundred works from three centuries of global art from Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Vincent Van Gogh to Yves Klein, Gerhard Richter, Ellsworth Kelly, Marina Abramovich, and Ai Weiwei. The collection is accessible to the public through a continuing programme of loans to over seventy museums worldwide as diverse as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, the Seoul Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“The Cordia family has generously shared its collection with others for many years. They are famed for the care they take to only invest in the very finest examples of an artist’s work. The selection of works on paper which form the Paris single owner sale represents one of the most outstanding groups of drawings from the European avant-garde art to come to market for very many years. To emphasise this once in a lifetime opportunity for international collectors and the unique provenance, buyers will be able to have works marked with a stamp, registered with the Lugt Foundation that certifies The Triton Collection Foundation’s previous ownership” said Tudor Davies, Head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s Paris.

“Although the core of the Triton Collection Foundation’s collection will remain intact, we don’t part easily from these carefully selected works. However, no living art collection is ever static, moreover it needs to be able to adapt to on-going artistic development and innovation. Triton intends to use its new acquisitions to remain at the forefront of European collections and a home for the avant-garde, which we shall continue to share with the public in its widest form” explained the Cordia Family, the founders of the Triton Collection Foundation.

UPDATE: The sale brought in 9.8 million euro and was 100% sold by lot.

Fernand Leger – Danseuse au tambourin 1954 (250,000-350,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 673,500

Pablo Picasso – La boija 1900 (300,000-500,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2014  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 361,500

The most significant collection of French 17th and 18th century paintings at auction for the past 20 years comes up in Paris on March 26.  Sotheby’s, in association with Artcurial and the Cabinet Eric Turquin will offer the  Louis Grandchamp des Raux Collection.

Built up over more than 25 years, this magnificent group of 50 paintings provides an overview of 17^th and 18^thcentury French painting with works from the greatest masters of the period, such as François Boucher, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, François Desportes and one of the very few acclaimed female painters of the time, Anne Vallayer-Coster. The auction is expected to fetch over €5 million.

Anne Vallayer-Coster
Portrait of a sitting woman with a violin
Signed and dated Melle Vallayer / 1773 (300,000-400,000).

Louise Moillon
Still life with peaches in a pewter charger, on a shaving wood box
Signed and dated on the box Louyse Moillon 1634 (400,000-600,000).

Pierre-Antoine Lemoine
Still life with dish of peaches, grapes and chinese potiche on a stone ledge (150,000-200,000).

A remarkable assemblage of Dutch and Flemish paintings comes up at Sotheby’s in New York next April.  The Weldon Collection, with more than 70 works, is expected to bring in around $30 million.  It was assembled by the late Henry and June “Jimmy” Weldon over several decades.

Their collecting journey began in the 1960s with an initial focus on 17^th century Dutch and Flemish pictures, seeking out works by Balthasar Van der Ast, Rachel Ruysch and Ambrosius Bosschaert.  Over the years, as their taste broadened, they added remarkable gems including an early still life by the German artist Ludger Tom Ring the Elder, a pair of paintings by Jean-Antoine Watteau and an extraordinary collaborative work by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Younger. Yet, their love of the Dutch Golden Age remained a constant with masterworks by Hendrick Avercamp and Aelbert Cuyp entering the collection within the last decade. They also collected Asian art and Staffordshire pottery.  Highlights will be toured to London and Amsterdam before the auction on April 22.

Anthony van Dyck
Portrait of Martin Ryckaert ($700,000-900,000)

Balthasar van der Ast
Roses, a lizard, a butterfly, and a grasshopper on a ledge ($400,000-600,000)

Adriaen Coorte
Wild strawberries on a ledge ($800,000-1.2 million)

Claude Monet – Le Grand Canal.  UPDATE: IT MADE £23.67 MILLION

An exceptionally rare view of Venice by Monet will lead Sotheby’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London on February 3.  Le Grand Canal dates to 1908 and is estimated £20-30 million. It has been exhibited around the world.  It was at the National Gallery in London for eight years to 2014 and previously at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth and the Royal Academy in London.

Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head, Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide, said: “The market for works by Claude Monet has now reached an all-time point of strength, with bidders coming from four times as many countries as a decade ago. Reflecting the outstanding quality and beauty of the work, Le Grand Canal was prominently displayed for eight years at The National Gallery, London. Given the painting’s rarity and exceptional quality, and the strong price of £19.7m achieved when we sold Monet’s Venice view Le Palais Contarini in 2013, we anticipate enthusiastic global interest prior to the sale in February.”

The painting has already been toured to Taipei. It will be in Hong Kong from January 9-12 and New York from January 21-23.

Modern, Surrealist and Post-War works from a private European collection  will come up at Christie’s in London on February 4.  The collection showcases important examples by Modigliani, Miró, Magritte, Delvaux, Picasso, Giacometti, Moore, Fontana and others. The group is led by Joan Miró’s L’oiseau au plumage déployé vole vers l’arbre argenté, 1953 (£7-9 million) and Amedeo Modigliani’s Les deux filles, 1918 (£6-8 million). The full collection of 31 Modern, Surrealist and Post-War works of art is expected to realise a combined final total in excess of £64 million.

Olivier Camu, deputy chairman, Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s said that the collection spans the personal collection journey of a private collector over almost half a century from the 1960’s. “This collector’s discipline has always been to focus on quality rather than quantity, thus every painting and work in this collection is a signature work for the artist in question”.  Pictured below from left to right is Miro’s L’oiseau, Femme de Venise V by Giacometti, Les Deux Filles, a rare double portrait by Modigliani and Les Compagnons de la Peur 1942 by Rene Magritte, which centres on the subject of transformation with four owls transforming from bird to plant world or vice versa.

Works from the collection by Miro, Giacometti, Modigliani and Magritte.