antiquesandartireland.com

The crowded Hong Kong saleroom.

The Last Supper (2001) by Zeng Fanzhi. (Click on image to enlarge).

THERE  was a new record for a work by a living Chinese artist and eleven records were smashed at Sotheby’s 40th anniversary evening sale in Hong Kong on October 5.  The sale achieved US$145,188,462 over a pre-sale high estimate of $85 million.  No less than eleven artists records were established.  The top lot was Zeng Fanzhi’s  The Last Supper which made $23,273,151, a new record for a work by a living Chinese artist and a record for a work of contemporary Asian art.

It was standing room only in a saleroom crowded with nearly 700 people.  Bidding by phone and on the net came from 25 countries.  The auction achieved the highest total for any comparable sale in Asia  across the categories of  20^th Century Chinese Art, Contemporary Asian Art and Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art.   Five bidders competed for more than fifteen minutes for Zeng Fanzhi’s The Last Supper, a 2001 oil-on-canvas.

The record breaking run continued on October 6 when 20^th Century Chinese Art brought in US$96 Million and  Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art achieved US$29 Million.  Both auctions made records for a sale in the category.

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for September 5, 2013 and August 12, 3013)

A selection of affordable Irish art comes under the hammer at Dolans sale in the Pillo Hotel, Galway on Sunday October 13.  Around 190 lots, including a number of antiques and collectibles, will come under the hammer.  Here is a small selection. The catalogue is online.

Manus Walsh – TOWARDS THE RINE, BURREN COAST (400-600)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 400

Kenneth Webb – FLOWERS ON THE BOG (6,000-8,000)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,000

Val Byrne – SWEENEY’S PIER (500-700)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 650

Norman Teeling – The Blue Room (650-850)  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

David ffrench le Roy – CHARDONNAY & CHEESE (600-800) UPDATE: THIS MADE 575

Elizabeth Brophy – In the Meadow (1,000-1,200) UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Giacometti’s Grande tete de Diego will lead Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on November 6.  Estimated at $35-50 million this is the most ambitious in a series of innovative sculptures by the artist that personified the Existentialist movement during the Cold War.  The artist’s younger brother Diego served as model for this work.

Picasso”s Tete de femme from 1935, depicting his young lover and muse Marie-Therese Walter, is another highlight of the auction.  One of the most vibrant examples of his celebrated series depicting Marie-Therese it is estimated at $20-30 million.  Both pieces will travel to Hong Kong, London and Moscow this autumn before returning to New York. (Click on either image to enlarge).

Alberto Giacometti Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego) ($35-50 million)  UPDATE: IT MADE $50,005,000

Pablo Picasso Tête de femme ($20-30 million). UPDATE: IT MADE $39,925,000.

Andy Warhol (1928-1987) Coca-Cola [3] casein on cotton courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd. 2013. (Click to enlarge).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $57,285,000

“What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coca Cola, Liz Taylor drinks Coca Cola, and just think, you can drink Coca Cola, too. A coke is a coke and no amount of money can get you a better coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.”  Andy Warhol .

“At a time when international top collectors are looking for blue-chip masterpieces, nothing is more iconic than the remarkable hand-painted Coca-Cola by the master of Pop Art, Andy Warhol. Coca Cola (3) is one of the artist’s earliest works which defines the Pop generation. This museum quality work has been in one of the most important Warhol collections for almost two decades”, declared Brett Gorvy, Christie’s International Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art.

UPDATE:  THIS SOLD FOR $57,285,000.

Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941)
THE LADY PARMOOR, 1919 SOLD FOR 50,000 AT WHYTE’S

Sir John Lavery’s 1919 portrait The Lady Parmoor was the top lot at Whyte’s sale of Irish art in Dublin on September 30.  It sold at hammer for the top estimate of 50,000.  The subject, Marian Cripps would go on to lead the World YWCA and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.  At the end of her life she spoke out against the use of nuclear weapons.

Paul Henry RHA (1876-1958) AN ACHILL BOG, c.1928-1930 sold for 42,000

Her radicalism was a family tradition.  Her mother, Maria Rowtree, was from the eminent Quaker philanthropist dynasty from York.  The family’s philanthropy was a direct result of her uncle, Joseph Rowntree’s encounter at the age of 14 with victims of the Irish famine.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 22, 2013)