Major works by some of the world’s most revered and expensive artists will come under the hammer at the big November art sales in New York. With work ranging from a major restituted masterpiece by Egon Schiele to a splash painting that promises to make David Hockney the world’s priciest living artist the sales of Impressionist and Modern and Contemporary and Post War art at Christie’s and Sotheby’s promise to create a splash of their very own.
Schiele’s masterwork, City in Twilight, the small city II will highlight Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale on November 12. Painted in 1913 it was purchased in 1928 by a young Jewish widow living in Vienna, Elsa Koditschek. The work was forcibly sold under the Nazi regime and is now offered as the resolution of a private restitution between the present owners and Elsa’s heirs.
David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures) at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary evening sale on November 15 is estimated in the region of $80 million and is poised to become the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold at auction.
Highlights from the Impressionist and Modern evening sale at Christie’s on November 11 range from Claude Monet’s Effet de neige at Giverny and one of 12 extant works of Le basin aux nympheas to Picasso’s Femme au beret orange et au col de fourrure (Marie-Therese).
Along with Hockney there are masterpieces by Pisarro, Rothko, Monet, Bacon and Rodin at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary evening sale on November 15.
Sotheby’s say that their Impressionist and Modern sale on November 12 promises to be among the strongest and boldest in recent history. Works on offer range from a floral composition by Monet to a painterly canvas showcasing Maurice Vlaminck’s Fauve period and Miro’s monumental pastel Figure. Magritte’s painting of Edward James is one of the most important Surrealist portraits to appear at auction in decades and will feature with newly discovered works by Renoir, Morandi and Rembrandt Bugatti.
The Contemporary Art evening sale at Sotheby’s on November 14 will offer works by Willem de Kooning, Frank Stella, Jeff Koons and many other leading contemporaries.
Egon Schiele’s City in Twilight, the small city II is at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $24.6 million
David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with two figures) at Christie’s UPDATE:THIS MADE $90,312,500
Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Rusts, Blacks on Plum) 1962 at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $35,712,500
Georgia O’Keeffe, Calla lilies on Red at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $6.3 MILLION