The Macklowe Collection made a total $676.1 million at a white glove sale at Sotheby’s in New York last night. Highlights included Mark Rothko’s No. 7 which sold for $82.5 million, Albert Giacometti’s Le Nez which achieved $78.4 million, Jackson Pollock’s Number 17, 1951 which more than doubled its low estimate to achieve $61.2 million, a new artist record, and Cy Twombly’s monumental Untitledwhich sold for $58.9 million. The 35 pieces belonged to real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his former wife Linda. The pair were told to sell the collection and split the proceeds during their 2018 divorce trial.
Another exciting week of major international art sales in New York is in the offing. Next week it will be the turn of Sotheby’s to shine. The landmark sale of part one of Macklowe Collection takes place on November 15. The first of two sales will feature 35 works ranging in date from the 1940’s to art made less than a decade ago with masterworks by Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. The second part of the collection is to be offered in May 2022. The Modern evening auction on November 16 will be led by Claude Monet’s Coin de basin aux nympheas from 1918 and Frida Kahlo’s masterpiece Diego y yo (Diego and I) from 1949 which is poised to become the most valuable work of Latin American art ever sold at auction. Led by Yoshitomo Nara’s Nice to see you Again from 1996 the Now evening auction on November 18 focuses on art created during the last 20 years. It will be followed immediately by the Contemporary evening auction led by Basquiat’s Made in Japan II and Roy Lichtenstein’s iconic 1983 Two Paintings; Craig..
Andy Warhol – Sixteen Jackies from the Macklowe Collection. UPDATE: THIS MADE $33,872,250
Major works by Jack Yeats, Paul Henry, Roderic O’Conor, Sir William Orpen, Louis le Brocquy and Colin Middleton at de Veres on November 23 will kick off a sizzling winter season of Irish art auctions in Dublin and London. A very fine sale has been put together by de Veres with works they claim could grace any national collection. Viewing gets underway at Kildare St. on November 18 and the full catalogue is online now. A still life by Roderic O’Conor is signed and dated 1921 in which year it was exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. O’Conor still lives from these years were well received and were acquired by the French State (now the Musee d’Orsay), Roger Fry, Clive Bell, Somerset Maugham, Alden Brooks, Charles Hall Thorndike and the Contemporary Art Society. This one is estimated at €150,000-€250,000. Another highlight with a similar estimate is William Orpen’s After the Ball, a work of imagination based on the Venice Carnivale.
There are four oils by Paul Henry with Lakeside Cottages and Fishing Boats, Dugort each estimated at €200,000-€300,000. The auction features an across the board selection at varying price points.
A Welcome by Jack B Yeats at Sothebys. UPDATE: THIS MADE £226,800
A Welcome by Jack B Yeats will highlight Sotheby’s offerings at their flagship Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 23. Paintings of horses by Yeats, like this one, are particularly sought after. The auction will be followed by an online sale of Irish art on the same day. Over 70 works from Sotheby’s upcoming Irish art auction are on view at the RHA in Dublin this weekend. Viewing times are from 10 am to 5 pm today and 10 am to 3 pm tomorrow. The sale at Sotheby’s – supported by a global marketing campaign – will include property from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit.
Four Pears by William Scott (1913-1989) from 1976 leads a strong selection of work by Irish artists at Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale at New Bond St., London on November 24. Estimated at €180,000-€290,000 it has not been seen in public since 1980 when it was exhibited at Irish Art in the Seventies: The International Connection. Kieran O’Boyle, Bonhams representative in Ireland said: “This sale has a great representation of high quality works by Irish artists – from William Scott’s exquisite and subtle Four Pears to an archetypal Paul Henry and John Luke’s nostalgia filled Mountain Composition. Meantime Bonhams Modern British and Irish art sale in Knightsbridge on November 23 offers works by Patrick Hennessy, Pauline Bewick, Arthur Maderson, Graham Knuttel, Norah McGuinness, Markey Robinson and Augustus John. Whyte’s sale of Important Irish Art takes place in Dublin on November 29. The James Adam winter sale of Important Irish Art takes place on December 8.
THE 20th Century evening sale and the sale of the Cox Collection achieved a total of $751.9 million at Christie’s in New York last night. The Cox Collection made $332,031,500and was 100% sold, selling 160% against low estimate and 91% lots sold above high estimate. The 20th Century Evening Sale totaled $419,866,500, selling 92% by lot 96% by value, 113% sold against low estimate.
The Cox Collection was highlighted by three works by Vincent van Gogh. The sale was headlined by van Gogh’s 1889 masterpiece Cabanes de bois parmi les oliviers, which, after a five-minute battle between eleven bidders, sold for $71,350,000—the fourth highest price for the artist at auction—to a client in the room. The 1890 van Gogh oil painting Jeune homme au bleuet sold for $46,732,500 after nine and a half minutes of fierce and competitive bidding against a low estimate of $5,000,000. Van Gogh’s watercolor Meules de blé sold for $35,855,000 to a buyer in the room, setting a new record for a work on paper. Another exceptional price was achieved by Paul Cézanne’s L’Estaque aux toits rouges, which sold for $55,310,000 against a low estimate of $35,000,000. The Cox Collection sawglobal participation of bidders coming from 27 countries, with 52% sold by lot to the Americas, 35% to Europe and 13% to Asia.
Pablo Picasso – Mousquetaire à la Pipe sold for $34,710,000
The top lot at the 20th Century sale was Andy Warhol’s 1982 portrait of fellow artist Jean–MichelBasquiat from the collection of Peter Brant, which achieved $40,091,500. Notable results came from artworks spanning a multitude of genres, including Cy Twombly’s 1961 painting Untitled, which realised $32,000,000 and two Picasso paintings including Mousquetaire à la Pipe, which sold for $34,710,000—the highest price achieved for a work within Picasso’s Musketeer series—and 1955 portrait Femme accroupie en costume turc (Jacqueline) from the Stella Collection, which sold for $25,550,000.
The running total for Christie’s November marquee week of sales in New York stands at $971,176,750.
Jack Butler Yeats, The South Pacific, est. £200,000-300,000. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This fantasy 1937 oil on canvas – The South Pacific – by Jack B Yeats from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit goes on view in Dublin today as part of the preview for Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish art sale in London on November 23 and Sotheby’s online Irish art sale which runs from November 17-23. No less than 17 works from Sir Michael Smurfit’s collection are included. The sales feature many of Ireland’s most famous painters, including Jack B. Yeats, John Lavery, William Orpen, Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy and Gerard Dillon. Viewing times at the RHA are from 2pm – 5pm today, 10am-5 pm tomorrow and Saturday and from 10am-3pm on November 14.
Strong demand from collectors demonstrated confidence in the market on par with pre-pandemic levels at Christie’s 21st Century evening sale in New York. The auction was led by the monumental canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Guilt of Gold Teeth, 1982, which made $40,000,000 in a sale that brought in $219,278,750. The 100% sold auction attracted bidders from 27 countries, with 58% of lots selling above the high estimate.
BEEPLE (B. 1981) – HUMAN ONE Executed in 2021 and minted on 28 October 2021. This work is unique and is accompanied by a non fungible token. Christie’s Images Ltd., 2021
HUMAN ONE, the first hybrid physical and digital artwork by record-shattering NFT artist Beeple achieved $28,985,000. It sold online to a bidder based in Switzerland, underscoring the power of NFTs to break into masterpiece pricing. Another notable result was Peter Doig’s Swamped which made $39,862,500 and set a new auction record for the artist. The 20/21 Marquee Week of sales in New York continues on Thursday with The Cox Collection and the 20th Century Art evening sale with the Post War and Contemporary Art day sale on Friday.
Here is a video on After the Ball by Sir William Orpen, one of the highlights at de Veres sale of Outstanding Irish Art in Dublin on November 23. UPDATE: THIS MADE 310,000
Jack Butler Yeats, A Nor’ Western Town £350,000-550,000. UPDATE: THIS WAS BID TO £340,000 A REMAINED UNSOLD
A Nor’ Western Town by Yeats is the most expensively estimated Irish artwork at Sotheby’s upcoming sales of Irish art. The sales are being presented in two formats formats, ‘Modern British & Irish Art’ and ‘Irish Art’, as part of British and Irish Art sale week, uniting the best of Modern British, Scottish and Irish art.
The Irish works are highlighted by an important group of 17 paintings from The Collection of Sir Michael Smurfit, formed over the course of thirty years. This offering forms the second instalment of Irish works from Sir Michael’s collection to be presented at auction by Sotheby’s, following the sale of a group of pictures in the September 2020 Irish Art sale. The 17 works carry a combined pre-sale estimate of £1.1 – 1.7 million / €1.3 – 2 million.
In total, across both sales, over 70 Irish lots will be offered, spanning the 19th century to the present day and across media from paintings to sculpture to ceramics. The sales feature many of Ireland’s most famous painters, including Jack B. Yeats, John Lavery, William Orpen, Paul Henry, Louis le Brocquy and Gerard Dillon, alongside a diverse selection of works by exciting contemporary artists, such as Heaven is a Place on Earth by Jack Coulter, recently featured in Forbes’ ‘30 Under 30 Europe 2021/ Arts & Culture’. The majority of works on offer are emerging onto the market from long-held private collections, and many of them are making their first appearance at auction.
Modern British and Irish art, with nine Irish artworks, will feature at a live auction at Sotheby’s on November 23. An online auction of Irish art with 66 lots runs from November 17-23. They will be on display at the RHA in Dublin from November 18 – 23.
HERE is a video on Monet’s Coin de basin aux nympheas from 1918 which will lead Sotheby’s Modern evening sale in New York on November 16. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $50,820,000
Pablo Picasso – Mousquetaire a la pipe II at Christie’s UPDATE: THIS MADE $34,710,000
In the era of shredded Banksy’s the New York sales over the next two weeks art will be presented in an innovative way that has broken away from traditional sale categories like Impressionism and Contemporary Art. Artists from Banksy and Basquiat to Peter Doig and El Anatsui to Cindy Sherman and Arcadia will kick off the non traditional art sale season in New York at Christie’s 21st century evening sale on November 9. Arcadia is an NFT – non fungible tokens allow people to buy the rights to online art – by contemporary visual artist Andres Reisinger, Grammy award winning musician RAC and poet Arch Hades. Combining music, visual art and poetry this is the first collaborative interdisciplinary NFT to come to auction. RAC, who was born in 1985, is the oldest of the three. UPDATE: Arcadia sold for $525,000.
A year ago few of us had heard of NFT’s – now they are big business. In March US artist Beeple (aka Mike Winklemann born 1981) made worldwide headlines when an NFT of his digital artwork “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” sold for $63.9 million. Beeple is back at Christie’s on November 9 with an NFT called Human One. By September Christie’s had shattered the $100 million dollar barrier for NFT sales. UPDATE: HUMAN ONE SOLD FOR $28,985,000.
Sotheby’s has launched twice yearly sales of NFT’s. The jury is out on whether this is merely a temporary craze or a more permanent feature of the art market. The buyers of NFT’s, including cyber punks and crypto currency gazillionaires, tend towards the non traditional.
Christie’s say their global 20th/21st century auction series reflects evolving market demands and collecting habits. It is also helping to discover new works, physical and digital. The sale on Tuesday offers 39 lots with established contemporaries like Richard Prince and Christopher Wool being sold alongside new market darlings like Nicolas Party, Harold Ancart and Xinyi Cheng.
On November 11 Christie’s will offer The Cox Collection: The Story of Impressionism. With masterpieces by Caillebotte, Cezanne and Van Gogh this is billed as one of the greatest American collections ever to appear on the market. Dallas based Edwin Cox, who died aged 99 a year ago, spent his career in oil and gas exploration and was ceo of his own investment company. The auction will be followed immediately by the 20th Century evening sale. This ranges from Impressionism in Paris in 1880’s to Pop Art in New York in 1980’s with masterpieces by Picasso and Monet and a Warhol portrait of Jean Michel Basquiat.
Untitled IV by William de Kooning at Sotheby’s in New York on November 15. UPDATE: THIS MADE $18,935,250
On November 15 Sotheby’s will offer the Part One of the Macklowe Collection which they describe as one of the most important collections of any kind ever to appear on the market. The sale will include masterworks by Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. The Macklowes are a spectacularly rich warring New York couple in their ’80’s. A judge has ordered the sale of the collection as part of their protracted divorce proceedings. Sotheby’s Modern evening auction is to take place on November 16 and this will be followed two nights later by an evening auction called Now focusing on art made in the last 20 years.
