antiquesandartireland.com

Works by Munch, Rembrandt, Picasso, Basquiat and Warhol will feature at Sotheby’s sale of Prints and Multiples in London on September 17.  The auction will be led by several rare woodcuts by Edvard Munch, an offering concurrent with the series of exhibitions in Oslo marking the 150th anniversary this December of the artist’s birth.  Rembrandt is represented by a selection of etched self-portraits spanning the years from 1630-1642. The sale will include a selection of over 100 ceramics by Picasso.

Further highlights include work by Joan Miro and Louise Bourgeois.  Here is a small selection from the sale:

UPDATE: THE sale brought a total of £5,284,600 ($8,408,856), exceeding the pre-sale high estimate (£3,056,700 – 4,298,800  / $4,863,821 – 6,840,251), and was 91.6% sold by lot and 94.3% sold by value.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) Untitled, screenprint, 1982 (£3,500-5,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE £11,250

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669) Self Portraitn leaning on a stone sill, 1639 (£8,000-12,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE £27,500

Edvard Munch (1863 – 1944) EVENING, MELANCHOLY I, woodcut (£550,000-750,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE £962,500

Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog (Orange), one of the most recognizable images in today’s canon of art history, will come up at Christie’s in New York on November 12.  This spectacular artwork has graced the rooftop of New York’s Metropolitan Museum, Venice’s Grand Canal and the Palace of Versaille outside Paris.  It is an icon of popular culture, loved for its celebration of childhood, hope and innocence.

It is estimated to  make $35-55 million at Christie’s sale of Post War and Contemporary Art.  Balloon Dog (Orange) is expected to surpass the artist’s current record of $33.6 million, established in 2012 by Christie’s New York with Koons’ chromatic Tulips (now on display at the Wynn Casino Las Vegas), and is set to make history for the sale of a work by a contemporary artist. Balloon Dog (Orange) is part of the Brant Collection and proceeds from the sale will be used to help fund future activities of The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich, CT.

UPDATE:  IT SOLD FOR $58,405,000 MILLION, THE MOST EXPENSIVE WORK BY A LIVING ARTIST EVER SOLD AT AUCTION.

Red Flag I (1971) by Chen Yifei. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $10,210,156 US.

The Last Supper (2001) by Zeng Fanzhi. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $23,273,151 US, A WORLD RECORD FOR A WORK OF ASIAN CONTEMPORARY ART.

Icons of modern and contemporary Chinese art from the collection of Baron and Baroness Guy and Myriam Ullens de Schooten, renowned collectors and philanthropists based in Switzerland, come up at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on October 5.  The two works are Red Flag I (1971) by Chen Yifei and The Last Supper (2001) by Zeng Fanzhi.  They are estimated respectively at US$5.8-7.7 million and in excess of US$10.3 million.

The Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation was established in Switzerland in 2002, sponsoring exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art in Europe and China and loaning works of art from their collection to museums worldwide.

Stephen McKenna’s Basket and Vessels.

Stephen McKenna’s Basket and Vessels was the top lot at the James Adam sale of the Anglo Irish Bank collection in Dublin on September 3.  It made 17,000 over an estimate of 8,000-12,000. The sale brought in 281,000 and was more than 90 per cent sold.

James Adam is delighted with the result, saying: “it once again proves the point that collections with interesting provenance are very much sought after by Irish collectors”.

See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 22, 2013.

Normally the sale of a corporate art collection is signalled well in advance.  Not so in the case of the former Anglo-Irish Bank, which has cost the Irish taxpayer an estimated 25 billion.  The banks collection is to be sold with what appears to be undue haste.   Auctioneers James Adam will conduct the sale in Dublin on September 3.  This has only just been announced. Estimates, which range from 50 to 12,000, are on the low side. On offer are 134  works by Stephen McKenna, Louis le Brocquy, Pauline Bewick, Felim Egan, Martin Gale and other artists. The entire collection is worth an estimated 150,000.  Anglo previously donated 18 artworks to the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

After its collapse it was re-named the IBRC. It was put into liquidation in February and the sale is being carried on the instructions of the liquidator, KPMG.  A question mark remains over the wisdom of putting a collection which includes many leading Irish art names on the market at this short notice just before the autumn selling season proper for Irish art gets underway. Ireland remains mired in recession and the Irish art market, though it has shown itself to be suprisingly resilient, cannot be described as buoyant right now.

Here is a small selection. The catalogue is on-line.

UPDATE:  A total of 93 per cent of 134 lots sold and achieved 281,000, twice the expected minimum.  The highest price of 17,000 was paid for Stephen McKenna’s Basket and Vessels.The six paintings by Pauline Bewick, depicting Irish wildlife made a combined total of €44,900. Sean Scully’s etchings all sold well over estimate with his ‘Raval No 1’ making the top price of €6600.

Martin Gale RHA (b.1949) His Land (5,000-8,000).

Pauline Bewick (b.1935) The Irish Hare Acrylic (3,000-5,000).

Stephen McKenna PRHA (b.1939) Basket and Vessels (8,000-12,000).