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The scene at Sotheby’s during the auction. (Click to enlarge).

Picasso’s 1932 portrait of Marie-Thérèse, Femme Assise Près D’Une Fenêtre, made £28,601,250 to become the top lot at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale in London on February 5. The sale brought in £104,404,900. The Surrealist art sale realised £16,670,500 making a combined total of £121,075,400. This is the second highest total for an evening sale in London. It was exceeded only in 2010 when Giacometti’s Walking Man was the star lot.
Egon Schiele’s Lovers – self-portrait with Wally from 1914 made £7,881,250, a record for a work on paper by the artist. It was one of three works by Schiele from the Leopold Museum in Vienna sold to settle a restitution claim. They brought a total of £14,011,750 over an estimate of £9-12 million.
Helena Newman, Chairman, Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art, Europe, commented: “Tonight’s sale – which included museum-quality works and many that have never before appeared at auction, or have been in private collections for many years – drew buyers from across the world. Bidders, both new to the market as well as seasoned buyers, reacted with great enthusiasm, in particular to the selection of Impressionist works that were considered to be the strongest offering in many years.”

(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 16 and 18, 2013).

Portrait of Ingvild Goetz with Gabriel Orozco’s Invariant Diagram Red (Samurai Tree), 2005 – Photo Thomas Schmidt, Hamburg © Goetz Collection (Click to enlarge)

Urs Fischer (born 1973) Mr. Toobad (£250,000-350,000). Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013. (Click to enlarge).

A total of 128 works from the collection of Mrs. Ingvild Goetz – who holds Germany’s largest private collection of Post-War & Contemporary Art – are to be offered at Christie’s in London. They will feature at three auctions, two this month and one in April. Mrs. Goetz’s collection includes almost 5,000 objects which date from the late 1950’s to the present.
Proceeds will benefit long-term philanthropic projects. Mrs. Goetz has just completed a project to support children in Nepal and she wants to raise awareness of under represented charitable causes, including support for anorexia and the improvement of conditions for asylum seekers.
The selection to be sold at Christie’s features work by 63 different artists including Christopher Wool, Richard Prince, Urs Fischer and Sherrie Levine. They will be at Christie’s post war and contemporary auctions on February 13 and 14 and at the post war and contemporary sale in South Kensington on April 17.

Affordability is the key to Dolan’s art auction at Clontarf Castle Hotel in Dublin on Sunday, February 3.  The sale features work by a cross section of Irish artists at very reasonable estimates.  The catalogue, which is on-line, lists 188 lots. Here is a small selection:

Moonlight Cottages by Markey Robinson (1,400-1,600)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400

Howth Harbour by Ivan Sutton (1,500-2,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

Figure Standing by John Kingerlee (380-480).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 380

Waterfall I by Henry Morgan (380-450). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

Fuschia in Sunlight by Mat Grogan (300-600). UPDATE: THIS MADE 375

Swan and Woman, a black and white print by Pauline Bewick RHA (150-250).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 375

Haycocks near Ballyconneely, Connemara by Rosemary Carr ROI (400-600). UPDATE: THIS MADE 700

Campbell’s Chicken with Rice Soup ($50,000-70,000) © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. (Click to enlarge).

Self-Portrait with Fright Wig ($15,000-20,000) © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Bidding for the first on-line only auction of works by Andy Warhol opens at Christie’s on February 26. For one week only, until Tuesday March 5, collectors around the world can log in and bid online for 125 paintings, drawings, photographs and prints. Even though Andy Warhol is a Pop Art superstar this is a sale with something for everyone: estimates range from $600 to $70,000.
This will offer both seasoned collectors and first time buyers global access to work by Andy Warhol. The timed online format allows clients to browse, bid, receive updates by email or phone, organise shipping and pay from anywhere in the world.
Over the course of 2013 Christie’s will launch additional online-only sales of original works from the Warhol Foundation collection. This auction is the first time Christie’s has offered online-only sales of Post War and Contemporary art. The inaugural Andy Warhol at Christie’s live auctions in New York last November brought in $17 million. Proceeds from these and all subsequent sales benefit Foundation’s grant-making programs which support artists and non-profit arts organisations.

Online Auction Homepage: http://onlineonly.christies.com

Online Viewing: http://www.christies.com/warhol

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Man in Blue VI (£4-6 million) courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE £4,969,250

PETER DOIG (B. 1959) The Architect’s Home in the Ravine (£4-6 million) courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013. (Click to enlarge).  UPDATE: IT MADE £7,657,250, A NEW WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST.

Francis Bacon’s Man in Blue VI of 1954 is among the highlights at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary auctions in London on February 13 and 14. Dating from 1954 – the year Bacon represented Britain at the 27th Venice Biennale – Man in Blue VI is the penultimate work in a suite of Man in Blue paintings. It is estimated at £4-6 million. Three are in museum collections: Man in Blue I, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Man in Blue IV, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna and Man in Blue V, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Dusseldorf.
On offer are some important works created by celebrated British artists including Peter Doig, David Hockney, Damien Hirst and the fetishistic Pop artist Allen Jones. Last year Sotheby’s sold three furniture sculptures by Allen Jones estimated at £90,000-120,000 for £2.6 million. (See post on this website for May 14, 2012). One of them, from an edition of six, has now turned up at Christie’s. Hatstand from 1969 is estimated at £1.5 million. David Hockney’s Great Pyramid at Giza with Broken Head from Thebes, is a classic image by the artist commemorating his first trip to Egypt in 1963. Peter Doig’s The Architect’s Home in the Ravine recreates Canadian
architect Eberhard Zeidler’s modernist home at Rosedale in Toronto. Away from the Flock (Divided), a single sheep suspended in two minimalist tanks, was created by Damien Hirst in 1995, the same year he was awarded the Turner Prize. The auctions will feature a selection of European art from the 1950’s and includes significant works by Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Gerhard Richter.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 7, 2013).

THE first  on-line art auction of 2013 by Morgan O’Driscoll is nearing a close.  It continues until 7 p.m. on January 28.  The sale is on view in Skibbereen in west Cork. The catalogue, with current bidding, is on-line.   Here are some of the highlights. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

Brian Denington (b.1944) Still Life of Pear (600-800).

John Kingerlee (b.1936) Kilcatherine 2005 91,200-1,800).

Kenneth Webb RWA FRSA RUA (b.1927) West of Ireland Seascape (3,000-4,000).

Frank Egginton RCA (1908-1990) New Lake at Sunset, Donegal (1,500-2,000).

Mark O’Neill (b.1963) Kylemore Green (2,000-3,000).

Matt Grogan (20th/21st Century) Cafe in Venice (500-700).

The Sacrifice of Polyxena created in 1647 by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE 1.44 MILLION ERO.

A rediscovered painting by Charles Le Brun (1619-1690) to be offered at Christie’s sale of Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings in Paris next April 15 was hiding in plain sight at the Ritz. Louis XIV declared Le Brun to the greatest French artist of all time. His most important works are at Versaille and he was the originator of the Louis XIV Style. Painted in 1647 The Sacrifice of Polyxena – estimated at 300,000-500,000 euro – was recently recognised by the Ritz’s art adviser Joseph Friedman and fellow consultant Wanda Tymowska. It was in the Coco Chanel Suite. Archives have not revealed how the painting came to the hotel but it is possible that it was already in the 1705 townhouse when it was acquired by César Ritz in 1898. The Le Brun attribution has been unanimously supported by leading French museums.
Painted when he had newly returned to Paris from Rome the work displays the profound impact of the art of Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) on Le Brun’s style. It shows the artist’s fidelity in reproducing the antiquities of Imperial Rome, evident in the details of the bronze vase, tripod and marble sarcophagus that ornament the scene, and the incense casket, taken from a drawing made by Le Brun in Rome after an Antique prototype.

It will be on view at the Rockefeller Centre in New York from January 26-29.

UPDATE:  It was sold to the Metropolitan Museum in New York for 1.44 million euro.

Joan Miró’s rare work L’Echelle de l’évasion – “The Ladder of Escape? – leads Christie’s landmark Art of the Surreal sale in London on February 6.

Joan Miró’s rare work L’Echelle de l’évasion – “The Ladder of Escape” – leads Christie’s landmark Art of the Surreal sale in London on February 6. Painted in December 1939 whilst living in Normandy during the months of the so-called “phoney war” when France awaited a German invasion L’Echelle de l’évasion is the culmination of a series of new works marking Miró’s flight from the grim realities of Europe at that time. The “Ladder of Escape” was an important motif for Miró from the early 1920’s. It served as a potent metaphor for the artist’s escape from reality into the world of his art. L’Echelle de l’évasion is one of two works of this title. Making its first appearance on the market in almost 60 years it is estimated at £5-8 million. The other, a gouache from January 1940, is at MoMA in New York.
The auction presents significant work by leading names of the Surrealist movement, from René Magritte and Max Ernst to Paul Delvaux and Óscar Domínguez. Estimates range from £30,000 to £8 million, with a pre-sale estimate of £30,880,000 to £46,870,000, a 50% increase on last year’s pre-sale low estimate. This reflects the quality of the work on offer and the dynamic growth in market demand for Surrealism. Olivier Camu, Deputy Chairman, Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s said: “This pioneering movement of 20th century art now commands the attention of the global art market, with Christie’s auctions attracting new collectors each year from around the world and from other collecting areas, notably Contemporary art.”
Christie’s pre-sale estimates for Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist works offered in the February auctions range from a low of £115,216,300 to a high of £171,250,000.

Paul Delvaux (1897-1994) Les nymphes des eaux (£3-5 million) courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013.

Joan Miró (1893-1983) Femme (Femme debout) (£3-5 million) courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013.  UPDATE: THIS MADE £6,313,250

Óscar Domínguez (1906-1957) Machne à coudre électro-sexuelle (£1.3-1.8 million) courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013.  UPDATE: THIS MADE £2,113,250

René Magritte (1898-1967) Tous les jours (£1.8-2.5 million) courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013.  UPDATE: THIS MADE £1,721,250