antiquesandartireland.com

The scene at Sotheby’s tonight.

Gerhard Richter’s Wand (Wall) was the top lot at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale today.  It made £17.4 million in a sale which brought in £87.9 million and attracted bidders from 40 countries.  Richter had kept the work in his own collection for 15 years and it was the third highest price for one of his paintings.  Cy Twombly’s Untitled (Rome), the second largest of his works, sold for £12.2 million after a prolonged bidding battle, significantly over the estimate of £5-7 million. This is an auction record for the artist.

CY TWOMBLY (1928 – 2011)
UNTITLED (ROME) Sold for a record £12,178,500

Andy Warhol’s red canvas Mao (1973) made £7.6 million.  This was almost 20 times what it made when last at auction in 2000 when it sold for £421,000.  Lucian Freud’s Head on a Green Sofa (1960-61) sold for £2.9 million and a rediscovered work by Frank Auerbach, Morning – Mornington Place, sold for £1.8 million.  Tenor from 1985 by Jean Michel Basquiat made £4,338,500 and Rosso Plastica by Alberto Burri sold for £3,666,500.  

German works brought strong prices:  Sigmar Polke’s Rokoko made £2,546,500; Martin Kpppenberger’s Egg Woman made £1,818,500 and Thomas Struth’s Self Portrait sold for £482,500.

Here is a video from Sotheby’s on Richter’s Wand.

Here is a video in which Ian Whyte talks about Walter Osborne’s Sunshine and Shadow, (La Rue de l”Apport) Dinan, 1883 which is lot 35 in the Dublin sale of Irish and British Art at Whyte’s on February 24.  It is estimated at 70,000-90,000.  UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR 69,000

THE rich tend to go shopping in a recession so why are more of them not buying Irish art, contemporary and classic?  This question is a teasing one, especially in a week when the London contemporary art sales have already started to deliver new records for Italian art.  In Ireland the quality is there and so are the bargains.  There is value in the market. The purchase by Donald Trump of Doonbeg Golf Course on the west coast in County Clare is the latest in a series of high profile investments by wealthy non-nationals in Irish assets.  Fota Golf Club in Cork, venue for the Irish Open Golf Championships this year, has been bought by a Chinese investor. The market for Irish art has not benefitted as much as it could have from this trend. The internet is undoubtedly delivering new collectors and buyers to Irish auctioneers, but anecdotally much of this tends to be led by the Irish abroad.  

An opportunity to redress this arises at Whyte’s sale of Irish and British art in Dublin on February 24.   There are 216 lots on the catalogue.  It includes works by Walter Osborne, Sir John Lavery, Dan O’Neill, Louis le Brocquy, Gerard Dillon, Leo Whelan, Harry Kernoff,  Barrie Cooke, Cecil King, Markey Robinson, Frank McKelvey, James Arthur O’Connor, William Sadler and George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson.  Here are some examples.  The catalogue is online.

FIGURES BY A RIVER by James Arthur O’Connor (8,000-10,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

ANCESTRAL HEAD, 1965 by Louis le Brocquy (35,000-45,000).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

A LADY IN WHITE (A PORTRAIT OF LADY LYLE) by Sir John Lavery (30,000-50,000).  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR 27,900

Alberto Burri’s Combustione Plastica (1960-1961) sold for £4,674,500.

Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Lei e Lui – Maria e Michelangelo sold for £1,986,500

THE richness of Arte Povera kicked off a week of contemporary sales in London at Christie’s last night.   The Italian contemporary art sale entitled Eyes Wide Open: An Italian Vision set a benchmark for Arte Povera and realised £38,427,400 million.  The top lot was Alberto Burri’s Combustine Plastica which made £4,674,500.  There were record prices for 13 artists incuding Burri, Fabro, Kounellis, Merz and Pistoletto.

The Post War and Contemporary evening auction at Christie’s tomorrow includes masterpieces by Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter and Jeff Koons.  The entire sale is expected to realise £87-105.7 million.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for Friday, January 17).