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    RARELY SEEN PICASSO MASTERPIECE AT CHRISTIE’S

    Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

    Picasso's Jeune femme endormie at Christie's. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £13,481,250.

    A rarely seen masterpiece by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) will feature at Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in London in June.  Jeune fille endormie, 1935, is an intimate portrait of the artist’s lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, the subject many of Picasso’s most celebrated pictures, and is expected to make £9 million to £12 million.

    The painting was given to the University of Sydney in 2010 by an anonymous donor on condition that it would be sold and that the University would dedicate the proceeds to scientific research.
    The sale takes place on the evening of June 21.  It is the first time this portrait will be offered at auction.
    UPDATE: IT MADE £13,481,250

    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on RARELY SEEN PICASSO MASTERPIECE AT CHRISTIE’S

    DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER AND POSTERS CAN BE FUN

    Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

    Diamonds are Forever concept artwork (left), detail (centre) and the final poster design (right).

    Diamonds are Forever and posters are pretty important too.  The original concept artwork for the poster campaign of the 1971 James Bond classic Diamonds Are Forever hand-painted by Robert McGinnis leads Christie’s sale of Vintage Film Posters in London on June 15. The unique prototype offers a rare chance to own an exceptional piece of James Bond memorabilia.  It is estimated at £18,000-24,000.

    The auction spans nine decades of film making with over 300 lots of promotional material. As well as James Bond posters, Dr. No through to Never Say Never Again, a rare advance British quad for Thunderball, 1965 (£6,000-9,000), original concept artwork for View to A Kill, 1985 (£4,000-6,000), and the final poster design used for  the Eon/United Artists production Diamonds are Forever (£300-500), the sale features cinematic genres from Film Noir to Disney.

    The selection includes Catherine Deneuve in Belle de Jour, 1967 (£300-500), Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1961 (£1,500-2,500), Elizabeth Taylor in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1958 (£300-500), Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita, 1959 (£4,000-6,000), as well as Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Lauren Bacall and many more.

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    ENGLISH ROYAL WEDDING, IRISH AUCTION, FRENCH BRANDY

    Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

    Stiff drink anyone? (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS MADE 220

    A 30 year old bottle of French brandy commemorating an English Royal wedding features at an Irish auction in May.
    Lot 469 at Mealy’s sale of fine and decorative art at Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny on May 4 is a Limoges container of Cognac Camus modelled as a book to commemorate the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana on July 29, 1981.  There are separate colour photos and drawings of the star crossed pair on the front and colour crests of the Prince and Princess of Wales on the back.  This limited edition – La Grande Marque No. 602 – is estimated at 120-180 euro.
    The 831 lot sale features furniture, paintings, jewellery, clocks, carpets, rugs, bronzes, overmantles, porcelain and a collection whiskeys and brandies.

    Markey Robinson (1918 - 1999) “Still Life with Jugs, or Flowers by the Sea,” at Mealy's. It is estimated at 3,000-4,000. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

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    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES | 1 Comment »

    PROVOCATIVE BEHAN INSPIRED BASELITZ’S GREATEST WORK

    Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

    GEORG BASELITZ (b. 1938) Die Grosse Nacht (The Big Night) Estimate: £2-3 million. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE £2,393,250

    BRENDAN BEHAN was the inspiration for a major highlight of the most significant collection of contemporary German art of the 1960’s and 1970’s ever to come to auction.  Sotheby’s offering of The Duerckheim Collection in June includes masterful works by Georg Baselitz, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke.  The sale in London is expected to bring in more than £33 million sterling.

    Sigmar Polke (1941-2010) Stadtbild II Estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000. (Click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE £4,633,250

    Georg Baselitz’s Die Grosse Nacht  (The Big Night) from 1962-63 is the most important German work of art of the post war period to come to the market.  It is the first of three paintings on this theme, one of which is housed in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne while the other is one long term loan at the Van Abbe Museum in Eindhoven.  When unveiled in 1963 at the artist’s first solo exhibition – the inaugural show of Michael Werner and Benjamin Katz’s gallery in West Berlin – it was confiscated by the Director of Public Prosecutions for “infringement of public morality”.  The artist and gallerists were fined.
    The work was inspired by a newspaper article about the Irish poet, Brendan Behan, who gave a reading of his poetry drunk on stage with his trouser flies open. For the artist the work represents the ultimate provocation, which he considers the ultimate and inevitable purpose of his painting.  Georg Baselitz has stated that perhaps he never has and never will make a finer painting than The Big Night Down the Drain. The work is estimated at £2-3 million.
    The 59 artworks in the Duerckheim Collection have not appeared on the market for over 30 years.  They will be offered at Contemporary Art evening and day auctions on June 29 and June 30.  The works include early photo paintings by Gerhard Richter and rare early works by Sigmar Polke, Blinky Palermo, Konrad Lueg, Jörg Immendorff and Eugen Schönebeck.
    UPDATE:  New artist records were established for Blinky Palermo, Sigmar Polke, Eugen Schönebeck, Markus Lüpertz and Georg Baselitz.  The Duerckheim Collection of contemporary German art, which comprised the first 34 lots, realised £60,401,650.

    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | Comments Off on PROVOCATIVE BEHAN INSPIRED BASELITZ’S GREATEST WORK

    A GIRL’S EXTRA VERY BEST FRIEND

    Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

    Rare emerald cut pink diamond at Sotheby's. (Click on image to enlarge).

    A pink diamond weighing 10.99 carats will be offered by Sotheby’s at its sale of magnificent and noble jewels in Geneva on May 17.
    Graded as “fancy intense pink” it is part of a rare subgroup of diamonds known as type IIa and comprising less than 2% of all of the world’s gem diamonds. Stones in this group are chemically the purest of all diamond crystals.
    This stone features a classic emerald cut, a style of cutting normally associated with white diamonds.  It is immensely sought-after when found in the rare colours such as pink and blue.
    Estimated at CHF 8.3-14.8 million ($9-16 million), this stone is being offered for sale from a private collection and has not appeared on the market for more than 30 years.
    UPDATE:  International jewellers Leviev outbid four underbidders to purchase the 10.99 carat diamond for CHF 9,602,500/$10,840,358, the third highest price for a pink diamond.  It was the  ninth highest price for a diamond at auction.

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    SALE OF CONTENTS FROM THREE CONVENTS

    Monday, April 25th, 2011

    The throne chair from the convent auction. UPDATE: IT MADE 900.

    One of the four Piranesi prints. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THE SET OF FOUR SOLD FOR 500.

    In Ireland in the 1990’s and a little bit beyond sales of contents  from former monasteries and convents were a regular feature on the auction scene.  Such sales are more rare nowadays.  So there is bound to be interest  in a single sale from three convents on Sunday May 1.
    The auction features objects from the Convents of Mercy in Cobh, Co. Cork and Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford  as well as from St. Marie’s of the Isle in Cork city. It will be held at St. Marie’s of the Isle in Cork city centre and will be conducted by P.J. O’Gorman auctioneer of Charleville, Co. Cork.
    It features a set of four large prints of Rome by Giovanni Battista Piranesi framed by the old Cork concern of Guy and Company.   There are library bookcases, Victorian and Regency dining tables, antique breakfast tables, a mahogany longcase clock by Mangan’s of Cork, a carved throne chair, display cabinets, a seven piece inlaid drawingroom suite, kneehole desks, four pianos, church pews, statues, brass and china among 416 lots.
    UPDATE:  The auction was almost a complete sellout with all but three lots finding buyers.

    Posted in ART, AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES, FURNITURE | Comments Off on SALE OF CONTENTS FROM THREE CONVENTS

    ZHANG DAQIAN’S CHILDREN PLAYING UNDER A POMEGRANATE TREE

    Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

    Zhang Daqian's Children Playing under a pomegranate tree (click to enlarge). UPDATE: This sold for 74,580,000 Hong Kong Dollars over a top estimate of 20,000,000 HKD.

    Zhang Daqian’s (1899 – 1983) Children Playing under a Pomegranate Tree is a highlight of Sotheby’s sale of the Mei Yun Tang Collection in Hong Kong on May 31.

    Zhang, whose name is also spelt as Chang Dai-chien  was the fourth highest selling  artist at auction globally in 2010, behind Picasso, Qi Baishi and Andy Warhol, and ahead of Giacometti.  He was one of the most prodigious and celebrated Chinese artists of the twentieth century.

    The Mei Yun Tang Collection is internationally recognised as the most preeminent and comprehensive private collection of Zhang Daqian’s paintings, assembled by the late Mr. Kao Ling-mei and his wife Jan Yun-bor since 1940s. All the works in this sale are offered on the market for the very first time.  They are masterpieces from the 1940s to the 1960s.
    Renowned in China as a “modern Impressionist and Expressionist painter”, he immersed himself in the art of the West, forming a particularly close tie with Pablo Picasso, whom he met in 1953, and to whom he gifted a set of his own brushes, in the hope that these would enable Picasso to paint as finely as he.
    The sale features 25 paintings from this collection, and is expected to fetch in excess of HK$130 million / US$ 16.7 million.  Children Playing under a Pomegranate Tree is estimated at HK$15 – 20 million / US$1.9 – 2.6 million.
    See antiquesandartireland.com post for April 7.
    UPDATE:  The sale of the Mei Yun Tang Collection realised 680,740,000 HKD,

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    INFORMER’S MEDAL RECALLS 1798 TREACHERY

    Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
    IRISH history is peppered with stories about informers. Vital information passed to the enemy cost many a battle. An 18 carat oval gold medal at the Adams-Mealy’s Independence sale recalls one such unhappy event.  It dates to the year the United Irishmen, influenced by the ideals of the American and French revolutions, rebelled against British rule. the 1798 Rebellion went on for several months.

    The Master Wardens and Brethren of the Guild of Merchants of Dublin presented this gold medal to the informer Thomas Reynolds in 1798..

    On October 15, 1798 this oval gold medal was presented to Thomas Reynolds (1771 – 1836) the 1798 Informer.
    Though he had inherited considerable wealth poor management and a profligate lifestyle led Reynolds to virtual bankruptcy.  He joined the United Irishmen, but became nervous about their plans. On St. Patrick’s Day, 1798, he betrayed the meeting of the Leinster Directory of the United Irishmen. The meeting, held at the Dublin house of Oliver Bond, was broken up and the conspirators arrested, Oliver Bond was later murdered in prison. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, warned of the raid, was absent at the time, but forced to become a fugitive. He was arrested by Major Henry Sirr in a house in Thomas Street on May 19, dying later of wounds suffered during his arrest, and left without treatment by the authorities.
    For this act of treachery Reynolds was paid £5,000 together with a pension of £1,000 per year for life, and a government posting. In addition he was presented by the city merchants with this gold medal and a gold freedom box, the whereabouts of which is unknown. Reynolds and his wife Henrietta – whose sister Maltilda had married Theobald Wolfe Tone who is widely regarded as the father of Irish Republicanism  – left the country after the trials of the United Irishmen. He obtained various diplomatic posts becoming Consul at Copenhagen in 1819.
    The medal sold for 15,000.
    See antiquesandartireland.com posts for April 16 and April 13.

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    de Vlaminck, Monet, Bonnard, Matisse, Picasso, de Chirico at Christie’s

    Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

    MAURICE DE VLAMINCK (1876-1958) Paysage de banlieue at Christie's, New York.

    Paintings and sculpture by masters Claude Monet, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, Pablo Picasso, and Giorgio de Chirico are a feature of Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern art in New York on May 4.  There are 57 exceptional works in a sale which is expected to realise more than $160 million.

    Head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s New York Conor Jordan said the London sales in February demonstrated that collector demand for top-quality works offered fresh to the market continues to reach new heights.
    Among the most visually-arresting paintings in the sale is Paysage de banlieue, a fauvist masterpiece by celebrated French painter Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958). He was among the leaders of the movement dedicated to revolutionizing 20th century art through the use of pure, unmodulated color and expressive brushwork. Paysage de banlieue, painted in 1905, is estimated at $18-25 million.
    Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger, version L is estimated at $20-30 million. It is one of the largest works within the artist’s groundbreaking series of 15 paintings created in 1955 in homage to the masterpiece of the same name by the 19th century master Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863).
    UPDATE:  DE VLAMINCK’S PAYSAGE DE BANLIEUE MADE $22,482,500

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    IAN HUMPHREYS STUDIO SALE IN WEST CORK

    Monday, April 18th, 2011

    A studio sale of the work of artist Ian Humphreys will be held by auctioneer Morgan O’Driscoll in Skibbereen, west Cork on Easter Sunday (April 24) at 4 p.m.  The British born (1956) artist and graduate of Exeter College of Art has work in a number of public and private collections.  He has lived on Heir Island off the west Cork coast since 1999.  The sale features 80 lots in a variety of media over dates from 1976 to 2010.

    There are no reserves.  Estimates are a guide. Here is a sample, click on any image to enlarge:

    UPDATE: All lots were sold in an auction that realised 120,000.  There were buyers from Texas, the UK, Holland, Germany and Ireland, some bidding on the internet.  The auction attracted a large crowd including people on holiday in west Cork for Easter.

    'Reencorren' by Ian Humphreys (est 800-1,400) UPDATE: THIS MADE 500 EURO.

    Ian Humpreys 'The Fisher King' (5,000-8,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,400 EURO.

    Ian Humphreys 'Juggling' (4,000-5,000) UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,300 EURO.

    Ian Humphreys 'Skeams' (400-500) UPDATE: THIS MADE 900 EURO.

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