Sotheby’s new galleries inside the legendary Breuer building on Madison Avenue will open this weekend in New York. Longtime admirers of the Breuer which opened in 1966 as the original Whitney Museum will find lead architects Herzog & de Meuron have preserved everything that makes the building glorious. The lobby lights, the bluestone floors, the bush-hammered concrete walls, the trapezoidal windows – they’re all there, revitalised.
Exhibitions are free and open to the public. Sotheby’s will unveil the stunning art coming up in the New York Sales which will run from November 18-21 with the Leonard Lauder collection leading the way with a trio of masterworks by Klimt. The Breuer opening will culminate a banner year for Sotheby’s which has just completed the best third quarter in its 281-year history. Recent art sales in London and Paris totalled over $325m, with a 95% sell through rate and 74% of lots selling above the high estimate.
This c1855 map of Ireland is at Mullen’s auction of the Lord O’Neill collection of railwayana live and online auction on November 10. It was made by Richard Griffiths to accompany the report of the Railway Commissioners and shows the principal physical and geological structure of the country. Hand coloured and in a period leather slipcase the map is in fine condition and rare. The estimate is €1,000-€2,000. More than 730 lots will come under the hammer. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,100 AT HAMMER
This pair of c1770 cast, chased and engraved Dublin George III candlesticks by the Dublin maker Richard Williams made a hammer price of €40,000 at auction in Germany on November 1. They were sold at Auktionshaus Owl at Bielefeld. The richly decorated baluster shafts feature disc nodes, vase-shaped sockets, and round bases on square, slightly profiled plinths. Each candlestick is lavishly decorated with acanthus leaves, palmettes, fluting, oblique lines, meander bands, and beaded edges and bears the seated Hibernia mark, the Dublin city mark of a crowned harp, the date letter “X,” and the maker’s mark “R·W” on the rim. The bases are engraved with weights in ozs “42-19” and “41-12,” respectively. Each candlestick measures 34.2 cm in height.
A 19th century mural thangka UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
More than 400 lots of fine Asian art including some real rarities will come under the hammer at James Adam in Dublin on November 12. A 19th century Tibetan thangka or Buddhist temple painting leads the sale. The work on silk shows a four armed deity Padmapani, a personification of compassion in Buddhism. Most likely created for enshrinement on the wall of a large and significant monastery it is estimated at €60,000-€80,000. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Designed by Dublin based Heneghan Peng architects so that the visitor moves through a sequence of spaces to gradually transition from the contemporary world back into the world of the Pharaohs the Grand Egyptian Museum opens fully in Cairo on November 4. The world’s largest archaeological museum is packed with some 100,000 artefacts covering some seven millennia of the country’s history from pre-dynastic times to the Greek and Roman eras. It displays the entire contents of the intact tomb of the boy king Tutankhamun, with its spectacular gold mask, throne and chariots shown together for the first time since its discovery by British Egyptologist Howard Carter. The vast museum complex – about the size of 70 football pitches – is expected to attract up to eight million visitors a year, giving a huge boost to Egyptian tourism. The grand staircase culminates with a view of the pyramids and allows visitors to navigate the museum. Located near the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza at the edge of the desert plateau between the pyramids and Cairo the exterior is covered in hieroglyphs and translucent alabaster cut into triangles with a pyramid shaped entrance.
Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $236.4 MILLION
With Klimt, Calder, Kahlo, Magritte, Rothko and Van Gogh among headliners at sales by Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York this month the global art market is not short of exciting promise. Leading lights like this ensure that the market for art will never be dull even when it is in a state of flux.
There is resilience in the face of global uncertainty and looming threats like war, inflation and market collapse. The November sales have been carefully assembled. Many of the major works on offer have been exhibited at leading museums or come from major collections like that of Leonard Lauder at Sotheby’s. This reflects the fact that the focus of the market is less speculative than in headier times.
A masterpiece by Klimt – the striking full length ‘Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer’ – leads the auction series and could bring in as much as $150 million. The sale of the Lauder collection on November 18, described by the auctioneers as a once in a generation collection of 20th century masterpieces, will inaugurate Sotheby’s new global headquarters at the Breuer Building, formerly the Whitney Museum. The cosmetics magnate, who died aged 92 last June, donated around $1 billion worth of Cubist art to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Painted Wood by Alexander Calder at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $20,415,000
Painted Wood, the most significant constellation work by Alexander Calder, is a leading highlight at Christie’s 20th Century evening sale on November 17. Measuring nearly seven feet in height and width it is the largest of his early painted wood mobiles to come to auction. The wood, string, wire and paint construction made in 1943 is guiding at $15 million – $20 million (€17.25 million – €25.87 million) the highest ever auction estimate for a Calder.
Sotheby’s will offer the Cindy and Jay Pritzker collection of Modern and Impressionist art with Van Gogh’s Romans parisiennes (Les Livres jaunes) – Parisian novels (the yellow books) – from 1887 at its heart. The collection features a monumental triptych by Matisse of Leda and the Swan and a Pont-Aven canvas by Gauguin. Frieda Kahlo’s psychologically charged El sueno (La cama) – The Dream (the bed) – is an intimate meditation on identity and mortality from an important private collection of Surrealist art. There are pioneering visions by Dorothea Tanning, Kay Sage, Remedios Varo and Valentine Hugo and other artists whose work expanded the range of Surrealism.
Frieda Kahlo El Sueno (La Cama) – The Dream (the bed) at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $54.7 MILLION
Picasso, Mondrian, Rothko, Matisse, Franz Kline, Miro, Max Ernst and Braque feature in the Weis collection in a dedicated sale at Christie’s on November 17. This will precede the 20th century evening auction celebrating vangard artists from the Parisian studios of the Impressionists to the downtown lofts of post war New York. The sale offers masterpieces by Monet, Renoir, Chagall, Picasso, Leger, Calder, Richard Diebenkorn and David Hockney with monumental sculptures by Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi and David Smith.
The 21st century evening sale at Christie’s on November 19 offers masterworks from the past 60 years including standout works by Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol.
Piet Mondrian – Composition with red and blue 1939-1941 from the Weis collection at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $23,060,000
An antique Victorian copper bath tub and warmer UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,160 at hammer
An antique Victorian copper bathtub is among the highlights at Aidan Foley’s three day sale in Doneraile on November 3, 4 and 5 at 6 pm each day. From a period house in Mitchelstown and complete with traditional jug warmer it is estimated at around €1,000. This auction, now on view, offers an outstanding collection of highly sought after automobilia and pub memorabilia including a Texaco double sided forecourt sign from the 1960’s along with antique furniture, rugs, silver and jewellery. The catalogue is online.
This History of the Life of James Duke of Ormonde (1610-1688) by Thomas Carte is at Hegarty’s online sale in Bandon on November 5. James Butler, Duke of Ormonde was an important Irish statesmen and soldier, the 12th Earl and 1st Duke of Ormond known as the ‘Great Earl’. Butle was born at Clerkenwell, London, in 1610, in the house of his grandfather, Sir John Poyntz. His parents returned to Ireland shortly after his birth. He succeeded to the earldom in 1633 and was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland six times. He arranged a cease fire with Irish rebels in 1643 and offered a treaty in 1646 which granted religious tolerance to Catholics. He fought for the king in the senate and the field until 1650, when he retired to France. He played an important role in the restoration of Charles II and was afterwards created Marquis and Duke by him. He retired to Dorset and died there in 1688. The two volume set was published in London in 1736 it was printed for J. J. and P. Knapton; G. Strahan; W. Innys and R. Manby; F. Giles; and T. Wotton. It is estimated at €200-€400.
A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape, attributed to Basawan made £10.2 million.
There was a world record for a Mughal painting at Christie’s when this c1575-80 painting attributed to Basawan made £10.2 million (€11.6 million). This was 14 times over estimate. The auction of exceptional paintings from the personal collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan achieved £45.7 million (€52.2 million) and was 100% sold.
PAIR OF CHINESE CLOISONNÉ ENAMELLED CENSERS. UPDATE: THESE MADE €1,900 at hammer
This pair of Chinese cloisonné enamelled censers will be included in Sheppards sale of a private collection of Asian art on November 5. A total of 155 lots will be sold without reserve. Estimated at €8,000-€12,000 the censers are among the highlights of the sale. The catalogue is online and the auction will be on view in Durrow on November 3 and 4.
