Peter Curling – A mistake by the leader. UPDATE: THIS MADE 16,000 AT HAMMER
A mistake by the leader is the arresting title of this oil on canvas by Peter Curling at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until May 12. Not the only leader to make a mistake, you cry. The oil on canvas by one of our most renowned painters of horse racing in action is estimated at €15,000-€25,000. It was previously with the Tryon Gallery in London before entering a private collection. The catalogue for the sale is online.
Roy Lichtenstein – Reflections: Art at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $5,479,000
In a tough year for the global art market the big May New York art sales this month are seriously slimmed down but nonetheless offer rich pickings for collectors with deep pockets untroubled by market turmoil.
Auction data, the only section of the opaque art market with sales that can be computed accurately, indicates that overall turnover declined last year for the third year in a row. At blue chip levels there are very few categories where the value of art has gone up in the past two years. Add global uncertainty, tariffs and changing collecting habits to the mix and … who can tell.
Piet Mondrian – Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Grey, Yellow, Black and Blue from the Riggio collection at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $47,560,000
Better news for collectors is that last year more art than ever was sold at auction – for less money. Record auction numbers for artworks at less than €500 or €1,000 is not what floats the boat at senior management levels at big auction houses and major international galleries but it does show that love for art is widespread.
A mere 37 lots will feature at Christie’s 20th century evening sale on Monday May 12 with 42 at the 21st century evening sale on May 14. There will be 65 lots at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction in New York on May 13 and 43 lots at the Now and Contemporary evening auction on May 15. Totals at both houses will be boosted by the sales of lots from the collection of gallerist Barbara Gladstone ($12 million – €10.52 million) along with works from the collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein (Sotheby’s) and selected works from the collection of Barnes and Nobel founder Len Riggio and his wife Louise (Christie’s) valued at $250 million (€219.20 million).
Paul Signac Saint George. Couchant (Venise) showing the facade of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice at Sunset at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $8,102,000
Art by Mondrian, Magritte, Picasso, Giacometti, Warhol from the Riggio Collection will excite the interest of worldwide collectors and has been toured in advance to London, Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai and Los Angeles. Len Riggio died last year and his widow is downsizing from her Park Avenue apartment.
The 21st century evening sale at Christie’s reflects the seismic shifts over the last 50 years in the art landscape. There is art by Jean Michel Basquiat, Ed Ruscha, Cecily Brown, Julie Mehretu, Simone Leigh, Lisa Brice, Louis Fratino and others.
The Modern evening auction at Sotheby’s features artworks that capture the spirit of artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who dared challenge established norms. There is work by Picasso, Giacometti, Magritte, Monet, Delauney, Schiele, Matisse, Munch and Signac included.
Lisa Brice – Midday Drinking Den, After Embah I and II at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $2,954,000
Kashmir sapphire and diamond tank ring. UPDATE: THIS MADE 550,000 AT HAMMER
A retro tank design sapphire and diamond ring will lead Adams sale of fine jewellery and ladies watches in Dublin on May 13. Sapphires from Kashmir have a distinctive tint known to experts at blue velvet which makes them particularly valuable. The cushion shaped sapphire in this ring weighs 6.22 carats and the lot is estimated at €150,000-€250,000. A total of 307 lots are on offer but there will be no internet bidding allowed on this one.
A stylish landau, byword for luxury transport in days of yore and still maintained as a State coach in countries like Canada, Japan and the UK, comes up at Sheppards sale in Durrow on May 13. The c1908 model by John Marston’s Carriage Works Ltd. of Birmingham with classical low shell and cover that can be let down is estimated at €8,000-€12,000.
With more than 700 lots the auction offers deaccessioned material from a private museum dedicated to Irish transport and rural life and another focused on Irish domestic and agricultural heritage. Along with an extensive range of horse-drawn vehicles, vernacular furnishings, agricultural tools, and architectural salvage are sugan chairs, settle presses, traditional utensils spanning farming and everyday life.
Among the highlights are a 1948 Jowett Javelin saloon, an original 19th century penny farthing bicycle, a black E494A Ford Anglia two door saloon, an early 19th century painted pine settle press used as a prop in the filming of The Banshees of Inisherin and a rare 18th century Irish ash dug out chair.
A rare 18th century dugout ash chair. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,700 AT HAMMER
GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED IL CANALETTO (VENICE 1697–1768) Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732
Canaletto’s breathtaking view of Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732, will lead Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on July 1 during Classic Week London (estimate in excess of £20 million). Having only appeared at auction twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993, this picture is in a remarkable state of preservation with the surface of the painting beautifully textured and the rich impasto of the figures intact. Inaccessible to scholars throughout much of its history, it has only recently come to light that the picture hung at 10 Downing Street, where it is first recorded in 1736, in the collection of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). This illustrious early 18th century provenance makes it – along with its pendant of the Grand Canal – the earliest recorded work by the Venetian master to be hung in an English house, predating King George III’s purchase of Consul Joseph Smith’s Canalettos by a quarter of a century.
Alberto Giacometti – Grande Tete Mince. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
This busted by Alberto Giacometti highlights the New York sales at Sotheby’s this month. The painted bust of the artist’s brother Diego comes up at the Modern evening auction on May 13 with an estimate of in excess of $70 million.
The sales will be a crucial test for the art market amid global economic uncertainty, where worries about tarriffs and stock market volatility have deepened the mood of caution.
Kite Over Clare Island I by John Shinnors sold for a hammer price of €36,000 over a top estimate of €20,000 at de Veres Design Auction in Dublin today. The oil on canvas laid on a board is signed and inscribed verso. From a private collection it was purchased at Carlow Arts Festival in 1997. Study for Homerton by Albert Irvin made €8,000, an Italian 1960’s wall of mirrors in six sections made €7,500, a Barcelona day bed by Mies van der Rohe made €6,000, Departure (White Water) by Hughie O’Donoghue made €10,000 and Disengage by Mark Francis made €9,000.
A carved marble head of a philosopher made €32,000 at hammer over an estimate of €1,000-€1,500 at the Library Collection sale at James Adam in Dublin today. It was described in the catalogue as possibly Roman period. The proportion is life size. It has been in a private collection in Ireland since the 1940’s. A carve marble stele on a shallow stepped based and with Latin text from the same collection made €20,000 at hammer. A 19th century Carrara marble carved bust of Julius Caesar on a pink marbled column made €9,500.
A letter written by a Titanic passenger days before the ship sank has been sold for a record-breaking £300,000 at auction. Colonel Archibald Gracie’s letter was purchased by an anonymous buyer at Henry Aldridge and Son auction house in Wiltshire on Sunday, at a price five times higher than the £60,000 it was expected to fetch.
Dated 10 April 1912, the day he boarded the Titanic in Southampton, it was posted when the ship docked in Queenstown, Ireland, on 11 April 1912. It was also postmarked London on 12 April. The letter had attracted the highest price of any correspondence written onboard the Titanic.
Col Gracie’s later wrote the book The Truth About The Titanic, recalling his experience onboard the doomed ocean liner. He survived by scrambling onto an overturned lifeboat in the icy waters. More than half the men who had originally reached the lifeboat died from exhaustion or cold, he wrote. Col Gracie survived the disaster but his health was severely affected by the hypothermia and physical injuries he suffered. He fell into a coma on 2 December 1912, and died two days later.
A silver Celtic Revival tea/coffee pot at Hegarty’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 440 AT HAMMER
From a finely crafted Celtic Revival silver pot to an advertisement for Rory Gallagher at the Carlton Cinema in Dublin in 1974 and Boehm porcelain hand painted plates and Waterford Crystal upcoming sales at Hegarty’s in Bandon, O’Donovan’s in Newcastlewest and Keighery’s in Waterford respectively offer a wide array of choice in a post Easter burst of auction activity.
Jewellery, silver, art and collectibles will come under the hammer at Hegarty’s online from 11 am on April 30. At O’Donovan’s in Newcastlewest a private collection of music memorabilia and contents from three pubs in an online only sale from 6 pm on April 28. One hour later, at 7 pm, the timed sale of porcelain, Waterford Crystal and collectibles at Keighery’s will draw to a close.
Rory Gallagher poster at O’Donovans. UPDATE: THIS MADE 140 AT HAMMER
