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Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
Untitled (No. 11) Painted in 1957. Courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2013  UPDATE: SOLD FOR $46,085,000

A stunning orange Rothko comes up at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art evening auction in New York on November 12. Untitled (No. 11) from 1957 has featured in museum retrospectives including  the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the Neue National-Galerie in Dusseldorf and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

It is estimated at $25-35 million. This is probably highly conservative.  There was an identical estimate on Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow from the Pincus Collection, which sold for a record $86.8 million at Christie’s New York in May 2012.

Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christie’s said: “The demand for masterworks by Rothko is probably the most international amongst all the artists we sell, with strong bidding consistently from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Russia and the Middle-East. Untitled (No. 11) is remarkable for its incredible beauty, intensity of color and inner light – the very hallmarks of Rothko’s prime period. The monumental scale allows viewers to be completely enveloped by the colors and its sensations.”

UPDATE:  THIS SOLD FOR $46,085,000

Caspar David Friedrich Blick auf Arkona, Rügen (View towards Arkona, Rügen)

Blick auf Arkona, Rügen (View towards Arkona, Rügen), a lost drawing by German artist Caspar David Friedrich known only from an archive photograph, has resurfaced on the international market.  Sotheby’s will present the drawing as a highlight of a sale of 19th century European paintings in London on November 20.  It is estimated at £200,000-300,000.

Tessa Kostrzewa, director, Sotheby’s 19^th century European Paintings department, said: “It is always tremendously exciting to handle works by Friedrich, the father of German Romantic painting, especially when one is dealing with a rediscovered work believed to have been lost. The composition, and its symbolism, was clearly very meaningful to the young Friedrich, as he repeated it several times. The isle of Rügen had a hold on his imagination, becoming the subject of one of his most famous paintings of all, of strollers overlooking the sea from the island’s chalk cliffs.”

Friedrich worked up seven drawings of varying size and detail from an ink sketch he made on the beach at Vitt on the island of Rügen on Germany’s Baltic coast on 22 June 1801. This drawing in the series was produced circa 1803 and depicts a view looking north towards Kap Arkona, the island’s north cape.

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) – Diego en chemise écossaise

A compelling portrait by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) of his brother Diego will lead Christie’s sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on November 5.  Diego en chemise écossaise, which is estimated at $30—50 million, showcases the graphic drama and economy of representation that would become hallmarks of Giacometti’s painting.  The work has been in a private collection for over two decades and has never appeared at auction.

Andreas Rumbler, Deputy Chairman of the Impressionist and Modern Art department and Head of Evening Sale, at Christie’s New York commented: “Although Diego was Alberto Giacometti’s most frequent sitter—serving almost as an alter ego for the artist—never before did he depict him with quite the same energy or fervor as he did in this work. The interplay of multiple dimensions and color renders his subject as an object in space, an “everyman” without unique qualities, an emblem of humanity. With this masterpiece, Alberto Giacometti establishes himself as one of the greatest portrait painters of the 20th Century, paving the way for the likes of Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.”

UPDATE: There were no bids for the work which was guaranteed by a third party before the sale.  The guarantor paid $32.6 million, a record for a Giacometti painting.

Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Three Studies of Lucian Freud each (unframed): 78 x 58 in. (198 x 147.5 cm.) oil on canvas Painted in 1969 UPDATE: IT MADE $142.4 MILLION

Francis Bacon’s Three Studies of Lucian Freud, which comes up at Christie’s in New York on November 12, is poised to make a new auction record for the Irish born artist.  Christie’s say it can break the previous record for Bacon of $86 million set in 2008. The triptych, which unites two of the greatest figurative painters of the 20th century at the height of their friendship, is on view at Christie’s in London from October 13-18 to coincide with Frieze Week.  It was exhibited at Bacon’s renowned Grand Palais retrospective in Paris in 1971-72 and has never been on the auction market before.  It was executed almost 25 years after Bacon and Freud met.

Francis Outred, head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe said:  “We are honored to announce the sale of an undeniable icon of twentieth century art. A conversation between two masters of 20^th century figurative painting, Francis Bacon’s triptych, ‘Three Studies of Lucian Freud’, executed in 1969 is a true masterpiece that marks Bacon and Freud’s relationship, paying tribute to the creative and emotional kinship between the two artists. The juxtaposition of radiant sunshine yellow contrasting with the brutal physicality and immediacy of the brushstrokes in this celebrated life-size triptych is what makes Bacon’s art so remarkable. ‘Three Studies of Lucian Freud’ stands as one of only two existing full-length triptychs of Lucian Freud. The three panels that make up this work were separated for almost fifteen years in the mid-1970s and were reunited in their entire splendor sometime in the 1980’s.” 

UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR $142.4 MILLION TO BECOME THE MOST EXPENSIVE ARTWORK EVER SOLD AT AUCTION.