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    • CELEBRITY AND FASHION PROVE UNSTOPPABLE AT JULIEN’S

    January 19th, 2024
    (photo left to right: Elizabeth Taylor’s Karl Lagerfeld caftan, Princess Diana’s Catherine Walker dress, Princess Grace’s Givenchy ensemble, Dior Galliano newsprint dress, tutu worn by Sarah Jessica Parker, Chanel ski suit and Paris Hilton’s Louis Verdad dress)

    Princess Diana’s black silk velvet cocktail dress (estimated $100,000-$200,000) created by Catherine Walker sold for $325,000, over three times its original estimate of $100,000 at Julien’s in Hollywood. Worn to a private event it features an off-the-shoulder neckline, a princess-seamed bodice with boning, and bias-cut ivory satin accents sewn at the neckline, cuffs, and hem. A 1961 Givenchy ensemble worn to the White House by Princess Grace with Prince Rainier to meet President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy sold for $325,000 (original estimate: $250,000-$300,000). It consists of a “Kelly-green” wool, tweed sleeveless dress with a gathered skirt with an elbow-length sleeved tweed jacket worn with a white hat, which appears as flowers about to bloom. Sarah Jessica Parker’s three-tier tutu skirt worn in her iconic role of Carrie Bradshaw on Sex and the City turned sold for $52,000, six and a half times its original estimate of $8,000. The oyster white tulle three-tier tutu skirt with a matching satin waistband worn by Parker in her Emmy award winning role in the opening credits of the HBO series during its entire run from 1997-2004 was originally found for five dollars in a bin in New York by the show’s legendary costume designer Patricia Field. Another recognisable Sex and the City design made a sensational appearance when John Galliano for Christian Dior’s newsprint silk chiffon strapless gown with an asymmetrical ruffled flounce hemline hit the auction runway for $11,430 (estimate: $8,000 – $12,000). A Chanel 2001 nylon ski suit in pale green with silver hardware and logo zipper pulls that was featured in cream in the Chanel Identification winter ad campaign sold for $7,800 (original estimate: $1,500-$2,000)

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    A FELIM EGAN CLASSIC AT MORGAN O’DRISCOLL AUCTION

    January 19th, 2024
    FELIM EGAN  – Untitled (2004) UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,200 AT HAMMER

    This small untitled work by Felim Egan kicks off Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish art online auction which runs until January 22. The estimate for the oil on board is just 400-600 but so far it has attracted 18 bids and will go higher. When he died in 2020 Egan was regarded as one of Ireland’s leading contemporary artists. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in France in 1981 and the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil in 1985 and won the Unesco international prize for painting in Paris in its inaugural year of 1993. He exhibited widely in Europe and his work is held in many international collections including the European Parliament and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. The catalogue for the sale is online.

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    THE WINTER SHOW IS ABOUT TO KICK OFF IN NEW YORK

    January 18th, 2024
    One of a pair of Louis XV period armchairs which Galerie Léage, Paris will bring to the Winter Show

    More than 70 internationally renowned dealers from Europe and the Americas have assembled in New York for The Winter Show which runs from January 19-28 after the opening night party on January 18. The premier art, antiques and design fair in America will feature a breadth of works spannign 5000 years from antiquity to today. Pictured here is one of a pair of A La Reine armchairs of the Lous XV period attributed to Louis Delanois and carved with gilt wood. They will be exhibited by Galerie Léage, Paris.

    “In the 70 years that The Winter Show has shown in New York, it has consistently addressed the shifting role and value of art, antiques, and design within our communities,” said Helen Allen, Executive Director of The Winter Show. “We are thrilled to celebrate this momentous anniversary with returning presenters and patrons, while also welcoming new audiences to the Show and to the mission of East Side House. We are part of an exciting revival honoring objects that prioritize craftmanship and style. More importantly, each presentation honors a story of the past and its continued legacy in the present moment. The Winter Show offers a platform for a generation with renewed interest in design lead by storytelling, craftsmanship, and sustainability, and invites visitors to participate in an experience that also supports New Yorkers in need.”

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    TEFAF GRANT TO AID RESTORATION OF RARE ARTWORK IN IRELAND

    January 16th, 2024
    Ludovico Mazzolino’s (c. 1480 – c. 1530) – The Crossing of the Red Sea (1521)

    Ludovico Mazzolini’s 1521 painting of The Crossing of the Red Sea in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland is to be restored thanks to a grant from TEFAF, The European Fine Art Foundation. TEFAF announced today that Ireland’s National Gallery and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Connecticut, USA) are the recipients of this year’s TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund (TMRF). This is an annual grant created in support of the international art community’s vital work to preserve artistic and cultural heritage.

    Remarkable for its size and rarity Mazzolino’s biblical artwork departs from the conventional rules of perspective. It has been in the collection of the gallery for over a century but it cannot be displayed in its current fragile state. With severe delamination of the paint layer and soiling to the cracked surface The Crossing of the Red Sea requires extensive conservation efforts. With TEFAF’s funding, the National Gallery of Ireland will collaborate with experts in Mazzolino’s work to better understand his artistic practice so that this rare large-scale masterpiece can be sensitively restored and made accessible to the visiting public.

    Dr Caroline Campbell, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, commented, “Ludovico Mazzolino was a prominent painter in sixteenth-century Italy, where he worked for the Este court in Ferrara and later in Bologna. The Crossing of the Red Sea is recognized internationally as an important and rare large-scale example of his work. It has been part of the National Gallery of Ireland’s collection since 1914, acquired just 50 years after we opened our doors. Unfortunately, due to the fragility of the panel, we have been unable to put it on display for many decades. We are delighted to receive this grant from the TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund, which will enable us to undertake essential conservation treatment on this striking painting and make it possible to return it to our galleries for the enjoyment of our visitors.”

    The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, has received funding from TEFAF to restore Venus with a Nymph and Satyr (1600), a marble sculpture by Pietro Francavilla (1548 – 1615). The TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund was established in 2012 to support and promote professional restoration and related scholarly research of significant museum artworks. Championing art in all its forms, applications for its grants are open to museums from all over the world and artworks of any age. Each year, a maximum of €50,000 is allocated to projects. The committee of independent experts usually selects two winners to each receive up to €25,000 to support their restoration project.

    Pietro Francavilla’s Venus with a Nymph and Satyr (1600)

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    IRISH TWO LIGHT MIRROR CHANDELIERS AT SOTHEBY’S NEW YORK

    January 15th, 2024
    A matched pair of Irish two-light mirror chandeliers. UPDATE: THESE SOLD FOR $6,096

    This matched pair of Irish white, cobalt and clear cut glass mirror chandeliers come up at Sotheby’s in New York on January 31 with an estimate of $12,000-$18,000. One is c1800, the other probably later. According to Sotheby’s this particular form of an oval mirror with a faceted glass and hanging girandole appears to be an Irish invention. Related mirror girandoles are in the collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. They are part of the estate of Houston oil and diesel and trucking magnate Jimmy Younger, who died in 2022 aged 94. The drawings, paintings, sculptures, furniture, and works of decorative art from the collection encapsulate the varied artistic trends that defined European Mannerist and Baroque art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He served on many boards including The National Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and The Blanton Museum of Art. 

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    IF YOU WANT TO COLLECT AN IMPOSING FACADE….

    January 14th, 2024
    A replica of the facade of No. 10 Downing St. used in The Crown. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £10,880

    A replica of the facade of No. 10 Downing St. comes up at a sale of sets, costumes and props from Series 1-6 of The Crown at Bonhams in London on February 7. Tbe estimate is €23,000-€35,000. There is a similar estimate on a replica of the ceremonial coronation garments  worn by Claire Foy as The Queen in Series 1 Episode 5. There will be two auctions, an online sale just underway continues until February 8 and the live sale on February 7.  Proceeds from the live sale will go towards establishing the Left Bank Pictures Crown Scholarship Progamme at Britain’s National Film and Television School.

    A reproduction of Britain’s gold state coach inspired by the 1760 commission by Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings, for King George III is estimated at €35,000-€58,000.

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    ARTISTIC FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION UNDER THREAT

    January 13th, 2024
    An interior shot of Palazzo Volpi in Venice with contents to be sold by Sotheby’s in Paris.

    Art mirrors life and the life it is currently mirroring is one of censorship and intolerable attacks on freedom of expression.  The art world has not been immune as  the Israeli-Hamas war has spawned a new wave of hidden and not so hidden persuaders who move to stifle anything other than total support for hardliners against humanity. Against this background of global uncertainty there is a pipeline of interesting international sales coming up in 2024.  On offer already are a variety of covetable lots as diverse as the contents of a sumptuous Venetian palace on the Grand Canal to Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Archive to a Royal portrait by Velazquez and property from the life and career of Marilyn Monroe.  We must assume that all this will be okay once there is nothing in these auctions – such as seeking a ceasefire in Gaza – that can be construed as anti-semitic.

    A pair of stools or tabourets delivered to the Empress Josephine at Christie’s in New York

    Sotheby’s will offer 200 lots from Palazzo Volpi in Venice at an auction in Paris on February 28. The collection will include palatial Roman tables, ballroom banquettes, art panels in the style of Jacopo Sansovino, Wagner sofas and Venetian mirrors. Julien’s will offer contents from the Playboy archives and from Marilyn Monroe at a three day sale in Los Angeles on March 28, 29 and 30.  Highlights will include a Playboy Bunny silkscreen by Andy Warhol and a black and cellophane effect evening gown worn by Monroe in The Seven Year Itch.  The Velazquez portrait of Isabel de Borbon is at Sotheby’s in New York on February 1.

    A black and cellophane effect evening gown worn by Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch at Julien’s

    Elvis Presley’s Gretsch guitar from his Las Vegas residency is among the lots at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in New York on the same day along with a pair of c1800 tabourets or stools delivered to the Empress Josephine at Chateau de St. Cloud.

    It has the potential to be an exciting year with many records being broken at home and abroad.  Yet in 2024 there are well founded accusations of censorship in an art world that has never been noted for its lack of freedom of expression.  In New York board members and many art writers withdrew in protest after the editor of the prestigious Artforum magazine, David Valasco, was abruptly fired when a letter supporting Palestinian liberation was published which omitted to mention the victims of the Hamas attack on October 7.  Advertisers like gallerist David Zwirner and the Chanel culture fund threatened to withdraw.The Saarland Museum in Germany cancelled an exhibition by Candice Breitz, who is Jewish and has condemned Hamas, saying they would not show works by anyone who does not recognise Hamas terror as a rupture of civilisation.  The entire selection panel for the next curator of Documenta, a global art exhibition in 2027, resigned after disputes with administrators about the war. This mirrors the wider environment.  Think of resignations like that of Harvard President Claudine Gay in a campaign led by the Wall Street Jewish financier Bill Ackman whose wife is a former member of the IDF. You do not need to be a soothsayer to know there will be more resignations. UPDATE: The first American retrospective of Samia Halaby (87), regarded as one of the most important living Palestinian artists, has been cancelled by officials at Indiana University.

    Andy Warhol’s original Playboy Bunny at Julien’s.

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    A SHIPWRECK AND AN ALLEGORY AT UILINN

    January 13th, 2024
    Title: Fata Morgana. Artist: Majella O’Neill Collins. Dimensions: 70 x 100cm. Year: 2022. Photography: CultureArk

    A 21st Century ghost ship is the inspiration for an exhibition which opens today at Uilinn, the West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen.  Artist and Sherkin Islander Majella O’Neill Collins became fascinated with the story of the MV Alta, the merchant vessel abandoned at sea 1,400 miles south of Bermuda in 2018 after engine failure when en route from Greece to Haiti. It drifted for 496 days over 2,300 nautical miles until washed ashore at Ballycotton during Storm Dennis in February 2020. Re-named 14 times with owners who are impossible to trace the ship remains unclaimed, unsalvaged and on the rocks. The sense of this vessel sailing along on relatively untroubled water, entering uncharted waters and eventually hitting a rock inspired the artist and led ultimately to the exhibition Allegory of the MV Alta. It continues until February 24.

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    AMONG THE MOST EXPENSIVE ITEMS OF PHILATELY EVER AT AUCTION

    January 12th, 2024

    The earliest posted envelope using a prepaid stamp comes up at Sotheby’s in New York on February 2. The Penny Black fixed to a Mulready envelope is estimated at $1.5-$2.5 million.

    Introduced at the beginning of May, 1840, the Mulready, an ornate wrapper designed by William Mulready, and
    the Penny Black, the world’s first adhesive postage stamp, aimed to streamline and revolutionize postage
    prepayment. Both methods were an important new step in communication, eliminating the need fol carriers
    to handle money, reducing the risk of theft and forgery. This pre-paid envelope, the earliest known in existence,
    was successfully sent, firstly stamped with a Penny Black on May 2, then ingeniously repurposed, turned inside
    out, and remailed as a Mulready on May 4, the letter covered a combined journey of over 400 miles, all before
    the official start date for the stamp on May 6.

    Before the introduction of postage stamps, mail in the United Kingdom was paid for by the recipient, a system
    that was associated with an irresolvable problem: the costs of delivering mail were not recoverable by the
    postal service when recipients were unable or unwilling to pay for delivered items. The adoption of prepayment, championed by Birmingham School teacher Rowland Hill, was a result of the Postage Reform Act of 1839, which abolished free franking privileges and established uniform penny postage rates. The subsequent Treasury Competition, offering a prize for the best prepayment solution, garnered over 2,600 entries, leading to the creation of new stationery and stamps. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

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    ELTON JOHN’S ATLANTA COLLECTION AT CHRISTIE’S, NEW YORK

    January 11th, 2024
    JULIAN SCHNABEL (B. 1951) – Portrait of EltON ($200,000-300,000). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $189,000

    Iconic property from Elton John’s former Atlanta home is to be sold in a series of landmark sales at Christie’s in New York. Beginning with an evening sale on February 21 the series will comprise of eight sales both live and online. The city of Atlanta played a crucial role in John’s life, becoming the hub he would return to throughout his numerous tours within the United States. He solidified this connection to Atlanta in 1992 when he acquired the condominium in Park Place, on Peachtree Road. His unexpected choice of Atlanta as a residence was driven by personal reasons. After becoming sober in 1990, he found solace and support in the warm community and recovery facilities of the city, such as the Triangle Club, which played a critical part in his recovery.

    Over the years, Elton John assembled a distinctive collection of works of art, objects and memorabilia, many of them crafted specifically for his home on Peachtree Road. Fans will discover an in-depth look at Elton John’s deep passion for photographs, which he began collecting avidly in the 1990s. Creating a gallery-like atmosphere, he adorned the walls of his Atlanta residence with pieces by pioneering artists, such as Andy Warhol, Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Beard, Herb Ritts, Richard Avedon and more. Also included are highly intimate artworks crafted personally for Elton John and his husband David Furnish. Among them is Damien Hirst’s “Your Song” signed and inscribed ‘xxx for Elton + David love Damien Thank You,’ with an estimated value of $350,000-450,000; as well as a portrait of Elton John by Julian Schnabel. There are fashion pieces from the iconic performer’s dazzling stage wardrobe, including a noteworthy Ivory and Gold Ensemble designed by Annie Reavey in circa 1971. This ensemble (estimate $8,000 – 12,000) holds historical significance as one of the initial sets of stage attire crafted exclusively for Elton John.

    A testament to Elton John’s eclectic tastes, his Atlanta apartment featured elaborate Versace upholstery—a nod to John’s longstanding friendship with the Versace family. Included in the sale is an incredible group of Versace items including a selection of vintage Gianni Versace shirts estimated at $4,000-6,000, in addition to tableware and home décor. The condo served as a personal sanctuary with a grand piano (estimate $30,000-50,000) art glass collections, antiques, and artifacts from his global travels.

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