THE Fortune Pink which sold for US$28.2 million led Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva on November 8. Weighing an auspicious 18.18 carats The Fortune Pink is the largest pear-shaped fancy vivid pink diamond ever to be sold at auction. The sale made a total of $57,340,888 and was 96% sold by value and 87% sold by lot. There wa global participation with registrants from 20 countries, across 4 continents.
Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Christie’s Jewellery remarked: “A historic week of auctions kicked off in Geneva where Christie’s Luxury auctions totalled CHF113,482,763 / $114,244,370, highlighted by the Fortune Pink, Legendary and Unique Watches, as well as the Domaine Ponsot 150th anniversary auction. Geneva Luxury sales offered 572 lots, with collectors from 50 countries active across the live sales. The second half of this momentous week will continue at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, where 150 masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Collection will be offered on Wednesday and Thursday, expected to realise US$1 billion, all of the estate’s proceeds from the sale will be dedicated to philanthropy, pursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes.”
Willem de Kooning’s Untitled III at Christie’s (estimate in the region of $35 million)
The major November art sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York this November will feature art from the 20th and 21st centuries. A series of sales at Sotheby’s from November 14-17 will showcase the artistic movements from Impressionism to the groundbreaking artists working today. At Christie’s auctions on November 17, 18 and 19 will be led by Jean Michel Basquiat’s Sugar Ray Robinson.
Alberto Giacometti – Caroline at Sotheby’s ($15-$20 million)
JOHN VARDY – A Pair Of George Ii White-Painted and Parcel-Gilt Armchairs c1758. These made $1,033,200
The first in a series of four live sales and six online sales of the Ann and Gordon Getty Collection at Christie’s in New York realised $79,408,900 with 100% of lots sold for 128% hammer above low estimate. There was lively bidding from around the globe and the auction drew nearly 2 million viewers via social media. In the hours leading up to the auction, Christie’s announced the private sale of Venice, the Grand Canal looking East with Santa Maria della Salute by Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, enabled through a generous donation by Diane B. Wilsey.
Mary Cassatt’s Young Lady in a Loge Gazing to Rightwas the top lot, bought by The Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, Japan for $7,489,000, breaking a 15 year-old record. The sale generated strong results across a wide variety of collecting categories, including English furniture and Chinese works of art. A Royal Early George III Mahogany China Cabinet by William Vile made $2,700,000 and a pair of massive Chinese Cloisonné and Champlevé Enamel Crane-Form Censers made $1,620,000, more than 20 times the low estimate.
L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match sold for £7,846,500
There was a new world auction record for L S Lowry when Going to the Match made £7.8 million at Christie’s in London this evening. It went to the Lowry Gallery in Salford. The painting was offered by The Players Foundation with proceeds being used to allow the organisation to continue its charitable work in, amongst other things, assisting with those who have dementia and relieving poverty amongst current or former professional players. It was painted for an exhibition in 1953, sponsored by The Football Association, where Lowry won first prize.
Frying Pan Still Life by William Scott made £765,000 at the Modern British and Irish art evening auction, which achieved a total of £20,564,100. Bidders from 11 countries across four continents registered for the sale.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 4, 2022)
Christie’s Global President and Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen selling David Hockney’s Early Morning, Saint-Maxime for £20,899,500
David Hockney’s Early Morning, Sainte-Maxime led Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale in London last night. It sold for £20,899,500 in a 47 lots sale that brought in £72.5 million and was 100% sold. Hockney more that doubled the pre-sale estimate of £10 million. Tracey Emin’s Like a Cloud of Blood was sold by the artist to raise funds for her pioneering TKE studio complex in Margate. Setting a record for a painting by Emin, it realised £2,322,000, a new record for the artist.Gerhard Richter, Wolkenstudie (grün-blau) (Study for Clouds (Green-blue)): £11,167,000 / $12,361,869 / €12,719,213 [first time at auction having remained in the same private collection since 1982, it was also the first time on public display]
Study for Clouds (Green-blue) by Gerhard Richter made £11,167,000 and Painting, 1990 by Francis Bacon made £7,102,250. Female artists performed well against the estimate. Praise I by Bridget Riley made £2,202,000 and there was a world record for Sandra Ball whose Untitled (AC16) made £94,500.
A Place with No Name: Works from the Sina Jina Collection was led by Lynette Yiadon-Boakye’s Highpower which made £1,482,000. The combined total of both sales, which attracted bidders from 25 countries, was £75,494,334.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for August 24 and October 1, 2022)
On October 5 – James Bond Day – Christie’s and EON Productions’ two part official charity sale Sixty Years of James Bond concluded with Part I and Part II making a total of £6,874,494 which will benefit over 45 charities. Comprising a total of 61 lots overall, which were 100% sold, spanning the 25 films to date, the sale as a whole featured vehicles, watches, costumes, props, posters, memorabilia and experiences. This result surpasses not only all previous official Christie’s 007 sale totals, but also the combined total of £4,812,525 for all three previous sales. The top lot of the live sale was the No Times to Die Aston Martin Replica DBS stunt car which made £2,922,000. It was sold to benefit The Prince’s Trust; The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund; and three charities supporting serving and former members of the UK Special Forces.
WILLIAM SCOTT, R.A. (1913-1989) – Frying Pan – Still Life, 1947. UPDATE; THIS MADE £756,000
Frying Pan – Still Life by William Scott at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art evening sale in London on October 19 dates to 1947. It is emblematic of Scott’s approach to painting following the Second World War. At first glance, the simple arrangement of culinary objects speaks of the Northern Irish austerity that Scott experienced in his youth. Concurrently, however, the artist’s sophisticated exploration into the arrangement of colour, form and spatial geometry reflects a preoccupation that ensued throughout the artist’s celebrated career. According to the catalogue notes in this work Scott demonstrates a masterful approach to composition – the ovoid shapes that reverberate across the canvas work in harmony with the linear diagonals that permeate the scene. The alignment of the eggs, positioned carefully on the table-top, create a subtle dynamism as they lead the eye towards the frying pan, whose crisp silhouette against the rich yolk-yellow of the background foreshadows the use of the motif as the most recognisable icon of his later work. The estimate is £300,000-£500,000.
The sale will be led by L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match, which is being offered by The Players Foundation. Estimated at £5,000,000-8,000,000, the painting is poised to set a new world auction record for the artist. The catalogue is online.
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY, R.A. (1887-1976) – Going to the Match. UPDATE: THIS MADE £7,846,500 A NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR LOWRY
The Fortune Pink – an 18.18 carat fancy vivid pink diamond. (US$ 25,000,000 – 35,000,000). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $28.2 MILLION
The largest pear-shaped fancy vivid pink diamond ever offered for sale at auction comes up at Christie’s in Geneva on November 8. The Fortune Pink will lead the Magnificent Jewels sale. Weighing an auspicious 18.18 carats the diamond’s weight literally translates to definite prosperity in Asia and is sure to garner interest from collectors across the globe. According to Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s International Head of Jewellery, the colour is phenomenal.
Royal Mughal pashmina carpet c1650. UPDATE: THIS MADE £5,422,000
An extraordinarily rare survivor from the golden age of Imperial Mughal carpet production comes up at Christie’s in London on October 27. This Royal Mughal pashmina carpet woven for the court of the Emperor Shah Jahan is of ‘Lattice and Flower’ design, exemplary for its brilliant colour and pattern, woven with the most luxurious and costly materials with prized pashmina goat hair woven onto a fine silk foundation. One of only four 17th century pashmina carpets remaining in private hands. This one is estimated at £2,500,000 – 3,500,000.
The carpet is an example of the Flower Style in Mughal India which became popular in architectural decoration and the decorative arts under the emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58). A variety of flowers represented in profile and organised in rows is a hallmark of the style. In most rug-weaving cultures, silk is the most valuable and sumptuous fibre. In Mughal culture, in northern India, this was not the case. The most highly prized fibre for the pile was goat hair, pashmina, the undercoat of the Himalayan mountain goat. Each pashmina fibre measures almost one sixth the width of a human hair, which meant that these Mughal carpets were among the finest carpets ever woven. The highest knot count exceeds 2,000 knots per inch, which goes beyond what the eye can “read.” The majority of examples fall between 400 and 1,000 knots and the carpet discussed has an average of 672 knots per sq. inch. It will be a leading lot in the Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Oriental Rugs and Carpets auction.
SIR JOHN LAVERY, R.S.A., R.H.A., R.A. (1856-1941) Lady Gwendoline Spencer-Churchill in The Merchant of Venice. COURTESY CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2021. UPDATE: THIS MADE £44,100
Paintings and furniture in the home of a husband and wife over a remarkable span of almost 125 years will come under the hammer at ‘Churchill to Eden: The Collection of The Earl and Countess of Avon’ at Christie’s in London on October 21. On offer is an eclectic collection – the property of Sir Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, K.G., M.C., P.C. (1897–1977), the former British Conservative Party politician who served as Foreign Secretary (1935–1938; 1940– 1945 and 1951–1955) and Prime Minister of the UK (1955 – 1957) and his second wife, Clarissa Spencer-Churchill (1920–2021).
The sale is an evocative journey into an almost vanished world of politics, society and inter-connections. It will include English furniture, Impressionist and Modern Art, Modern British Art, Antiquities, Chinese Works of Art, Islamic Works of Art, Books and Manuscripts and Silver, all collected by Lord and Lady Avon over many decades. The couple met at a dinner party in 1947 and were married in 1952 in London, garnering international media attention. The reception was held at 10 Downing Street, the official residence of the Prime Minister and hosted by Winston Churchill. Eden eventually succeeded Churchill as Prime Minister in 1955. Upon retiring from the House of Commons and being elevated to the House of Lords, Eden was created Earl of Avon in 1961.
UPDATE: THE SALE TOTALLED £2,766,176
Georges Braque, Verre et Huîtres, a gift from Anthony to Clarissa, Courtesy CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2021. UPDATE: THIS MADE £378,000
Away from his life of politics Eden had a passion for art from an early age, with a keen eye which helped to form this collection. Clarissa Eden counted friendships with Lucian Freud and Greta Garbo among others. Unsurprisingly for a British Prime Minister the collection is led by important Modern British Art; including two paintings by Winston Churchill given to Eden during his political career, three works by Sir John Lavery and works given to Lady Avon by her friends Cecil Beaton and David Jones. There is art by Picasso, Braque, Degas, Laurencin and Corot. The sale also features highlights from Lord Avon’s library including signed Churchill, Field Marshal Montgomery and de Gaulle editions, alongside signed works to Lady Avon from notable authors Evelyn Waugh, Noel Coward and Cecil Beaton.
Many lots graced the Eden’s Green Drawing Room at 10 Downing Street and featured in archive issues of Country Life in 1961 and in Apollo in 1969 when Lord and Lady Avon were living at Fyfield Manor in Wiltshire where they resided until Lord Avon’s death in 1977. Clarissa lived to the age of 101 and died in 2021.
