Yves Klein – Anthropométrie de l’époque bleue,(ANT 124) (1960). UPDATE: THIS MADE £27,197,000
A defining 1960 work by Yves Klein, Anthropometrie de l’epoque bleue will highlight Christie’s 20th/21st Century London evening sale on June 28. Coming to market for the first time it consists of eight solid blue imprints against a shimmering azure backdrop. It was painted after he had developed International Klein Blue and was in pursuit of ways to transcend the body and the physical realm.
Now live for browsing Christie’s 20/21 London to Paris sale series focuses again on artistic synergies between London and Paris throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
Eager collectors quickly learn that there is always someone with a more valuable painting, a more desirable collectible, a more fabulous piece of antique furniture, even a better door knocker. In the latter case there was no keeping up with the late couturier Hubert de Givenchy. He had the ultimate door knocker. It was designed by Diego Giacometti sometime around 1975-80. This marvellous piece sold for €120,000 at the opening day of Christie’s sale of the collection of Hubert de Givenchy in Paris today. There were more expensive lots at this sale of masterpieces, like Femme Qui March II by Diego’s brother Alberto. This made €23.5 million at hammer. A cylinder bureau with a mechanism by David Roentgen made €1.75 million, Le Passage de oiseau-migrateur by Joan Miro made €5.75 million, a pair of monumental girandoles attributed to Pierre Philippe Thomire made €4.1 million. The list, and the sale, goes on. This scribe always thought there was something impossibly stylish about having a Giacometti door knocker – it was gratifying today to note that that market agreed. As for us collectors, once we enjoy what we have what difference does it make if someone with more money has a better one? None.
UPDATE: The auction of 63 lots realised €83,030,650and was 100% sold
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 5, March 10 and February 2, 2022)
This Wisteria Transom window from Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Long Island estate, Laurelton Hall, comes up at Christie’s in New York on June 10) with an estimate of $700,000-$1,000,000. Made around 1905 it is the only window from the iconic seven pane transom at the dining room of his home in private hands. The window will highlight a sale of masterworks from the Garden Museum. This single owner sale presents one of the greatest Tiffany collections in existence. It was amassed in the 1990’s by the Japanese businessman Takeo Horiuchi, who endeavoured to open a museum dedicated to Tiffany. Among the highlights are a peacock window and clematis skylights, a yellow rose floor lamp and a dragonfly and waterflowers table lamp formerly in the collection of Barbra Streisand.
UPDATE: THE SALE OF TIFFANY MASTERWORKS FROM THE GARDEN MUSEUM TOTALLED $6.6 MILLION
Diego Giacometti designed door knocker (€80,000-120,000). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR €151,200
The almost unbelievable style involved in owning a door knocker by Diego Giacometti speaks volumes about Hubert de Givenchy – a collector with a unique taste for mixing and matching modernity and classicism.
Deeply rooted in the culture of his country the world renowned couturier always considered furniture in dialogue with works of art. His magnificent homes – Hôtel d’Orrouer in Paris and Château du Jonchet in the Loire Valley – display the fruits of this hugely successful quest for an ideal of classical beauty. Starting this week the collection of Hubert de Givenchy comes up at four live auctions and two online sales at Christie’s in Paris. With 1,229 lots of extraordinary variety and richness put together with impeccable good taste the overall estimate is in the region of €50 million. There are nearly 200 paintings including works by Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Claudio Bravo, Max Ernst and Kurt Schwitters: over 100 sculptures with examples by Alberto and Diego Giacometti, Francois Girardon, Francois-Xavier Lalanne and Janine Janet and more than 440 pieces of seat furniture by makers and designers from the 18th to the 20th century.
A late 18th century desk with mechanism by David Roentgen (Louis XVI and the Count of Provence each owned a version, there is one at Buckingham Palace and at the Palace of Versailles. (€500,000-800,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE €1,750,000 AT HAMMER
Online auctions – the art of living and the art of hospitality – get underway on June 8 and run to June 22 and June 23 respectively. There will be four live auctions on successive days beginning with masterpieces on June 14. With a remarkable gathering of nearly 800 pieces of French and European furniture Christie’s promise that these sales will be unmissable. Among masterpieces of classical furniture from the French Regency period to the Neoclassical and beyond is a Regence console from the collection of Coco Chanel who frequently invited him for dinner. A pot pourri vase is thought to have been acquired by the King of Naples around 1780 and a pair of monumental girandoles attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire were made for Tsar Paul I of Russia.
Louis XVI gilt-beechwood bergère stamped by N.-Quinibert Foliot, c1770 with fabric design by Georges Braque (€6,000 – 10,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE €157,500
A Louis XVI bergere with a textile designed by Georges Braque is one example of his taste for re-upholstering antique furniture with modern textiles. He loved the colour green for its calming and relaxing properties and a natural sponge painted in green by Charles Sevigny is a nod to another master of the art of mixing modern and classical works. There are masterpieces of modern art from his friend and collaborator Alberto Giacometti whose Woman Walking is estimated at €20-€30 million. This piece greeted visitors to the first drawing room in the home of Givenchy and Philippe Venet on Rue de Grenelle. A key painting by Joan Miro is titled Passage of the Migratory Bird and there are several works by Alberto’s brother Diego Giacometti (whose door knocker was at Château du Jonchet) and more contemporary pieces by Claudio Bravo and Francois-Xavier Lalanne. It promises to be a sale to remember, well worth exploring online.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for March 10, 2022)
CLARA PEETERS (ANTWERP 1589-1657) Roses, lilies, an iris and other flowers in an earthenware vase. UPDATE: THIS MADE $1.5 million
Old Master paintings, sculptures, and antiquities will come under the hammer at two live auctions at Christie’s in New York on June 9 and 10 and an online sale which runs to June 16. On 9 June, Old Masters | New Perspectives: Masterworks from the Alana Collection, offers one of the most important groups of Italian Renaissance works to come to market in a generation on June 9. On the following day the Old Masters sale features works by Northern Masters, women artists, and two pictures subject to restitution to the heirs of their owners. For the first time, Christie’s is offering an Old Masters sale entirely without reserve online.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for April 15, 2022)
Claude Monet – Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume(1904) UPDATE; THIS MADE £30,059,500
Monet’s atmospheric London series view of Waterloo Bridge comes up at Christie’s 20th/21st Century evening sale on June 28. Last seen at auction in 1939 it has been in the same family collection since it was acquired by Arde Bulova, chairman of the Bulova Watch Company in 1951. Prestigious early provenance also includes Paul Durand-Ruel, Adolph Lewisohn and the D.P. Allen Memorial Art Museum, at Oberlin College in Ohio. Of the 41 iconic paintings of Waterloo Bridge that Monet painted between 1899-1904, 26 are in public institutions, including The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo; Bührle Foundation, Zürich; Art Institute of Chicago; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. and Kunstmuseum Bern. Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume was most recently on long term loan to the Kunstmuseum Basel.
The sale of Waterloo Bridge, effet de brume follows the exceptional price achieved for Le Parlement, soleil couchant, from the collection of Anne H. Bass, which sold for $75.9 million on May 12 in New York, setting a record for a painting from Monet’s Vues du Londres. The estimate for this work is in the region of £24 million.
Paul Cezanne – Clairiere (The Glade) at Sotheby’s in New York next Tuesday. UPDATE: THIS MADE $41,688,500
THE big game hunters of the global art world are out in force right now. There are rich pickings for the super rich in a stellar round of May sales in New York sales showcasing major artistic movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. At Christie’s last Monday evening Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn from the collection of Thomas and Doris Ammann of Zurich sold for a record $195 million (€184,421,250). The 40 square inch canvas became the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold. In 1964 Warhol developed a time intensive new process and used it to create a limited number of portraits – including Shot Sage Blue Marilyn – before abandoning the technique. The painting has been exhibited at galleries including the Guggenheim, New York, the Pompidou in Paris and Tate Modern in London. The 36 works from this collection realised $317.8 million (€300,610,198), All proceeds will directly benefit the Ammann Foundation’s global efforts to create healthcare and education programmes for children.
With everyone from Monet and Degas to Balthus and Wayne Thibaud Christie’s delivered in style this week. At this stage the running total for their Marquee Week spring sales is $1.36 billion. The Post War and Contemporary art day sale yesterday achieved $97 million.
Next it is the turn of Sotheby’s. Their six sales with 800 lots carry a combined estimate of over $1 billion (€950,800,000) on a level with their record setting season last November. Then the Macklowe Collection of 35 artworks made $676 million (€642.9 million) after real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda were ordered by a judge to sell their collection and split the proceeds during their 2018 divorce trial. Another 30 works from their collection come up next Monday evening with artists like Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly, Sigmar Polke, Donald Judd, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Anselm Kiefer, Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Andy Warhol.
The Modern evening auction on Tuesday is the most expensively estimated in the category at Sotheby’s for 15 years. It will feature one of Monet’s finest Venetian works, a 1932 portrait of Marie Therese Walter by Picasso and The Glade by Paul Cezanne. These three works alone are expected to bring in around $150 million (€142.6 million).
On Thursday the Now evening auction and the Contemporary evening auction will bring this months series of marquee evening auctions to a close. The Now sale will open the evening with ten consecutive works by women artists including Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Christina Quarles, Jennifer Packer and Tracey Emin. Highlights of the Contemporary evening auction are Study for Red Pope 1962, 2nd version 1971 by Francis Bacon, Cy Twombly’s large scale Untitled from 1969, a silkscreen of Elvis by Andy Warhol and Cold Beer Beautiful Girls, a quintessential text painting by Ed Ruscha. Who could ask for anything more?
Francis Bacon Study of Red Pope 1962, 2nd version, 1971 at Sotheby’s, New York next Thursday evening. UPDATE: THIS MADE $46,284,500.
CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926) – Le Parlement, soleil couchant made $75.9 million
THE final evening sales at Christie’s in New York last night achieved $843.7 bringing the running total for the Spring 2022 Marquee Week sales to $1.26 Billion. The collection of Anne H. Bass made $363.1 million, the 20th century evening sale made $468.2 million and The Raptor sold for $12.4 million. The collection of Anne H. Bass was 100% sold, and 149% sold above the low estimate. There was a new record for Edgar Degas’s Petite danseuse de quatorze ans which soared over its high estimate of $30 million to sell for $41.6 million, breaking his record for the first time in almost 15 years. Monet’s Parlement was the top lot of the sale and made $75.9 Million.
Bonnie Brennan, President of Christie’s Americas, commented, “We were honored to sell the exquisite collection of Anne H. Bass. The twelve masterpieces, beautifully chosen, reflect the unique perspective of a female collector.”
The 20th Century evening sale sold 98% by lot and 99% by value. The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes set a new record at $15.2 Million, 76 times its high estimate. In Barnes’ first appearance in an evening sale, the work had competition from 22 bidders. It sold to a buyer in the room after more than ten and a half minutes of bidding. Another artist record was established by Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware, which sold for $45 million. The work had hung in the White House for multiple presidencies. Thirteen works in the sale achieved more than $10 million. The top lot of the sale was Number 31, an iconic drip painting by Jackson Pollock which made $54.2 million.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for April 19, April 22 and May 3, 2022)
PABLO PICASSO – TETE DE FEMME (FERNANDE) SOLD FOR $48,480,000
Georgina Hilton selling Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild
Christie’s say that results from their 21st Century evening sale in New York last night demonstrate a clear demand from collectors globally and growing confidence in the market for emerging contemporary artists. The auction was led by the monumental canvas by Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1994 which made $36.5 Million. The auction was 114% sold above the low estimate with strong depth of bidding, averaging six bidders per lot.
The opening lot – Summertime by Anna Weyant achieved $1.5 Million – more than seven times its low estimate of $200,000 – after eight minutes of competitive bidding. Shara Hughes’s Spins from Swiss also established a new record, achieving $2.94 Million against a low estimate of $500,000. The monumental canvas Green Room by Matthew Wong set a record of $5.34 million, doubling its high estimate. Portrait of a Lady (After Louis Leopold Boilly) by Ewa Juszkiewicz made a record $1.56 Million (estimate: $200,000-300,000), benefitting POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. An NFT by Refik Anadol, Living Architecture: Casa Batlló made $1.38 Million.
Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn made $195 million to become the most expensive 20th century artwork ever sold at Christie’s in New York last night. The painting was the final lot of the single-owner Thomas and Doris Ammann Collection which featured 36 lots and totalled $317.8 million.
Proceeds from the entire sale of this Zurich collection will benefit charities providing urgent medical and educational services to children. The buyer of Warhol’s Marilyn has been invited to partner with the Ammann Foundation and play an active role in fulfilling its global mission for children’s aid, with the opportunity to nominate the charities to which 20% of the work’s proceeds will be allocated, subject to the Foundation’s final approval.
Warhol’s colourful reproductions of Monroe’s photo portrait — originally a publicity still from her 1953 movie “Niagara” — are among his most recognisable works. Warhol first began creating silkscreens of Marilyn Monroe following her death in August 1962. He would create reproductions of her visage multiple times in bright colours, often with the features somewhat askew. In 1964, he developed a more refined and time-intensive screen printing technique, antithetical to the mass production he was best known for, and created a limited number of portraits of the Hollywood legend of which Shot Sage Blue Marilyn is one. This technique was so difficult that he never returned to it again.
Bloomberg is reporting that it was bought by the art dealer Larry Gagosian. The previous record price for a piece of American artwork was $110.5m for a skull painting created in 1982 by Jean-Michael Basquiat. The previous record for a 20th Century work of art was set in 2015 when a 1955 painting by Pablo Picasso – Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O) – sold for $179.4m, including fees.
