Bob Dylan’s first new studio recording of Blowin in the Wind since 1962 sold for £1,482,000 at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London today. It was from a special session with multi-Grammy winning producer T Bone Burnett, on the recently announced groundbreaking Ionic Original disc. T Bone Burnett, Founder of NeoFidelity Inc. and multi-Grammy-winning producer commented: “Marshall McLuhan said that a medium surrounds a previous medium and turns the previous medium into an art form, as film did with novels, as television did with film, as the internet has done with television, and as digital has done with analogue. With Bob Dylan’s new version of “Blowin’ In The Wind”, our first Ionic Original archival analogue disc, we have entered and aim to help develop a music space in the fine arts market. I trust and hope it will mean as much to whomever acquired it today at Christie’s Exceptional Sale as it does to all of us who made it, and that they will consider it and care for it as a painting or any other singular work of art.”
IRISH GEORGE II SILVER FOUR-BRANCH EPERGNE, MARK OF ROBERT CALDERWOOD, DUBLIN, CIRCA 1750
This Georgian Irish silver epergne sold for €60,480 at Christie’s in Paris. It was once in the Cork collection of the Newenham family. Brigadier General Henry Edward Berkeley Newenham (1866-1934) was the son of William Henry Newenham, of Maryborough Park, co. Cork, a branch of the Newenhams of Coolmore. He was educated at Haileybury and served in the Royal Fusiliers, fighting in the Boer War and the First World War. He commanded the first landing of men at Galliopoli where he was wounded, losing a leg. In retirement he served as mayor of Lymington, Hampshire. His sale in 1902 was formed from a collection of Irish and English silver. The family house Maryborough Park was sold by his father in 1889 and is now a hotel.
It was of the sale of the collection “Le Grand Style: An apartment on the Quai d’Orsay designed by Alberto Pinto” .
Jeff Koons, Balloon Monkey (Magenta) (2006-13, Price Realised: £10,136,500)
Jeff Koons’ seminal sculpture Balloon Monkey (Magenta) (2006-13) sold for £10,136,500 at Christie’s today, raising vital funds for humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Presented for sale by Victor and Olena Pinchuk, proceeds from the sale will be used to assist soldiers and civilians gravely wounded by war who urgently require prosthetics, medical treatment and rehabilitation to recover as much quality of life as possible.
Representing childhood innocence and joy for both children and adults alike, Balloon Monkey (Magenta) stands as a monumental symbol of hope and solidarity with those men, women and children living in war-torn Ukraine who have suffered terrible loss.
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.
