Henry Moore’s seminal work King and Queen will be a highlight at Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London evening sale on March 5. It has been in the same British collection for the past 70 years. Conceived in 1952–53, the sculpture was first cast in an edition of four plus an artist’s cast. This is the only remaining example still in private hands; all other casts are held in major public collections, including the Moa Museum of Art, Atami; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Middelheim Museum, Antwerp; and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. Two subsequent casts were produced specifically for the Tate Collection (1957) and The Henry Moore Foundation (1985). The estimate is £10 million – £15 million.
The unsettling ambiguity of La plaine de l’air (1940) by Magritte resonated strongly with critics when exhibited at Galerie Dietrich in Brussels in 1941. Painted at a moment when Europe was being engulfed by conflict it shows a single oversized leaf grafted onto a trunk set against a stark mountain landscape. The leaf, one of Magritte’s most distinctive and recurring motifs, introduces a solitary, watchful presence and channels all the tension of the early Second World War. Estimated at £3.5-£5.5 million (€4.03-€6.33 million) it features at Modern Visionaries – the Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection at Christie’s in London on March 5 and 6 plus an online auction. Assembled over six decades their collection, with an overall estimate is in the region of £40 million (€46 million), spans almost 150 years and ranges from symbolism, Belgian expressionism and surrealism to post war avant garde, minimalism to modern and contemporary British art. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Frederick Remington (1861-1909) – Argument with the Town Marshall. UPDATE: THIS MADE $11.847,500
High Noon at Christie’s at the Rockefeller Center in New York on January 21 sees the most valuable collection of Western American art in history come under the hammer. The low estimate for the William I Koch’s collection is $50 million (€42.9 million). This more than doubles the previous record for any Western American art auction.
Bill Koch, who won the America’s Cup in 1992 with the yacht America3, feels the time has come to pass on this history to other collectors passionate about the American west. “I have been fortunate to collect things that resonate with me, The treasures in this sale are among my favourites” he said.
Charles Marion Russel (1864-1926) – The Sun Worshippers. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Visions of the West is split into two auctions, an evening sale next Tuesday followed by High Noon on Wednesday. There are masterworks by Frederick Remington, Albert Bierstadt and Charles Marion Russell in a collection that is acclaimed around the world.
Remington’s sunset painting Coming to the Call is estimated at $6 million – $8 million (€5.1 million – €6.8 million). Other titles of art by Remington like The Broncho Buster, Argument with the Town Marshall and Coming through the Rye, set the scene firmly in the wild west.
Newell Convers Wyeth (1882-1945) – Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards. UPDATE: THIS MADE $2,210,000
Another work of great interest is Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards by N C Wyeth, patriarch of the Wyeth family of artists. It shows American legends Buffalo Bill Cody and Wild Bill Hickok in a card game gone wrong.
Alfred Jacob Miller’s The Buffalo Hunt dates to around 1850 while G Harvey’s Texas Oil Patch from 1981 focuses on the booming oil industry, the basis of much of the wealth of the billionaire businessman.
The old adage caveat emptor (buyer beware) should never be far away from the mind of any collector, big or small. When it comes to Bill Koch it is a case of the seller beware. This keen collector of art and wine demands that it must be what it says on the tin. He has served several high profile lawsuits against sellers, the most notable related to the sale of wine purported to have been owned by Thomas Jefferson. This case is reported to have been settled for $3 million (€2.58 million) in 2014.
UPDATE: The total for both sales exceeded $84 million.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) – Mountain Lake. All images courtesy Christie’s Images Ltd., 2025. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Arnout Tholinx, Inspector (circa 1656) made £3.1 million in December, a new world record for a Rembrandt print.
With projected global sales of $6.2 billion in 2025 Christie’s is ending the year on a high note. Auction sales accounted for $4.7 billion (up 8%), private sales for $1.5 billion according to figures released today by Christie’s. No less than 17 works sold privately for more that $15 million and the top three works sold by Christie’s this year were sold privately.
“The energy has returned to the saleroom, online, and across the market. We’ve seen renewed confidence worldwide, reflected in these outstanding results. Our selling performance has remained consistently strong throughout the year: a solid first half followed by an even more competitive second half, delivering exceptional, market-leading outcomes for our clients” said Bonnie Brennan, Christie’s ceo.
The Americas amounted for 41% of sales, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) 36% and Asia Pacific for 23%.
NEWELL CONVERS WYETH (1882-1945) – Wild Bill Hickok at the Cards
This painting by N C Wyeth, father of the artist Andrew Wyeth, is from the William I Koch collection to be sold by Christie’s in January. The Visions of the West sale is billed as the most valuable western American art auction in history. The low estimate is in the range of $50 million. There will be an evening sale on January 20 followed by a high noon sale on January 21 at the Rockefeller Center in New York. The auctions will offer an array of American western art, including masterworks by Frederic Remington, Albert Bierstadt, and Charles Marion Russell. The Remingtons, featuring 16 rare and important sculptures, as well as some of his greatest paintings, are particularly noteworthy. William I Koch is known as a collector, industrialist, scientist, winner of the America’s Cup and more. The Wyeth is estimated at $1 million – $1.5 million.
Great depth of bidding, numerous artist records, and palpable energy marked the opening night of Christie’s Marquee Week in New York, where the auction house achieved exceptional results for two premier sales: The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis and the 20th Century Evening Sale. In a packed, energetic saleroom at Rockefeller Center, and with active online bidders, the two sales achieved a total of $689,795,000 million, were 96% sold by lot, 97% sold by value.
The top lot of the evening was Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) from the Weis collection. It work sold for $62,160,000 to a bidder on the phone after a fierce four-minute and 40-second bidding battle—also securing the highest online bid ever for a live auction at Christie’s. Another highlight of the collection was La Lecture, a portrait of Marie-Therese by Pablo Picasso which made $45,485,000.
The top lot from the 20th Century Evening sale was Claude Monet’s Nymphéas from the collection of Japan’s Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art. It made $45,485,000
GERRIT DOU (LEIDEN 1613-1675) – The Flute Player UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £3,832,000 (€4,353,152).
With an estimate of £2-£3 million The Flute Player by Gerrit Dou will lead Christie’s Old Masters sale in London on December 2. Dou, like his teacher Rembrandt, was among the most successful Dutch artists of the seventeenth century, attracting patrons such as Cosimo III de’ Medici, and with works presented to Charles II of England. An early masterpiece from his relatively small and highly sought-after oeuvre, this vanitas – a still-life charged with symbolic meaning – alludes to music, learning and the brevity of life. Painted with microscopic detail and an enamel-like finish that conceals all trace of the brush, it exemplifies the extraordinary technical precision that made Dou one of the most acclaimed painters of his age. The picture has been in a celebrated English collection for 125 years, having belonged to William Proby, 5th Earl of Carysfort (1836–1909) at Elton Hall by 1900. It has remained in the family since.
Christie’s achieved the world auction record for Gerrit Dou in 2023 with A young woman holding a hare with a boy at a window, which achieved $7 million in theRothschild Masterpieces sale.
Spike, Caenagnathid dinosaur, Late Cretaceous (c. 68 million years ago). (£3,000,000–5,000,000).
Spike an exceptionally preserved dinosaur and one of the most complete Caenagnathid specimens ever discovered will headline Christie’s inauguralGroundbreakers: Icons of Our Time auction in London on December 11. A discovery from the 2022 field season Spike, comprises approximately 100 preserved fossil bones that tell the story of a sub-adult dinosaur that is 68 million years in the making. It has recently been determined that this family of dinosaurs were heavily feathered, and a rare marking on Spike’s wrist might be further evidence of this. Since the first Caenagnathid was published in 1940, only a handful of comparable specimens have been discovered – and none have ever come to auction.
This sale presents a curated selection of 30 lots spanning natural history, cinema, music, literature, fashion, and technology. Highlights range from personal letters by cultural icons, to rare scientific artifacts, historic musical instruments, and pioneering design pieces.
Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $236.4 MILLION
With Klimt, Calder, Kahlo, Magritte, Rothko and Van Gogh among headliners at sales by Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York this month the global art market is not short of exciting promise. Leading lights like this ensure that the market for art will never be dull even when it is in a state of flux.
There is resilience in the face of global uncertainty and looming threats like war, inflation and market collapse. The November sales have been carefully assembled. Many of the major works on offer have been exhibited at leading museums or come from major collections like that of Leonard Lauder at Sotheby’s. This reflects the fact that the focus of the market is less speculative than in headier times.
A masterpiece by Klimt – the striking full length ‘Portrait of Elizabeth Lederer’ – leads the auction series and could bring in as much as $150 million. The sale of the Lauder collection on November 18, described by the auctioneers as a once in a generation collection of 20th century masterpieces, will inaugurate Sotheby’s new global headquarters at the Breuer Building, formerly the Whitney Museum. The cosmetics magnate, who died aged 92 last June, donated around $1 billion worth of Cubist art to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Painted Wood by Alexander Calder at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $20,415,000
Painted Wood, the most significant constellation work by Alexander Calder, is a leading highlight at Christie’s 20th Century evening sale on November 17. Measuring nearly seven feet in height and width it is the largest of his early painted wood mobiles to come to auction. The wood, string, wire and paint construction made in 1943 is guiding at $15 million – $20 million (€17.25 million – €25.87 million) the highest ever auction estimate for a Calder.
Sotheby’s will offer the Cindy and Jay Pritzker collection of Modern and Impressionist art with Van Gogh’s Romans parisiennes (Les Livres jaunes) – Parisian novels (the yellow books) – from 1887 at its heart. The collection features a monumental triptych by Matisse of Leda and the Swan and a Pont-Aven canvas by Gauguin. Frieda Kahlo’s psychologically charged El sueno (La cama) – The Dream (the bed) – is an intimate meditation on identity and mortality from an important private collection of Surrealist art. There are pioneering visions by Dorothea Tanning, Kay Sage, Remedios Varo and Valentine Hugo and other artists whose work expanded the range of Surrealism.
Frieda Kahlo El Sueno (La Cama) – The Dream (the bed) at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $54.7 MILLION
Picasso, Mondrian, Rothko, Matisse, Franz Kline, Miro, Max Ernst and Braque feature in the Weis collection in a dedicated sale at Christie’s on November 17. This will precede the 20th century evening auction celebrating vangard artists from the Parisian studios of the Impressionists to the downtown lofts of post war New York. The sale offers masterpieces by Monet, Renoir, Chagall, Picasso, Leger, Calder, Richard Diebenkorn and David Hockney with monumental sculptures by Henry Moore, Isamu Noguchi and David Smith.
The 21st century evening sale at Christie’s on November 19 offers masterworks from the past 60 years including standout works by Richard Prince, Ed Ruscha, Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol.
Piet Mondrian – Composition with red and blue 1939-1941 from the Weis collection at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $23,060,000
A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape, attributed to Basawan made £10.2 million.
There was a world record for a Mughal painting at Christie’s when this c1575-80 painting attributed to Basawan made £10.2 million (€11.6 million). This was 14 times over estimate. The auction of exceptional paintings from the personal collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan achieved £45.7 million (€52.2 million) and was 100% sold.
