Decorative and fine arts from the London and country homes of Mrs. Henry Ford at Eaton Square and Turville Grange, Oxfordshire will come under the hammer at Christie’s on April 15. The sale is led by Impressionist works including a self portrait by Edouard Vuillard. The decorative arts are led by a Louis XV ormolu-mounted Chinese black-lacquer commode by Laurent Felix and a George III Pembroke table attributed to Thomas Chippendale. Silver includes a George VI silver cigar box inset with grass from the sod cut by Edsel Ford in 1929 when breaking ground for the Dagenham Ford motor factory.
Louis XV c1755 black lacquered commode. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £137,500. THE SALE REALISED £3.98 MILLION
Picasso’s Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), 30 October 1932 (estimate in the region of $55 million) will highlight Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York on May 11. One of the extraordinary series of iconic portraits that Picasso painted of his golden-haired muse during this landmark year, this monumental work is among the most stately and impressive depictions of Marie-Thérèse that the artist painted.
THE global series of 20th century auctions at Christie’s in March brought in a combined total of £361,428,211. The auction house reports that the season saw registered bidders from 69 countries. The depth of bidding across platforms, time zones and geographies demonstrates global market is active and expansive according to the auction house. New registrants accounted for 24% of registered bidders in March. Tens of millions of viewers tuned in to watch and participate in the March sale series, through Facebook, You Tube, We Chat, Weibo, Artron, ArtPro, Yitao, Christies.com and Christie’s Live™
The underbidder on Banksy’s Game Changer placed a final bid of £14,300,000, the highest bid to date on Christie’s LIVE™. No less than 30 artists records were set.
Picasso’s Femme nue couchée au collier (Marie-Thérèse), 1932 sold for £14,582,500
UPDATE: THE BASQUIAT WARRIOR SOLD FOR £30,265,619. PICASSO’S Femme assise dans un fauteuil noir (Jacqueline) sold for £9,659,000
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Warrior (on the right above) will launch the Christie’s 20th Century Art sale from Hong Kong today. Picasso’s Femme assise dans un fauteuil noir (Jacqueline) (1962) on the left above is one of two Picasso portraits in the sale. The live stream of the 20th Century Art evening sale and The Art of the Surreal from London begins at 9pm Hong Kong / 1pm London / 9am New York on Tuesday March 23.
UPDATE: THE auction realised £198,716,619, selling 93% by lot, 97% by value and 128% hammer above low estimate. The series of consecutive sales was launched from Hong Kong with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Warrior (1982), which set a new record, becoming the most expensive western artwork ever sold in Asia at HK$323,600,000. Warrior saw competition from bidders in London, New York and Hong Kong, before ultimately selling to an Asian buyer on the phone in Hong Kong. Banksy’s painting Game Changer (2020), a tribute to international frontline workers during the global pandemic, achieved a world auction record following 14 minutes of bidding. Proceeds of more than £16,000,000 from the sale of the artwork will be used to support the wellbeing of University Hospital Southampton staff and patients as well as benefitting associated health organisations and charities across the UK
“So when she saw me, she went crazy about my hair and absolutely wanted to do my portrait with my hair loose” French art critic Denyse Proutaux explained in a 1931 letter to her partner Phillippe Dyvorne. The resultant re-discovered portrait by Amrita Sher-Gil is the top lot at Christie’s South Asian, Modern and Contemporary Art auction in New York on March 17. “As it was for a competition and she had very little time, I posed almost non-stop for three days, and that’s why I couldn’t write to you as I had promised you. I’ve never known such an amazing girl, you know Phil?” Proutaux wrote. Amrita Sher-Gil was born in Budapest in 1913 to a Hungarian mother and Indian father. Living between Hungary, France and India she painted people and places with an intensity that remains unparalleled in modern Indian art and was elected as an associate of the Grand Salon in Paris in 1933. Sher-Gil died unexpectedly in 1941 in Lahore at the age of 28. Most of her documented work is in the national collection of Modern Art in New Delhi. Portrait of Denyse is estimated at $1.8-$2.5 million.
Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941), Portrait of Denyse. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Until October, the most Mike Winkelmann — the digital artist known as Beeple — had ever sold a print for was $100. Now he is among the top three most valuable living artists. Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, a collage of all the images that Beeple has been posting online each day since 2007, achieved $69,346,250 at Christie’s, New York today.
The record-smashing NFT sale comes after months of increasingly valuable auctions. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique files that live on a blockchain and are able to verify ownership of a work of digital art. Buyers typically get limited rights to display the digital artwork they represent. In October, Winkelmann sold his first series of NFTs, with a pair going for $66,666.66 each. In December, he sold a series of works for $3.5 million total. And last month, one of the NFTs that originally sold for $66,666.66 was resold for $6.6 million.
Beeple (b. 1981), EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS 21,069 x 21,069 pixels (319,168,313 bytes) Minted on 16 February 2021. This work is unique.
The sale of the first purely digital NFT based work of art by a major auction house achieved a new world record for any work of digital art, the highest price for any lot in any online-only auction, the highest price for any winning bid placed online, and the highest total for any online-only auction. There were bidders from 11 countries and 22 million visitors tuned into Christie’s for the final minutes of bidding. Christie’s say that there were 33 active bidders, 55% from the Americas, 27% from Europe and 18% from Asia. 91% were new bidders at Christie’s.
Digital Art has been an established artistic medium since the advent of the personal computer. However, before the introduction of NFTs and Blockchain technology it was impossible for even the most celebrated digital artists to claim their place in the art market. These mechanisms have paved the way for future of art of purely digital means.
Beeple said:“Artists have been using hardware and software to create artwork and distribute it on the internet for the last 20+ years but there was never a real way to truly own and collect it. With NFT’s that has now changed. I believe we are witnessing the beginning of the next chapter in art history, digital art. This is work that has just as much craft, message, nuance and intent as anything made on a physical canvas and I am beyond honored and humbled to represent the digital art community in this historic moment.“
Mike Winklemann
Noah Davis, Specialist, Post-War and Contemporary Art, remarked: “Christie’s is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Beeple, a brash pioneer among digital artists, to present the first purely digital NFT-based work of art ever offered by a major auction house. We see this as a pivotal moment for the future of New Media and even the practice of collecting itself. Everydays–The First 5000 Days is a monumental work comprised of 5,000 individual images created over the course of as many days, giving viewers the opportunity to zoom in and witness Beeple’s often irreverent but always engaging evolution as an artist pixel by pixel. The capacity to represent 13 years of an artist’s career in a single work perfectly illustrates the limitless nature of this medium. Not unlike the advent of Street Art as a blue chip collecting category, NFT-based art is on the threshold of becoming the next ingeniously disruptive force in the art market. Christie’s is proud to be in the vanguard of this exhilarating movement.”
A universal tribute by the artist Banksy to those fighting Covid-19 worldwide comes up at Christie’s 20th century art evening sale in London on March 23. Banksy’s Game Changer will be offered with a pre-sale estimate of £2,500,000-3,500,000. It appeared at Southampton General Hospital during the first wave of the pandemic in May 2020. It was always his intention that it should be auctioned and a reproduction will remain at the hospital. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the NHS.
UPDATE: Game Changer sold for £16,758,000. Proceeds will be used to support health organisations and charities across the UK that enhance the care and treatment provided by the NHS. Christie’s will donate a significant portion of the Buyer’s Premium to these cause
The spring season of interactive livestream 20th century art sales launched in London and New York by Christie’s on March 1 made a total of £43,702,515. Over 145,000 viewers tuned into the sales through Facebook, You Tube, Christies.com and Christie’s Live™ with collectors from 12 countries over 5 continents achieving combined sell-through rates of 98% by lot and 100% by value. In New York A Family Collection: Works on Paper, Van Gogh to Freud, a grouping of eight works made a total of £18,070,765. Van Gogh’s rare portrait La Mousmé sold for £7,459,614 and there was a world auction record for Augustus John’s Head of a Girl (Edie McNeill) which made £348,463. In London Sir Winston Churchill’s Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque set a new world auction record price of £8,285,000 after a nine-minute battle between 10 bidders. Sir John Lavery’s The Viscountess Castlerosse, Palm Springs, from the collection of Charles Delevingne, sold for £862,500, a record for a portrait by the artist. Sir Michael Craig-Martin’s With Red Shoes set a new world auction record for the artist of £325,000.
Christie’s Modern British Art day sale on March 2 realised a total of £5,427,375, selling 84% by lot and 86% by value. The sale was led by John Nash’s still life A Window in Buckswhich realised £375,000, more than 10 times its low estimate and a new world auction record for the artist. Vanessa Bell’s Autumn Bouquetsold for £256,250 against a pre-sale estimate of £25,000-35,000, also a new world auction record for the artist.
There was a new world auction record for Sir Winston Churchill at Christie’s in London this evening when his Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque(1943) sold for £8,285,000. The only work Churchill created during the Second World War was once in the collection of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who are divorcing. It was offered for sale by the Jolie Family Collection. Churchill painted it in Marrakech following the Casablanca Conference in January 1943. and gifted it to Franklin D. Roosevelt. This act was seen not only as an indication of their friendship but of the special relationship between the UK and the USA.
Sir Winston Churchill began painting scenes of Morocco after being encouraged to visit the country by his painting tutor, Sir John Lavery. Upon his first visit in 1935, he felt that the light and scenery were unrivalled, creating some 45 paintings of the country.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 2, 2021)
Sir Winston Churchill, Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque. Painted in January 1943, it made £8,285,000
More than 20 works by L.S. Lowry will highlight the Modern British Art sale at Christie’s on March 2. They range from seascapes and crowd scenes to portraits including Man in a Trilby from the estates of L.S. Lowry and Carol Ann Lowry. There is work by Pauline Boty, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake, Michael Craig-Martin’s and the St Ives School is represented by Terry Frost ,Roger Hilton, Ben Nicholson and Alfred Wallis.
Ben Nicholson, 1946 (Tibetan) (estimate: £100,000-150,000) and L.S. Lowry, Man in a Trilby (1960, estimate: £150,000-250,000). UPDATE: THE NICHOLSON MADE £118,750 AND THE LOWRY SOLD FOR £150,000
