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Sir Robert Walpole, widely regarded as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain under George I and George II, once owned this c1480 Portrait of a Man holding a Prayer Book by a Burgundian Master. It comes up as Lot 6 at Christie’s Classic Art evening sale, Antiquity to the 20th century, in London on July 29 with an estimate of £400,000-600,000.
Roy Lichtenstein’s Nude with Joyous Painting was the top lot at Christie’s global sale of the 20th century today. It made $46,242,500 in a worldwide auction that realised $420,941,042. The live streamed sale kicked off in Hong Kong before moving on to Paris, London and finally New York.
Guillaume Cerutti, Chief Executive Officer, Christie’s remarked: “Today’s sale sends three important messages for now and for the future: despite a challenging economic environment, the demand for works of art of great quality remains very strong; the market is more global than ever, with significant activity from the Americas but also from Europe and Asia; and innovation and adaptability is key – our clients have embraced our creative presentation and sale format combining live and online experiences.”
Suffused with the blazing light and color of the Mediterranean Plage à Agrigente by Nicolas de Staël will highlight the Parisian section of ONE: a Global Sale of the 20th Century at Christie’s on July 10. Launching in Hong Kong, the sale will then transition to auctioneers in Paris and London, concluding in New York.
Plage à Agrigente captures the memory of the landscape around the Ancient Greek city of Agrigento in Southern Sicily, which the artist had visited during the summer of 1953. This exquisite work from one of Nicolas de Staël’s most celebrated and important series was unveiled at Paul Rosenberg’s New York gallery in 1954. The painting has since been featured in some of de Staël’s most important posthumous exhibitions, including major retrospectives at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam in 1965, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1966 and the Tobu Art Museum in Tokyo in 1997.
L.S. Lowry’s Coming from the Match has achieved the highest price for a work in an online only sale at Christie’s. It made £2,051,250 at a sale devoted to original paintings and drawings by L.S. Lowry entitled People Watching. The small oil on canvas had been estimated at £500,000-800,000. The auction, which has just ended, realised a total of £4.6 million.
Pablo Picasso’s Baigneuses, sirènes, femme nue et minotaure (1937) comes up as part of ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century at Christie’s on July 10. With an estimate of $6,000,000-9,000,000 it will be offered in the New York session. Picasso depicts the projection of an inner self, in the form of the Minotaur, a character lifted directly from ancient mythology. In the late 1920s, Picasso’s interest in Surrealism, especially through his close friendships with Paul Éluard and other poets in the vanguard of the movement, inspired him to take broad licence with classical fables, to practice his own method of creative reconfiguration.
A 28.86 carat diamond which made $2,115,000 achieved a world record price for a jewel sold online at Christie’s . The jewels online sale which has just ended achieved 31 bids from Asia and America for the D Colour Type IIA emerald cut stone. The sale brought in $4.1 million with 64% of lots selling at or above their high estimate. Bidders from 27 countries joined in.
Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Jewelry at Christie’s commented: “The spectacular 28.86 carat D color diamond received immediate attention upon its announcement. The stone possesses a transparency and purity which can only be found in the world’s finest diamonds. The sale of this exceptional stone established the record for a jewel sold in an online-only auction, demonstrating greater client confidence in Christie’s digital ability and online sale platform. We now look forward to the beginning of our live auction season for jewelry spanning all major Christie’s global sale sites led by a US$8m Fancy Intense Blue IF Diamond of 12.11 carats offered in Hong Kong on July 9.”
Christie’s Jewels sales calendar for July 2020 includes live and online auctions in Geneva, Hong Kong, London, New York, and Paris.
Barnett Newman’s Onement V, 1948 will lead ONE: a Global Sale of the 20th Century at Christies on July 10. Painted in an ink blue palette, dramatically interrupted by a solitary ‘zip’ of aquamarine, Onement V is estimated at $30-40 million. Created just four years after his breakthrough painting, Onement I (1948), it represents one of only two paintings from this early, landmark series to remain in a private collection. The other four are currently housed in major American museum collections including: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford and the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin.
The Paris leg of ONE: A global sale of the 20th century at Christie’s on July 10 will be highlighted by an important rediscovery by Pierre Soulages. Estimated at €2-3 million the painting, executed in 1950, has been in the same private Australian collection since being first acquired in 1953 by the present owner’s father from the Galerie Louis Carré & Cie Paris, when it was included in a major exhibition that toured to Australia. It has been unseen in public since. Soulages celebrated his 100th birthday last December.
AN online sale of works on paper and prints at Christe’s until July 1 showcases the breadth of artistic styles of modern masters from the 1890s to the 1990s. More than 100 lots from intimate drawings to suites of artist prints, prices in Modern Edition range from £800 to £150,000 providing price points for collectors of all stages.
Wayne Thiebaud’s Four Pinball Machines, 1962 will come up as a central highlight at Christie’s ONE: A global sale of the 20th century, on July 10. With an estimate of $18-25 million it is expected to more than double the artist’s world auction record currently held by Encased Cakes, 2011, which made $8.5 million in November 2019.
Alex Rotter, Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s, remarked: “It is always a privilege to have the opportunity to present a painting that is categorically recognized as one of the best works that an artist has ever created, but in this case it is particularly exciting given its prominence within the canon of Pop art. This is precisely the case with Thiebaud’s Four Pinball Machines, 1962. In his centennial year, Thiebaud is among the most loved and revered artists of the 20th century, both for his extraordinary artistic talent and vision, but also for the delight that his paintings instill into anyone who stands before them. Four Pinball Machines is a painting that combines all of the qualities that people treasure about Thiebaud’s work: an iconic subject imbued with American nostalgia, the joyful palette and the masterly quality of the expressionistic brushstrokes. This work is the most important example by the artist in private hands“
