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TURNER'S MODERN ROME - CAMPO VACCINO made a new record for the artist. David Moore-Gwyn of Sotheby’s remarked that for collectors it ticked all the boxes – quality, superb condition, provenance and freshness-to-the-market. (click on image to enlarge)

J.M.W. Turner’s 1839 masterpiece Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino sold for a record £29,721,250 / €35,727,792 at Sotheby’s in London on July 7.  It was bought by Hazlett, Gooden & Fox on behalf of The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.  The previous record for a Turner was £20.5 million set in 2006.

Three hundred and  seventy million. That is the total spent at art sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London in June.

The Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale brought in 153 million on June 23. This is the highest total ever achieved at an art auction in London. It happened even though a Monet water-lily painting worth an estimated 30-40 million pounds failed to sell. Bidding on it reached 29 million pounds. Sotheby’s revised their figures upwards for the two-day sales series of Impressionist & Modern Art to 131 million pounds.

The top lot at Christie’s was a Blue Period portrait by Picasso, which made 34.8 million pounds. European buyers accounted for 55 per cent of lots sold, 40 per cent of buyers were from the Americas and five per cent from Asia.

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London on June 28 realised the solid total of £41,091,800 / €50,111,626, within pre-sale expectations of £38.3–52.8 million. It was the third highest total for a summer sale of Contemporary art at Sotheby’s London and a 60% increase on the equivalent sale last year. Nine works sold for over £1 million and 16 works for over $1 million.

The top lot was Yves Klein’s RE 49, Relief Eponge Bleu. It made £6.2 million. Frank Auerbach’s Mornington Crescent – Summer Morning made £2.3 million and Bharti Kher’s sculpture The Skin Speaks a Language not its Own sold for £993,250, a new auction record for the artist by many multiples and a new record for any work by a contemporary female Indian artist at auction.

The Post-War and Contemporary Evening Auction at Christie’s on June 30 made a total of £45,640,200, selling 84% by lot and 85% by value.  The top price was paid for Silver Liz, 1963, by Andy Warhol (1928-1987), one of only two paintings of actress Elizabeth Taylor  by the artist.  It sold to an anonymous bidder for £6,762,150. A total of  58% of buyers were from Europe, 30% from the Americas with four per cent from Asia.

What has become clear in this series of sales is that auction houses must get estimates right.  If the estimate is too high the work will not sell.

(UPDATED)

SOTHEBY'S staff hold up the record breaking portrait by Manet

THE IRISH art market tends to track international trends. These now firmly dictate that the market at the top end has recovered from the biggest slump since 1991. The opening sale in the London series of June art auctions in London, Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sale on June 22, brought in a staggering €157,601,625 – an increase of 185% on the same series last year.

For the second time in London auction history and the second time in six months three works made more than £10 million.

* Edouard Manet’s masterpiece Self Portrait with a Palette made €26,907,089, a new auction record for the artist

* André Derain’s Arbres à Collioure made €19,521,241, double the previous record for the artist and a record for any Fauve painting at auction (see earlier story on this blog, via April archive)

* Henri Matisse’s Odalisques jouant aux dames brought £11,801,250.

The 51 lot sale attracted buyers from no fewer than 13 countries; over 50% of the works sold achieved prices in excess of high estimate; and the average lot value for the works sold reached £3.2million. 19 works sold for more than £1 million and 29 for more than $1 million. The total of Impressionist & Modern Art sold by Sotheby’s London in 2010 is an unprecedented £276 million.

The Manet, one of only two self portraits he painted, was bought by New York dealer Franck Giraud. It had been part of the collection of New York collector and hedge fund manager Steven Cohen. The recovery in the market has encouraged collectors to sell high value works. Sellers now are confident.