Christie’s Adrien Meyer, Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, selling GEORGES SEURAT’s (1859-1891) – Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version) for $149,240,000
Global sales at Christie’s reached $8.4 billion in 2022, the highest annual sales total in art market history. In November Paul G Allen’s landmark sales maDe $1.62 billion to become the most valuable collection sale of all time. Five works sold above $100 million and there was four million online viewers. in 2022 the auction house sold Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn for $195 million, the second highest price ever achieved for an artwork at auction. They sold the top three collections of the year, Allen, Ammann ($359.2 million) and Bass ($363.1 million) as well as the top collection outside the US this year, Hubert de Givenchy (€118 million) in Paris.
In 2022 35% of all buyers in 2022 were new to Christie’s, and 34% of these new buyers were millennials (up from 31% in 2021). A total of 46,322 lots were sold at auction. Altogether the Americas accounted for 40% of buyers, Europe, the Middle East and Africa for 34% and Asia-Pacific for 26%.
GEORGIA O’KEEFFE (1887-1986) – White Rose with Larkspur No. 1 sold for $26,725,000
On Thursday, November 10, 2022, Christie’s concluded Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Collection, a landmark philanthropic event. Visionary comprised 155 masterpiece objects spanning 500 years of art history. It was sold over a two-day series of auctions. In total, the collection realised $1,622,249,500, well in excess of the total high estimate. It was 100% sold. The regional breakdown by value was 33% Americas, 28% APAC, and 39% EMEA. There was great strength and depth in bidding across the collection, with an average of 5.6 bidders competing for each lot. Of all the registrants for the sales, nearly 15% were new to Christie’s.
Seven artists records were set in the second part of the sale:
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje Van Bruggen, Typewriter Eraser, Scale X – $8,405,000
Joseph Kosuth, ‘Titled (A.A.I.A.I.)’ [text-context] – $289,8000 – for work on paper
PAUL CEZANNE (1839-1906) – La montagne Sainte-Victoire Painted in 1888-1899 sold for $137,790,000
The most valuable private-collection sale of all time broke the world-record for a sale just halfway through the bidding at Christie’s in New York last night. The first part of the collection of Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen – just 60 lots – made $1,506,386,000. One highlight after another saw five paintings – the most ever in one sale – bringing more than $100 million each, with each one setting a world record.
Three of the lots were among the top lots sold of all time. Georges Seurat’s groundbreaking statement on pointillism, Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version) led the evening at $149,240,000. Paul Cezanne’s monumental landscape, La Montagne Sainte-Victoire brought $137,790,000. Vincent van Gogh’s Verger avec cyprès, which captures the artist’s early encounter with the South of France, achieved $117,180,000. Paul Gauguin’s Maternité II from 1899, one of his most important years, made $105,730,000. Gustav Klimt’s evocative depiction of a Birch Forest, made $104,585,000. The number and size of the record prices set was unprecedented. 60 masterpieces were sold and 20 artists records were set.
The auction broke the world-record for a sale just halfway through the bidding when the auctioneer, Jussi Pylkkänen, knocked down Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture, Femme de Venise III, for $25,007,500. The auction was 100% sold, and 122% sold against low estimate. All of the estate’s proceeds from this historic sale will be dedicated to philanthropy, pursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes. The second part of the sale takes place later today.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for November 2 and August 26, 2022)
RECORDS
Seurat, Les Poseuses Ensemble(Petite version) – $149,240,000
Cézanne, La montagne Sainte-Victoire – $137,790,000
Van Gogh, Verger avec cypres – $117,180,000
Gauguin, Maternite II – $105,730,000
Klimt, Birch Forest – $104,585,000
Freud, Large Interior, W11 (After Watteau) – $86,265,000
Johns, Small False Start – $55,350,000
Signac, Concarneau, calm de matin – $39,320,000
Ernst, Le roi jouant avec la reine – $24,435,000
Wyeth, Day Dream – $23,290,000
Rivera, TheRivals – $14,130,000
Francis, Composition in Blue and Black – $13,557,500
Steichen, The Flatiron – $11,840,000
Cross, Rio San Trovaso, Venise – $9,550,000
Brueghel, The Five Senses – $8,634,000
Hepworth, Elegy III – $8,634,000
Benton, Nashaquitsa – $5,580,000
Sidaner, La Serenade Venise – $2,100,000
Singer Sargent, The Façade of La Salute, Venice – $3,660,000 – for work on paper
Klee, Bunte Landschaft – $4,860,000 – for work on paper
LUCIAN FREUD (1922-2011) – Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau) made a record $86,265,000
THE Fortune Pink which sold for US$28.2 million led Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva on November 8. Weighing an auspicious 18.18 carats The Fortune Pink is the largest pear-shaped fancy vivid pink diamond ever to be sold at auction. The sale made a total of $57,340,888 and was 96% sold by value and 87% sold by lot. There wa global participation with registrants from 20 countries, across 4 continents.
Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Christie’s Jewellery remarked: “A historic week of auctions kicked off in Geneva where Christie’s Luxury auctions totalled CHF113,482,763 / $114,244,370, highlighted by the Fortune Pink, Legendary and Unique Watches, as well as the Domaine Ponsot 150th anniversary auction. Geneva Luxury sales offered 572 lots, with collectors from 50 countries active across the live sales. The second half of this momentous week will continue at Rockefeller Plaza in New York, where 150 masterworks from the Paul G. Allen Collection will be offered on Wednesday and Thursday, expected to realise US$1 billion, all of the estate’s proceeds from the sale will be dedicated to philanthropy, pursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes.”
PAUL GAUGUIN (1848-1903) – Maternité II (estimate in excess of $90 million). UPDATE: THIS MADE A RECORD $105,730,000
Highlights from the collection of Microsoft founder Paul G Allen will be part of an unprecedented $1 billion sale at two auctions at Christie’s in New York next week. The auctions on November 9 and 10 will include examples, often among the finest in private hands, by Jan Brueghel the Younger, J.M.W. Turner, Edouard Manet, Vincent Van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and many others in more than 150 masterworks. All of the estate’s proceeds from this historic sale will be dedicated to philanthropy, pursuant to Mr. Allen’s wishes.
Max Carter, Vice Chairman, 20th and 21st Century Art, Americas, remarked: “The Paul G. Allen Collection, like Cézanne’s breathtaking view of Mont Sainte-Victoire, is the summit of the mountain. From Brueghel’s Five Senses and the Venetian imaginings of Turner and Manet, to late 19th-century masterpieces by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Monet, Klimt’s Birch Forest and Freud’s Large Interior, W11 (after Watteau), arguably the greatest set piece of the last fifty years, the Collection is bounded only by vision and quality. And then there is Seurat’s Les Poseuses. Formerly in the collections of Alphonse Kann, John Quinn and Henry McIlhenny and featured in the 1913 Armory Show, when it appeared at auction for the one and only time in 1970, the art historian John Russell suggested that it was one of the three or four most beautiful works of art to be sold since the war. It remains so today.”
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 26, 2022)
GEORGES SEURAT (1859-1891) – Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version) (Estimate in excess of $100 million). UPDATE: THIS MADE A RECORD $149,240,000
