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  • Posts Tagged ‘sotheby’s’

    le Brocquy in Dublin, Fabergé in New York

    Saturday, October 31st, 2026

    Uccello by Louis le Brocquy  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    Uccello, a beautifully simple elegantly sophisticated Aubusson tapestry by Louis le Brocquy  heads the Design at the RHA auction by de Veres in Dublin next Tuesday (November 3). Commissioned in 1999 for the offices of A+L Goodbody by the architect Ronnie Tallon this large work of 13 square metres offers a splendid display of jewel like oranges in a cloud of greenery against a deep blue sky. This showstopper estimated at €100,000-€150,000.

    A Murano glass ovoid table lamp. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400 AT HAMMER

    The corporate law firm offices have undergone a redevelopment. The A+L Goodbody collection forms part of a very strong art section in this auction. A large part of the collection has been retained. Around 20 works of art have come to market. The selection of contemporary art on offer includes work by William Scott, Pat Scott, Sir Terry Frost, Donald Teskey, Michael Warren, Bridget Reilly,  Hughie O’Donoghue, Barrie Cooke, Stephen McKenna, John Shinnors and others. 

    An Eames lounger, a Saarinen table and a Transaat chair by Eileen Grey are among the leading furniture highlights in this annual sale now on view at the RHA Gallery in Dublin. 

    Some of the most iconic designs of the 20th century can be seen. Work by renowned and innovative creators like Philippe Starck, Mies van der Rohe, Ico Parisi, Finn Juhl and Arne Vodder is on show here.  There are Danish, Italian and French pieces from the 1960’s and ’70’s and design labels like Roche Bobois and Fritz Hansen.

    The 1970’s R2D2 Droid Bar. UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400 AT HAMMER

    The catalogue cover lot is laden with retro appeal and looks like a Star Wars Droid. Estimated at  €1,000-€2,000 the R2D2 Bar dates to the 1970’s and is a cellarette, though not one that many lovers of antique furniture might recognise. It was designed in the days when domestic robots on earth seemed too futuristic even to contemplate. At least in those more innocent times there was no need to worry about the threat of a hostile AI force attacking the entire globe or turning off all country’s freezers,

    Offering many pieces that cannot be easily sourced and one off pieces that can transform a space this is a sale worth a serious look. With over 314 lots on offer it is on view at the RHA until next Tuesday.  Timed online bidding is underway.

    A Fabergé varicolour gold, rock crystal, mother of pearl and enamel sedan chair at Sotheby’s.

    Meantime the pièce de resistance at Sotheby’s sale from the vaults of A La Vieille Russie in New York in December is rare Fabergé varicolor gold, rock crystal, mother of pearl and guilloché enamel model sedan chair.  Estimated at more than $1 million (€890,000) it is one of only six known miniature sedan chairs by Fabergé. More than 300 museum quality works from the vaults with a combined estimate of more than $15 million (€13.39 million) will be offered.  

    Founded in Kiev in 1851 the family owned New York institution has shaped generations of collectors and major museum collections. In the future there will be greater emphasis on antique and period jewellery.

    STELLAR NIGHT FOR IRISH ART AT SOTHEBY’S AND A MILLION EURO HENRY

    Wednesday, October 14th, 2026

    Gerard Dillon – Boys Catching Crabs in Connemara sold for £281,600

    Irish paintings sold for over £2 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight. Six works by artists Paul Henry (2), Jack B Yeats , Sir William Orpen, Roderic O’Conor and Gerard Dillon brought in £2,040,320 (€2,412,617). The Potato Harvest by Paul Henry made a record £883,200 (€1,043,920), Little Spanish Dancer (Girl in Red Shawl) by Sir William Orpen made £358,400, Boys Catching Crabs in Connemara by Gerard Dillon made £281,600, Red Rocks and Foam by Roderic O’Conor made £243,200, A Winter Sea by Paul Henry made £192,000 and Galway by Jack B Yeats made £81,920. There were unsold lots by Sean Scully, Jack B Yeats and Paul Henry. All nine works were from a private collection. The nine paintings carried a combined estimate of £1.4 million (€1.6 million).

    UPDATE: See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 1, 2026.

    Paul Henry – The Potato Harvest sold for £883,200 (€1,043,920).

    OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLECTORS OF MAJOR IRISH ART

    Sunday, October 11th, 2026

    The Pedlar’s Cart, Achill by Paul Henry at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    Opportunity knocks for serious collectors at sales by Sotheby’s in London next Wednesday evening (October 14) and at Morgan O’Driscoll on October 20.  A group of nine Irish paintings by Yeats, Orpen, O’Conor, Henry, Dillon and Lavery from a private collection at Sotheby’s have a combined estimate of £1.4 million (€1.6 million).  Two more works are on offer for private sale.  The Amateur Ventriloquist, September Gale and Galway by Jack B Yeats, Little Spanish Dancer girl in Red Shawl and Midday on the Beach by Sir William Orpen, Red Rocks and Foam by Roderic O’Conor, The Potato Harvest, Pedlar’s Cart Achill and A Winter Sea by Paul Henry, Boys Catching crabs in Connemara by Gerard Dillon and Tennis, Hotel Beau Site, Cannes by Sir John Lavery are all available.

    The top seven lots at Morgan O’Driscolls sale, on view in Skibbereen until October 12 and at the RDS from next Friday  until Monday October 19, have a combined top estimate of over €600,000.  William Scott’s Two Pears (1977) is estimated at €80,000-€100,000. In the Market Place of Bruges by Walter Osborne, The Shower by Paul Henry and Untitled No. 9 (1982) by Sean Scully are each estimated at €70,000-€100,000.  Abstract Composition by Evie Hone,  Achill Cottages by Paul Henry and Reconstructed Head of a Child (1968) by Louis le Brocquy are each estimated at €50,000-€70,000.  Among 172 lots on offer at Morgan O’Driscoll there is likely to be much local interest in a brilliant c1835 oil on canvas by Daniel Maclise entitled The Fortune Teller (€15,000-€25,000).

    Two Pears by William Scott at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    THE POTATO HARVEST BY PAUL HENRY AT SOTHEBY’S

    Thursday, October 1st, 2026

    Paul Henry – The Potato Harvest. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £883,200

    The Potato Harvest by Paul Henry is among a superb group of Irish paintings from an important collection to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in London in October. Together, the nine works carry a combined estimate in the region of £1.4m / €1.6m. An additional two works are being offered for private sale via Sotheby’s. All 11 paintings – by Yeats, Orpen, O’Conor, Henry, Dillon and Lavery – will be on view. The works are on view at the Molesworth Gallery in Dublin on October 1, 2 and 3 prior to being offered as part of Sotheby’s Modern British & Irish Art evening sale on October 14, coinciding with Frieze Week.

    They are The Amateur Ventriloquist, September Gale and Galway by Jack B Yeats, Little Spanish Dancer, Girl in Red Shawl and Midday on the Beach by Sir William Orpen, Red Rocks and Foam by Roderic O’Conor, The Potato Harvest, Pedlar’s Cart, Achill and A Winter Sea by Paul Henry, Boys Catching Crabs in Connemara by Gerard Dillon and Tennis, Hotel Beau Site, Cannes by Sir John Lavery.

    Roderic O’Conor – Red Rocks and Foam. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £243,200

    MOST IMPORTANT ROMAN IMPERIAL SCULPTURE AT AUCTION IN OVER A DECADE

    Sunday, August 16th, 2026

    A marble torso of a Roman Emperor probably representing Augustus, Tiberius or Claudius at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $24.2 MILLION

    A series of auctions from an amazing single owner collection including the most important Roman Imperial sculpture at auction in over a decade will kick off at Sotheby’s in New York in October.  Assembled over decades it encompasses more than 900 works ranging from Roman Imperial marble, Old Master paintings, ancient Near East ceramics, Islamic court carpets, Royal French furniture, Impressionist masterworks and 20th century design.

    Probably representing Augustus, Tiberius or Claudius the commanding Roman sculpture complete with upper body armour is estimated at $8-$12 million (€6.92-€10.38 million). In one of this collectors residences it stands in a room that holds Richard Avedon’s revered portrait of Marilyn Monroe. Four Savonnerie carpets commissioned by Louis XIV for the Grande Galerie of the Louvre lie beneath furniture that once belonged to Marie Antoinette. Art includes masterworks by Canaletto, Degas, Fragonard, Guardi and Picasso.  Works from a private collection expected to realise more than $60 million (€51.9 million) will be displayed across four floors of Sotheby’s new hq at the Breuer building in New York from October 17-22.  There will be four New York sales on October 21, 22 and 23, with further lots at the Modern evening auction in New York in November.  Prized and precious objects from a mosaic of civilisations will continue to feature at 22 sales in New York and Paris into 2027.

    A c1700 Louis XIV giltwood frame at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $179,200

    BOOMING ART MARKET DRIVEN BY QUALITY

    Saturday, July 25th, 2026

    Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A 1948 is the most expensive painting sold at auction this year.

    Record half year results at Christie’s and Sotheby’s reveal an international market that is booming.  In an unequal world that is wealthier than ever before it has been an extraordinary year so far on many fronts.

    In the first six months of 2026 consolidated sales at Sotheby’s hit $4.4 billion (€3.85 billion), a 58% increase on the same period in 2025.  Christie’s reported first half revenues of $4.6 billion (€4.02 billion) in the same period and sold the most expensive painting.

    Jackson Pollock’s  Number 7A 1948 made a record $181.2 million (€158.39 million) in New York in May, a record for the artist and a record for a painting sold at auction this year.

    All markets are subject to highs and lows but the current boom is different.  This market is driven by quality. Buyers are parting with their money with great discrimination. Speculative spenders are absent.  The onus on auction houses is to find works to sell that are of museum quality.  

    Constantin Brancusi – Danaïde sold for $107 million (€93.53 million) at Christie’s.

    How is this achieved?  Much of the answer lies in collections.  The taste for high art develops as serious interest grows.  Most people expand their horizons during their collecting journey.  There is so much to learn.  Art collecting is a lifetime interest that richly rewards anyone, wealthy or not.  But the fabulous collections amassed by discriminating and wealthy collectors over many years underpin the successes seen so far in 2026.

    The Pollock painting came from the private collection of the late Condé Nast publisher S I Newhouse. The sale price nearly tripled the previous record for the artist and propelled the Newhouse Collection forward to achieve $631 million (€551.56 million).  The 20th Century evening sale at Christie’s on the same May evening in New York made $490.3 million (€428.57 million) for an evening art sale total of over $1.1 billion (€960 million).

    Pablo Picasso – Portrait of Dora Maar from the Lewis Collection.

    At the Masterpieces from The Lewis Collection sale at Sotheby’s in London 25 paintings made £296 million (€342.95 million) and nine works, led by Modigliani’s Seated Nude with Necklace (£48.2 million – €55.84 million), sold for more than ten million.  In total the collection of former Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis made £355.02 million (€417.43 million) to become the highest value single owner collection ever sold in the UK. In New York Robert Mnuchin’s collection of the titans of American Abstract Expressionism made $173 million (€152.22 million).

    The first single owner design sale at Sotheby’s new hq at The Breuer  building in New York – the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzberg – made $96 million (€83.91). This was the most valuable design sale in US auction history.  

    Both Sotheby’s and Christie’s have a pipeline of autumn and winter sales that promise to make 2026 a year to remember in the saleroom.

    The New York home of Terry and Jean de Gunzburg.

    RECORD FIRST HALF YEAR AT CHRISTIE’S AND SOTHEBY’S

    Wednesday, July 15th, 2026

    Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948, the top lot at auction so far made $181.2 million at Christie’s New York in May.

    The resurgence in the art market continued in the first half of 2026. Christie’s reported first half revenues of $4.6 billion. Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A 1948 made $181.2 million at Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse in May and is the top lot sold at auction in the first half of 2026.

    It has also been a record half year at Sotheby’s, which reported consolidated sales of $4.4 billion, a 58% increase over the first half of 2025. Auction sales at Sotheby’s reached an all time high of $3.4 billion with bidding from 119 countries across 170 auctions.

    Oliver Barker, Sotheby’s chairman, Europe, selling Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection in London.

    GUS, THE T REX, SELLS FOR $50.13 MILLION AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, July 14th, 2026

    T REX GUS SOLD FOR $50,130,000

    Discovered in 2021 on a remote ranch in South Dakota Gus became the most expensive T Rex ever sold at Sotheby’s in New York today. It is 67 million years old and made $50.1 million. The bones were excavated over three summers.

    (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for July 11, 2026)

    THE MOST VALUABLE DINOSAUR EVER AT AUCTION

    Saturday, July 11th, 2026

    One of the largest and most complete T Rex specimens ever discovered  is set to become the most valuable dinosaur ever at auction at Sotheby’s in New York on July 14. Gus, a 67 million year old Tyrannosaurus Rex, is estimated at $20 million – $30 million (€17.48 million – €26.22 million).  Excavated over field seasons in 2021, 2022, and 2023  the fossil was discovered by Thomas Heitkamp and his team on land owned by the late Gary “Gus” Licking, a cattle rancher in Harding County, South Dakota. After years of finding teeth and bone fragments on his land Licking brought in the professionals, who named discovery after him. Gus has a body length of around 38 feet and a height of twelve and a half feet.  Photo credit Matthew Sherman.

    UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $50,130,000

    MARKET DRIVEN BY SINGLE OWNER COLLECTIONS OF TOP QUALITY ART

    Saturday, July 4th, 2026

    Oliver Barker, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, conducting the sale of the Lewis collection.

    Cool art generated real heat in the midst of a scorching London heatwave. All sorts of records were broken at Sotheby’s night to remember sales of the Lewis Collection and Modern and Contemporary art.

    Four auctions realised £420,488,006 (€487,177,483), the highest total for any season of sales ever staged in Europe.

    Sotheby’s sales were led by Masterpieces from the Lewis Collection where 25 paintings made £296 million (€342.95 million).  Modigliani’s Seated Nude with Necklace sold for £48.2 million (€55.84 million) and led the nine works which sold for over £10 million (€11.59 million).  Among them was art by Picasso, Klimt, Egon Schiele, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.

    Amedeo Modigliani – Nu assis au collier sold for £48.2 million (€55.84 million).

    Competitive and deliberate bidding from around the world lasted for nearly two hours. This was the most valuable single owner sale in London’s auction history.  Bidders came from 45 countries. Asian collectors accounted for over one third of the value of the sale.

    The collection was assembled over more than two decades by 89 year old former Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis, noted for his significant impact on the art market through his extensive collection and strategic transactions, and his daughter Vivienne. The Lewis collecting philosophy is centred on assembling museum quality masterpieces. Lewis sold his stake in Christie’s, where he was the largest single shareholder, to Francois Pinault in 1998 after a share price surge.  Committed to the avant-garde painters of today the Lewis family intend to continue their collecting journey into the future.

    Claude Monet – Nymphéas sold for £40.8 million (€47.27 million).

    Fuelled by stellar works by Monet, Rothko, Hockney and Kandinsky the Modern and Contemporary auction which followed the Lewis auction brought in another £97 million (€112.38 million).  Bidding was again deliberate as opposed to speculative and 40 lots took two hours to sell.  The top lot was Monet’s Nymphéas (water-lilies) which made £40.8 million (€47.27 million) to become the most valuable Impressionist work sold at auction in Europe in over a decade.

    The combined total of £393.4 million (€455.79) for the two sales set a new single night auction record for Europe.  Next day the Modern day auction including art from the Lewis collection totalled £17.7 million (€20.51 million) and the Contemporary day auction added another £9.3 million (€10.77 million).

    Gustav Klimt – Portrait of Gertrud Loew sold for £36.1 million (€41.83 million)

    The extraordinary Lewis collection traced a line from Viennese portraiture to the painters from the School of London with modern figurative painting at its core.  The overall total of 47 works sold from the collection came to £306.6 million (€355.23 million).  Together with the  £35.8 million (€41.48. million) for the four School of London works sold at Sotheby’s in March led by Francis Bacon’s 1972 self portrait the combined total for the Lewis collection sold at Sotheby’s this year is £342.4 million (€396.7 million).

    These sales continued an emerging trend where growth in the global art market is concentrated at the top.  Single owner collections of museum quality works continue to be the market driver.