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This George II carved giltwood wall mirror from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit is at Sotheby’s Style, Private Collections sale which runs online until November 13. Sotheby’s describe the mid 18th century piece as probably Irish. It is estimated at £10,000-15,000.
Sotheby’s scored a white glove live streamed Impressionist and Modern Art auction from New York last night. Specialists in New York, London and Hong Kong took bids and interacted with auctioneer Oliver Barker. All lots were sold and the evenings auctions realised $284 million.
The Impressionist and Modern sale totalled $141.1 million and was led by Giacometti’s Femme Leon which sold for $25.9 million. There was a new auction record for Giorgio de Chirico when Ariadne’s Afternoon made $15.8 million.
The Contemporary Art sale brought in $142.8 million. A trio of Alfa Romeo concept cars led the sale and sold for $14.8 million. This was first in Contemporary evening art auction history. Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino’s dining table caused a three-continent bidding battle. It eventually sold for $6.2 million, a record for any work of Italian design. It was from the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
THE story of American abstraction in these two works by Clyfford Still and Brice Marden at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale in New York on October 28.
Painted in a fever of activity Fleurs dans un verre by Vincent van Gogh will highlight Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on October 28. This is one of about 70 canvases completed by van Gogh in the 70 days before his suicide in the village of Auvers. It is estimated at $14-18 million. The online auction will feature works from the Brooklyn Museum including a Monet and Surrealist art by Man Ray, Giorgio de Chirico and Rene Magritte. The evening of exciting sales will kick off with a Contemporary Art sale highlighted by a 1958 Mark Rothko which pre-empts his celebrated Seagram Building murals now at the Tate in London. Untitled (Black on Maroon) is estimated at $25-$35 million.
Untitled (Black on Maroon) by Mark Rothko will highlight Sotheby’s Contemporary evening art auction in New York on October 28. It dates to 1958 and preempts the artists celebrated Seagram Building Murals. These are now at the Tate in London. The sale will feature masterpieces by Clyfford Still and Brice Marden from the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Banksy’s Show me the Monet comes up at Sotheby’s in London on October 21 with an estimate of £3-5 million. It is from the Crude Oils series where the artist remixes well known artworks. Among other works in the series are Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers portrayed wilting or dead; Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks augmented by an angry man in Union Jack boxer shorts moments after breaking the bar window with a chair, and Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe re-faced with Kate Moss. The artist is quoted saying: “If you want to survive as a graffiti writer when you go indoors, I figured your only option is to carry on painting over things that don’t belong to you there either.” According to Sotheby’s Show me the Monet may be interpreted as a comment on consumerist culture, a criticism of the commercialisation of art, a lament for the demise of the environment, or all of the above. Painted in 2005 it will highlight a livestream auction which brings together two sales of Modern and Contemporary art held in sequence in Paris and London.
UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £7.6 MILLION
Young Man Holding a Roundel by Sandro Botticelli will come up at Sotheby’s in New York next January. With an estimate in excess of $80 million it will highlight the annual Masters Week sales series. In market terms this price will establish it in art market history as one of the most significant portraits, of any period, ever to appear at auction – alongside Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II (sold in 2006 for $87.9 million) and Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr Gachet (sold in 1990 for $82.5 million).
Young Man Holding a Roundel is the pictorial synthesis of the ideals, the magic and the beauty of Renaissance Florence where, for the first time since antiquity, the individual and the human figure were at the centre of both life and art. Botticelli was at the vanguard of this movement, and his revolutionary style lead him to be one of the first artists to abandon the tradition of depicting sitters in profile. Yet for all it embodies of the Florentine Renaissance, the painting is timelessly modern in its stark simplicity, bold colors, and graphic linearity.
Young Man Holding a Roundel was first securely recorded in the 1930s in the collection of Lord Newborough at Caernarvon in Wales, and is believed to have been acquired by his ancestor Sir Thomas Wynn, 1st Lord Newborough (1736-1807) while living in Tuscany. In 1935/8, the portrait passed via a London dealer to a private collector, whose heirs sold it at auction in 1982 to the present owner for £810,000.
In the past 50 years, the painting has spent extended periods on loan at the National Gallery, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
An internally flawless 102.39-carat diamond comes under the hammer at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong next month. There is no estimate but diamonds of this size and quality have D colour oval stone was cut from a 271-carat rough diamond discovered in Ontario, Canada in 2018. It has achieved top rank in each of the “four Cs” — cut, colour, clarity and carat weight — by which a diamond is judged. In the circumstances of the moment it is being offered without a reserve. Bidding opens online from September 15 and the sale end at a live auction in Hong Kong on October 5.
UPDATE: The diamond sold for $15.7 million to a telephone bidder in Japan
Artworks by Hughie O’Donoghue and Colin Middleton feature at Sotheby’s Made in Britain auction online until September 16. The sale of art and objects by artists and makers working in Britain in the 20th and 21st offers paintings, works on paper, sculpture, prints, photography, design and studio and contemporary ceramics. There are ceramics by Lucie Rie and Jennifer Lee, paintings from Gary Bunt and Mary Fedden, photographs from Terry O’Neill and a selection of prints by David Hockney. A group of Donald Hamilton Frasers offered from the collection of the Hirshhorn Museum is included too.
INTERNATIONAL interest in the Irish art market will be tested at Sotheby’s Irish art sale in London on September 9. This auction of 60 lots features a roll call of the most beloved and esteemed names in the field. The pre-sale estimate of £3.2 million makes it the highest value auction since Sotheby’s re-introduced dedicated sales of Irish art in 2015. More than 1,000 people attended three and a half days of viewing at the RHA Gallery in Dublin. The sale is distinguished by 18 works from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit and some of these have been displayed at the K Club in Co. Kildare.
Arabella Bishop, head of Sotheby’s Ireland, remarked: “It is a market that was catapulted onto the global platform in the 1990’s by advocates such as Sir Michael, who has played a key role in bestowing Irish artists with the reputation they deserved and still deserve today.” Sotheby’s hope that this sale will appeal to and excite collectors worldwide. Sir Michael Smurfit’s passion for Irish artists like Yeats, Lavery and Orpen is reflected in a number of significant works by these figures. The collection is distinguished further by one of le Brocquy’s most significant works, Travelling Woman with Newspaper (£700,000-£1,000,000) and William Conor’s depiction of The Dublin Horse Show (£80,000-£120,000).The sale opens with twelve works from the Yeats family including sketches by John Butler Yeats and Jack B. Yeats. Lot 10, Three Girls listening to music by the former, created significant interest at the Dublin view. It is estimated at £4,000-£6,000. Many other works have emerged from long held private collections including Houses by the Sea (£50,000-£70,000) and Kerry Fisherman (£70,000-£100,000), both by Jack B. Yeats and Tory Island (£18,000-£25,000) and The Dreamer (£100,000-£150,000) both by Gerard Dillon. Artists like Sir John Lavery and William Scott have a significant international following. Lavery’s Tennis under the orange trees, Cannes (£300,000-£500,000) and Poem for a Jug, No. 23 (£70,000-£100,000) are both certain to perform well at this sale.The selection on offer is completed by artists and sculptors like Tony O’Malley, Peter Curling, John Kingerlee, Patrick O’Reilly, John Behan, Elizabeth Magill and Mainie Jellett. Sotheby’s will offer over 50 items from the collection of Sir Michael Smurfit at various auctions over the coming year.
UPDATE: Travelling Woman with Newspaper and The Dublin Horse show failed to sell. Works from the Yeats family collection all sold. The Dreamer by Gerard Dillon made £378,000 and Kerry Fisherman made £81,500.
