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The combined total for Sotheby’s flagship summer sales in Paris, Geneva, New York and Hong Kong has reached almost US$900 million. In Hong Kong last week 3,794 lots sold across 17 auctions in seven days. The re-scheduled spring sales brought in US$411 million with global participation from nearly 40 countries and 90% of lots sold over the phone, on the internet or through absentee bids. Sanyu’s Quatre Nus was sold fr US$33.3 million after a four-way ten-minute bidding battle.
Over 40 paintings, sculpture and works on paper – led by a Cubist work by Léger and a Picasso Portrait of his lover Marie-Thérèse – from a family collection will come up at Sotheby’s in London this July. Eighteen works will be offered in the cross-category evening sale on July 28, in which exceptional examples of Old Masters – including one of the last self-portraits by Rembrandt in private hands – Impressionist and Modern art, Modern British and Contemporary art will be presented together for the first time. A further twenty-four works from this collection will be offered in the Impressionist & Modern Art Online sale, open for bidding from July 20 – 27.
Helena Newman, Worldwide Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art Department, said: “Put together with passion and enjoyed over many years, this private collection encapsulates exactly what collectors long for – quality and rarity in works that can be, and have been, lived with and loved. Unified by the breadth and depth of art from across Europe, it offers seldom seen works from the pinnacle of the Avant-Garde, from the figurative to the abstract. At its core is an exceptionally beautiful 1931 portrait of Picasso’s lover, Marie-Thérèse, an intimate glimpse into their early days together when the love between the artist and his most important muse was still a secret from the world”.
The first decades of the twentieth century would change the course of art history for ever. This treasure-trove from a private collection – little known and rarely seen – spans the remarkable period, telling its story through the leading protagonists, from Fernand Léger, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti to Wassily Kandinsky, Lyonel Feininger and Alexej von Jawlensky. Travelling across the continent, the works emphasise the crosscurrents and connections that united Europe, from France to Germany to Britain.
Francis Bacon’s Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus sold for $84.6 million at Sotheby’s live streamed global sale overnight. There was a ten minute bidding battle between an online bidder in Asia and a client bidding by phone with Gregoire Billault of Sotheby’s in New York. It went to the phone bidder for a price surpassing the $80 million high estimate.
The sale, which totalled $363.2 million, was conducted remotely by auctioneer Oliver Barker in London taking bids from phone banks in New York, Hong Kong and London and online bidders.
There were auction records for Mario Carreño, Vija Celmins, Leonor Fini, Helen Frankenthaler, Wifredo Lam, Alice Rahon, Remedios Varo, Matthew Wong and Jean-Michel Basquiat for a work on paper. The auctions offered a strong selection of works by women artists, with all 25 works offered by 16 artists selling for a total of $86.1 million, and setting five new world auction records.
While in some ways the June sales at Sotheby’s in New York mark the return to business as usual they have been completely re–imagined. Significant offerings of high value material will be brought to the market in flagship live sales conducted remotely by Oliver Barker in London. The New York Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary evening sales will be live-streamed to the world. Bidders will be able to take part either via the phones or online in the usual way. This truly global experience will usher in a new era of marquee auctions that marry the best of the established live auction format with the latest technology, and the modifications for safety that current circumstances require.
The first major David Hockney at auction in Asia, 30 Sunflowers from 1996, comes up at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Contemporary Art evening sale on July 9. Bearing strong reminiscence to Vincent van Gogh’s iconic Sunflowers this is an update of the classic still life for contemporary times. Executed in 1996, on the brink of Hockney’s sixtieth year, 30 Sunflowers marks the epitome of the artist’s return to figurative painting after a decade primarily immersed in photography. Led by important masterpieces by Hockney and Liu Ye, the evening sale showcases an international line-up of works by blue-chip Western artists alongside the most prominent Asian names, including Clyfford Still, Albert Oehlen, Kazuo Shiraga, Yayoi Kusama and Yoshitomo Nara.
Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels: Part I at Sotheby’s Geneva is open for bidding until June 24. There is a selection of jewellery from the 19th century to the present day from renowned houses such as Sterlé, Suzanne Belperron, René Boivin and Hemmerle.
Here is a video from about Clyfford Still’s PH144 (1947-Y-No.1) which comes up at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening auction on June 29 in New York. The monumental work, with its forceful combination of deep black, bright yellow and crimson red, was selected by the artist for inclusion in his seminal 1959 exhibition. It leads a group from the collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson in the sale and is estimated at $25-35 million. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $28.7 million
On May 18 in the year 2000 the Irish artist Louis le Brocquy made headlines when his Travelling Woman with Newspaper sold for a record £1,158,500 at Sotheby’s. The buyer was Michael Smurfit. He is now selling off some of his collection so the same painting will come up at Sotheby’s in London next September 9, this time with an estimate of £700,000-1,000,000. In pure investment terms this amounts to no appreciation for a fascinating work of art by one of the leading Irish artists of his generation.
Change is gathering pace in the global art market. The restrictions wrought by pandemic has forced the market to adapt in all sorts of inventive ways. ONE: A global sale of the 20th Century is a new auction event at Christie’s on July 10. Using streaming technology Christie’s will hold a relay style auction of Impressionist and Modern, Post War and Contemporary art and design across four time zones. The aim is to create an engaging platform for selling major works of art to a global audience. With $20-30 million works like Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger Version F, Lichtenstein’s monumental Nude with joyous painting and Ed Ruscha’s Annie all available this amounts to a further blurring of the line between digital and live sales. There will be four consecutive sessions in Hong Kong, Paris, London and New York. It will replace New York’s 20th Century evening sale originally scheduled for June 22.
In this brave new topsy turvy world Oliver Barker, an auctioneer at Sotheby’s, will take to the rostrum in London on June 29 to conduct an auction in New York. This digital auction, live streamed in high definition around the world, will allow bidders participate by phone or online, in a sale of Contemporary Art immediately followed by the Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale. These big ticket sales at Sotheby’s were originally scheduled for New York in May. Works can be viewed online from June 8 or by appointment at Sotheby’s Manhattan galleries. Francis Bacon’s 1981 “Triptych inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus” is estimated to make at least $60 million. Bacon’s theme of divine punishment is taken from Aeschylus’s most famous trilogy The Oresteia in which Clytemnestra murders her husband Agamemnon in revenge for the sacrifice of their daugher Iphigenia. When Orestes finds out he kills his mother to avenge his fathers death, provoking the avenging Furies who drive Orestes insane as a punishment. At times like this the highest levels of the art market tend to be best insulated against price drops largely because sellers at these stratified levels can afford to hold back. There was a 5% drop in the global art market last year, representing a $3.3 billion drop in sales over the stellar year of 2018. Digital sales by major auction houses so far this year have been highly successful with many lots going over estimate. Expectations are high.
Works from across Picasso’s entire oeuvre including paintings, drawings, unique ceramics, editions, photographs, and even paint palettes will come under the hammer at an online sale at Sotheby’s from June 8-18. Over sixty lots are from the personal collection of the artist’s granddaughter, Marina Picasso. The sale will be exhibited at Sotheby’s in London with appropriate safety restrictions from June 15-18 and viewing is available by appointment on request prior to those dates.
