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    • Posts Tagged ‘sotheby’s’

    ONE DOLLAR BILL BY ANDY WARHOL SELLS FOR £20.9 MILLION

    Wednesday, July 1st, 2015
    Andy Warhol - One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate) sold for £20.9 million.

    Andy Warhol – One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate) sold for £20.9 million.

    Andy Warhol’s One Dollar Bill made £20.9 million to become the top lot at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art sale in London tonight. Painted in 1962 it was his first dollar painting. The sale brought in £130.4 million, a 40% increase on the same sale a year ago.  However the painting billed as the highlight of the sale, a Francis Bacon Pope, did not sell and neither did two Warhol silkscreens. Nonetheless this was the highest ever total for an auction of contemporary art in Europe. Two newly discovered works by Francis Bacon made £30 million and Four Eggs on a Plate, a present from Lucian Freud to the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire made just short of one million after being chased by seven bidders.

    (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for June 26, June 9 and June 1, 2015).

    Francis Bacon - Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (1980) sold for £14.7 million.

    Francis Bacon – Three Studies for a Self-Portrait (1980) sold for £14.7 million.

    Francis Bacon - Self-Portrait 1975 sold for £15.3 million..

    Francis Bacon – Self-Portrait 1975 sold for £15.3 million..

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    IRISH ART SALES TO RESUME AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015
    Sir William Orpen - Nude Girl Reading

    Sir William Orpen – Nude Girl Reading  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD

    In a nod to the recovering Irish economy Sotheby’s will resume stand alone Irish art sales in London on October 21.  Highlighting that sale is  Nude Girl Reading by Sir William Orpen, described by Sotheby’s as one of his most sensational nudes.  Not on the market for 30 years, it is estimated at £300,000-500,000.  The work was painted in 1921 and the subject was Orpen’s lover Yvonne Aubicq, daughter of the mayor of Lille.  Their affair continued until 1928.

    In 1995 Sotheby’s was the first London auction house to hold sales of Irish art.  Arabella Bishop, Head of Sotheby’s Ireland, said: “Over the last couple of years, interest has increased and we have seen new collectors, not only from Ireland but internationally, actively buying and bidding in this field. We anticipate that the market for Irish art will continue to gather pace and feel that the moment is right to re-launch an annual dedicated sale. We are also thrilled to be opening our new 1,350 square-foot office in Dublin. This larger space, with excellent private viewing conditions, further cements our commitment to the Irish market.”

    In Dublin Sotheby’s will open new premises at 29 Molesworth Street on June 27, a move from the previous location at 16 Molesworth St.  Stand alone sales of Irish art have not been held at Sotheby’s since 2011.

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    PISTOLS GIFTED BY NAPOLEON AT SOTHEBY’S TREASURES SALE

    Friday, June 12th, 2015
    The pistols gifted by Napoleon I to his son.

    The pistols gifted by Napoleon I to his son.

    A  pair of child sized pistols – believed to be parting gifts from Napoleon I to his three year old son titled King of Rome at birth – is one of the more unusual lots at Sotheby’s Treasures sale in London on July 8.

    Created by celebrated gunsmith Jean Lepage the pistols are encrusted and inlaid with gold and emblazoned with Napoleonic symbolism, such as the capitalised N and the Imperial eagle, marking them as an important Imperial gift. Dated 1814 they are estimated at £800,000-1.2 million.

    Napoleon abdicated in April 1814, was forced into exile on the island of Elba, but returned triumphantly only to be decisively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington on June 18, 1815. He was exiled to the Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died in 1821.

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    ICONIC DEGAS LITTLE DANCER AT SOTHEBY’S

    Wednesday, June 10th, 2015
    Degas' Petite danseuse de quatorze ans

    Degas’ Petite danseuse de quatorze ans  UPDATE: IT MADE £15.8 MILLION

    Edgar Degas’ Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, comes up at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale in London on June 24.  One of only a handful of bronze casts remaining in private hands it is estimated at £10-15 million. Most are housed in major museum collections, including Tate, London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museé d’Orsay, Paris.

    Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide said:“Petite danseuse de quatorze ans is Edgar Degas’ most important and iconic sculpture.  The artist’s ambitious and highly innovative work marks the pinnacle of his achievements as a sculptor, and its forthcoming sale represents a rare opportunity to acquire an icon of Impressionist art.”

    The art historian Richard Kendall, co-curator of the Royal Academy’s exhibition Degas and the Ballet wrote: “Degas’ Little Dancer Aged Fourteen is among the three or four most celebrated sculptures of the modern age.  Along with Rodin’s The Kiss and the same artist’s The Thinker, and perhaps Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty, Degas’s statuette of a slender young ballet dancer has become recognisable to millions and admired throughout the world.”

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    BACON’S STUDY FOR A POPE 1 AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, June 9th, 2015
    Francis Bacon - Study for a Pope 1.

    Francis Bacon – Study for a Pope 1. UPDATE: IT FAILED TO SELL

    Francis Bacon’s Study for a Pope I – estimated at £25-35 million – will lead Sotheby’s contemporary art auction in London on July 1.  The auction is poised to become London’s highest value sale of contemporary art with a pre-sale estimate of  £143.2 million to £204.6 million. The 59 lot sale will include the most important collection of Andy Warhol dollar paintings in private hands.

    Bacon was obsessed with the Velazquez Portrait of Pope Innocent X.  He created his Study for a Pope I for his breakthrough retrospective exhibition at the Tate Gallery in 1962. It was in the collection of Gunter Sachs for 40 years and was sold at auction for £10 million in 2005, a record price for a work of Bacon at the time.

    Here is a video from Sotheby’s about the work:

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    FIRST EDITION OF THE HOBBIT MAKES NEW WORLD RECORD

    Thursday, June 4th, 2015
    A letter in elvish.

    A letter in elvish.

    The first edition of The Hobbit.

    The first edition of The Hobbit.

    A first edition of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” from 1937 sold for a new world record price of £137,000 at Sotheby’s in London today.  This more than doubled the pre-sale estimate of £50,000-70,000.

    Presented as a gift from the author to one of his first students at Leeds University in the 1920s, Miss Katherine (“Kitty”) Kilbride, it is inscribed with a handwritten note from the author in Elvish. The author continued to send letters, cards and books to her throughout his life.

    The presentation copy inscribed by the author as follows: “K.M. Kilbride, with greeting from J.R.R. Tolkien” and four lines in Elvish.  The Hobbit was first published in London by George Allen and Unwin Ltd. in 1937.  The previous world record for a first edition of the story was £50,000 set in 2008.

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    CAPTIVATING KLIMT PORTRAIT AT SOTHEBY’S

    Thursday, June 4th, 2015
    Property from the Fels?ványi Collection Gustav Klimt Bildnis Gertrud Loew (Gertha Fels?ványi) / (Portrait of Gertrud Loew -Gertha Fels?ványi) signed Gustav Klimt and dated 1902 (upper left)

    Gustav Klimt
    Bildnis Gertrud Loew (Gertha Felsoványi)  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £24.8 MILLION

    Gustav Klimt’s captivating portrait Bildnis Gertrud Loew comes up at Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern evening sale in London on June 24.  This follows a settlement between the Felsöványi family and The Klimt Foundation. Dating from 1902 it is estimated at £12-18 million.  It depicts Gertrud Loew, later known by her married name Gertha Felsöványi, a member of fin-de-siècle Viennese society, wreathed in diaphanous folds of gossamer fabric.

    Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide said: “Bildnis Gertrud Loew, from a crucial period in the artist’s career, is one his finest portraits to appear at auction in over twenty years.”

    Gertrud Felsöványi’s granddaughter on behalf of family heirs, said: “This portrait portrays the brave and determined nature of my grandmother. Her strength of character and beauty lives on in this visual embodiment. My father, Anthony Felsöványi, last saw this painting in June 1938 when he left the family home for the last time to depart for America. At that time my grandmother had been advised to leave her family home to live in a less grand home to try to avoid the attention of the Nazis, given her Jewish ancestry. Eventually, under duress, in 1939 she left Vienna altogether to join my father in America, having left all of her belongings behind – including this painting. Her home had been taken over as a Nazi headquarters and she had left her valuable belongings with friends and acquaintances. After the war, she never returned to Vienna. Only my father’s sister did, with the hope of retrieving some of their belongings, but to no avail. My father said that my grandmother never again mentioned the painting or the valuable belongings she had left behind”.

     

    UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £24.8 MILLION.  The sale followed a ten minute bidding battle. It was the second highest price paid for a Klimt portrait at auction.

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    MANET’S Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère AT SOTHEBY’S

    Tuesday, June 2nd, 2015
    ÉDOUARD MANET (1832 – 1883) LE BAR AUX FOLIES BERGÈRE

    ÉDOUARD MANET (1832 – 1883)
    LE BAR AUX FOLIES BERGÈRE  UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £16.9 MILLION

    Manet’s first version of The Bar at the Folies Bergere comes up at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London on June 24.  Depicting one of his most iconic subjects Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère of 1881 by Édouard Manet is estimated at £15-20 million.  The painting remained in the artist’s personal collection up until his death, after which it went to his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. It  was shown to the public in 1905 in the now legendary exhibition at the Grafton Galleries, London, which introduced the British public to Impressionism. Since then the work has been exhibited extensively internationally and most recently featured as one of the highlights of the National Gallery’s blockbuster exhibition in London Inventing Impressionism: Paul Durand-Ruel and the Modern Art Market.

    The second and final version of the work is at The Courtauld Institute in London.

    UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £16.9 MILLION.  The same work made £4.4 million when sold at Sotheby’s in 1994.

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    A LOCKET WITH MOZART’S HAIR AT SOTHEBY’S

    Monday, May 25th, 2015
    The locket containing a lock of Mozart's hair.

    The locket containing a lock of Mozart’s hair.  UPDATE: IT SOLD FOR £35,000

    A lock of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s hair contained in a 19th century gilt locket comes up at Sotheby’s in London on May 28.  The strands were given by Mozart’s widow, Constanze, to the mother of the German-born conductor Karl Anschütz (1813-1870). It then passed into the collection of one of the most successful English song-composers of all time, Arthur Sommervell (1863-1937) whose direct descendent owns the item today.   It is estimated at £10,000-12,000.

    Locks of hair were frequently taken as keepsakes.  The auction will also feature a printed invitation to Beethoven’s funeral, together with a small lock of his white hair (est. £2,000 – 3,000). Testament to this tradition, Gerhard von Breuning, the son of Beethoven’s lifelong friend, recalled that when he visited the composer to pay his last respects “strangers had already cut all the strands of his hair”.

    Opportunities to get close to figures from history have always been met with fascination. In 2002, Sotheby’s sold a different lock of Mozart’s hair, passed down from the mistress of one of Mozart’s sons, for £38,240 – double its pre-sale high estimate. The British Museum holds a heart shaped pendant with a snippet of Marie Antoinette’s hair within its collection.

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    ROTHKO’S YELLOW AND BLUE SELLS FOR $46.5 MILLION

    Wednesday, May 13th, 2015
    Untitled (Yellow and Blue) by Mark Rothko sold for $46.5 million

    Untitled (Yellow and Blue) by Mark Rothko sold for $46.5 million

    Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow and Blue) made $46.5 million at Sotheby’s in New York last night. It was the top lot in a contemporary art evening sale which realised $380 million and set seven new artist price records.  There was global participation with works consigned from 11 countries and bidders from 40 countries and significant participation from Latin America and  Asia.

    Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow and Blue), which was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon for over 30 years, sold for $46,450,000 to an anonymous client after it was underbid by an Asian private collector.

    Roy Lichtenstein’s The Ring (Engagement) sold for $41,690,000.  The work has had only two owners in 50 years and came from the collection of Stefan T. Edlis. The price is nearly 20 times the $2,202,500 the work fetched when it last appeared at auction in November 1997 at Sotheby’s.

    There were artists records for Christopher Wool, Sigmar Polke, Mark Bradford, Mark Grotjahn, Danh Vô, Thomas Struth and Helen Frankenthaler.

    (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for May 8 and April 13, 2015).

    Andy Warhol's Superman sold for $14,362,000

    Andy Warhol’s Superman sold for $14,362,000

    Sigmar Polke - Dschungel (Jungle), sold for a new record of $27,130,000

    Sigmar Polke – Dschungel (Jungle), sold for a new record of $27,130,000

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