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ALDOURIE CASTLE WINS RESTORATION AWARD

Sunday, July 24th, 2011

Aldourie Castle. (Click on image to enlarge).

Aldourie Castle, on the southern shore of Loch Ness, near Inverness is the winner of the Historic Houses Association (HHA) and Sotheby’s Restoration Award for 2011. The restoration work has included the remodelling of 57 rooms, furnished with over 2000 works of art, and the replacement and repair of 172 windows. The aim of the restoration was to ensure its revival as an important historic Grade A Listed building. The restoration included the castle, the formal gardens and the mature woodlands at this Scottish baronial castle and estate.

Aldourie Castle was bought by Roger Tempest in 2004 and the restoration work began in 2007. The interiors, which were allowed to develop as the project progressed, are ornamented with recently-acquired Old Master and British paintings, a specially-commissioned chandelier from Murano in Italy and curtains of Rubelli Silk.

The HHA/Sotheby’s Restoration Award was launched in 2008. Projects are judged on the way they respect the historic quality of the building and must have been completed within the last two years. They must be must also be readily accessible to the public for at least 25 days a year or to groups by appointment.

The Red Drawing Room before restoration. (Click to enlarge)

The Red Drawing Room after restoration. (Click to enlarge).

Lady Gray Bedroom before restoration.

Lady Gray Bedroom after restoration.

Tags: Aldourie Castle, Historic Houses Association, sotheby's
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ZAMBIAN EMERALDS FOR ASIAN ELEPHANTS

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

SAWANSUKHA JEWELLERS ZAMBIAN EMERALD NECKLACE. (Click on image to enlarge). Copyright Sotheby's.

A collection of bespoke Zambian emerald jewellery is to be auctioned to protect the Asian elephant. Sotheby’s will conduct the sale on October 14, 2011 at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai. Sponsors are the World Land Trust and ethical coloured gemstones mining company, Gemfields, together with Jaguar Land Rover and the Gemological Institute of America (GIA India). Gemfields has picked ten leading jewellers from around India to create a one-of-a-kind piece or set of jewellery, incorporating Zambian emeralds. The jewellers are Abaran Jewellers (Bangalore), Anmol Jewellers (Mumbai), Gem Palace (Jaipur), Khanna Jewellers (New Delhi), Meena Jewellers(Hyderabad), Narayan Jewellers (Baroda), Nirav Modi (Mumbai), Sawansukha Jewellers (Kolkata), Talwarsons Jewellers (Chandigarh) and Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers (Chennai).

The aim of the charity auction is to create awareness and raise crucial funds for the conservation initiatives of Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) for the Asian Elephant in India. Auctioneer Lord Poltimore, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said: “Sotheby’s is delighted to be supporting ‘Emeralds for Elephants’ charity auction in Mumbai this coming October, which will generate much-needed funds for the protection of the Asian Elephant. The combination of jewellers and gemstones has resulted in some truly magnificent jewellery pieces of outstanding workmanship, inspired by the very cause they will be sold to benefit. We very much look forward to playing a modest role in raising funds for this worthy cause.”

The sale follows the success of ‘Emeralds for Elephants’ in London in the summer of 2010.

Tags: Elephants, Emeralds, sotheby's
Posted in AUCTIONS, COLLECTIBLES | 1 Comment »

KLIMT MASTERPIECE AT SOTHEBY’S, NEW YORK

Friday, July 15th, 2011

Klimt masterpiece Litzlberg am Attersee (Litzlberg on the Attersee) at Sotheby's in New York. (Click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: IT MADE $40.4 MILLION.

Gustav Klimt’s masterpiece Litzlberg am Attersee (Litzlberg on the Attersee) promises to be an important highlight of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale in New York next November 2. It is a dramatic view of the lush environs of Lake Attersee in western Austria. Painted with Klimt’s sumptuous palette and jewel-like surface it is estimated to make more than $25 million.

Klimt’s Kirche in Cassone (Landschaft mit Zypressen) (Church in Cassone – Landscape with Cypresses) made an auction record for a landscape by the artist when it sold for £26.9 million ($43.2 million) at Sotheby’s London in February 2010.

Both paintings were originally in the collection of Austrian iron magnate Viktor Zuckerkandl and his wife Paula. They were stolen after the annexation of Austria in 1938. Each has been restituted to Georges Jorisch, great-nephew of Viktor, after intensive research revealed that his memory of the works hanging in the family’s home in Purkersdorf was correct. Litzlberg am Attersee was returned to Mr. Jorisch late last week from the Museum der Moderne Salzburg. A portion of the proceeds from its sale will be donated to that museum for the building of a new extension.

Tags: Klimt, new york, sotheby's
Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | 3 Comments »

SAFRA SALE AT SOTHEBY’S OFFERS REMARKABLE OPPORTUNITIES

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

This masterpiece of English Rococo, the Burghley Epergne, was created for the 9th Earl of Exeter. It is estimated at $800,000/1.2 million. (Click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $950,500.

The four day sale of the Lily and Edmond J. Safra Collections at Sotheby’s in New York in October offers remarkable opportunities to collectors around the world. Sotheby’s say that the six dedicated sales from October 18-21 represent the pinnacle of their respective collecting categories.

The sales are as follows: Magnificent European Furniture & Works of Art, led by an extraordinary group of French 18th-century lacquer, arguably is the most important at auction since the 1882 sale of the Collection of the 12th Duke of Hamilton from Hamilton Palace, Scotland; Important Russian Works of Art comprised of over 100 lots of fine and important Russian porcelains, silver, enamels and other objects; Highly Important Silver, including a stunning assemblage of primarily English and French creations from the mid-18th to the early-19th centuries; Important Cosway Bindings, comprised of a magnificent group of approximately 180 Cosway bindings, the finest collection to be sold at auction in nearly 90 years; Interiors: Fine 19th Century Watercolors, presenting a collection of over 100 interior paintings, many of which document the great estates of wealthy patrons and sumptuous palaces of royalty; European Furniture, Fine & Decorative Arts, led by a large group of 18th-century Meissen porcelain figures of birds, as well as a significant collection of extremely fine and rare ‘tour de force’ turned ivory carvings.

Cosway binding by Riviere & Sons Concerning the True Portraiture of Mary Queen of Scots by Joshua James Foster. The cover is inset with 13 miniature portraits of Mary Stuart and François II, almost certainly painted by Miss C. B. Currie ($40/60,000). (Click to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $50,000.

Mr. and Mrs. Safra’s collections offer unparalleled opportunities for connoisseurs worldwide. The full sale, which is estimated in excess of $40 million, will be on exhibition throughout Sotheby’s York Avenue headquarters beginning 14 October. A two day sale of the Safra Collections at Sotheby’s in 2005 realised $49 million.

Born in Beirut to a family that started in banking at the time of the Ottoman Empire Edmond Safra built a business that spanned more than thirty countries across the globe. A victim of arson at his home in Monaco, he died in 1999. He was an extraordinary philanthropist who supported tens of thousands of students, underwrote medical research, built and restored schools and synagogues, endowed professorships, and contributed to countless humanitarian, religious, educational, and cultural causes worldwide. Since 1999 Lily Safra has chaired the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. Both personally and through the Foundation, she supports research into neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, at dozens of hospitals and universities worldwide

Tags: new york, Safra, sotheby's
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GUARDI’S MONUMENTAL VENETIAN MASTERPIECE MAKES £26,697,250

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

Francesco Guardi's Venetian masterpiece made £26,697,250. (Click on image to enlarge)

Francesco Guardi’s monumental masterpiece Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon made £26,697,250 at Sotheby’s on July 6. This was a record as the second highest price paid for any Old Master painting at auction, a record for a Venetian view painting at auction and a record for Guardi. It was bought by an anonymous bidder in a sale which achieved a total of £47,640,900.

Correggio - Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist made £3,625,250. (Click to enlarge)

There were artist records for seven other paintings. Hans Schäufelein double-sided, tempera and oil altarpiece panel, The Dormition of the Virgin, realised £2,729,250; Madonna and child with the infant Saint John the Baptist by Antonio Allegri, better known as Correggio made £3,625,250; John de Critz the Elder oil on panel Portrait of James I made £199,250; Jacob Knyff’s painting Charles II and James, Duke of York, on board H.M.S. Triumph, with three royal yachts off Dover made £169,250; Francesco de Michele Triptych: Central panel: Saint Gregory the Great: left wing: Saint Catherine of Alexandria: right wing: Saint Jerome made £241,250; Vittore Ghislandi called Fra G algario Portrait of a young man in a green tunic made £325,250 and Anthonie Verstraelen A winter landscape with figures skating on a frozen river beside a village made £481,250.

Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s Portrait of a Carmelite monk, head and shoulders made £713,250 and A Bearded Man with Hands Raised by Van Dyck made £457,250. John Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral From The Meadows made £657,250.

A total of 50 of the 73 lots on offer found buyers in a sale that was sold 68.5% by lot and 91.6% by value.

John Constable’s Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows made £657,250. (click to enlarge).

The auction shot with Henry Wyndham selling the Guardi.

The previous highest price for a Venetian view painting was £18.6 million for Canaletto’s Venice – The Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi, at Sotheby’s London in July 2005. The previous auction record for a monumental view painting by Francesco Guardi was £9,889,937 at Sotheby’s in Monaco in 1989.

(All images copyright Sotheby’s) (See antiquesandartireland.com posts for June 21, June 19 and February 26.)

Tags: Guardi, Old Masters, sotheby's
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BACON AGAIN SHOWS STRENGTH AT SOTHEBY’S RECORD BREAKING CONTEMPORARY SALE

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011

The scene at Sotheby's contemporary evening sale.

Sotheby’s evening Contemporary Art sale on June 29 brought in £108,803,550 the highest total ever for such a sale in London. Francis Bacon’s Crouching Nude from 1961 was the top selling lot. It made £8,329,250.

The Duerckheim Collection of contemporary German art, which comprised the first 34 lots, realised £60,401,650. Almost every lot here was contested by multiple bidders. New artist records were established for Blinky Palermo, Sigmar Polke, Eugen Schönebeck, Markus Lüpertz and Georg Baselitz.

Andy Warhol’s electric pink acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas of Blondie’s lead singer Debbie Harry – the only major painting of renowned lead singer of the new wave and punk rock band ever to come to auction – sold for £3,737,250/ against an estimate of £3.5-5.5 million. An early Jean-Michel Basquiat painting, Untitled, made £5,417,250 to become the second highest priced lot.

Headlining the Duerckheim collection were a number of paintings by Sigmar Polke. His record was broken three times in quick succession. Dschungel, the largest of the Rasterbilder (dot paintings) from the 1960s ever to appear for public sale, made £5,753,250. A new record was set for Georg Baselitz when Spekulatius from the celebrated ‘Hero’ series sold for £3,233,250. Baselitz’s Grosse Nacht made £2,393,250. There was exceptional prices for Gerhard Richter whose 1024 Farben from 1974 more than doubled its pre-sale high estimate to make £4,297,250. Buyers from 14 countries took part in an auction which was 89.8% sold by lot and 93.9% by value. No less than 29 works sold for over £1 million, and 45 lots made over $1 million.

See antiquesandartireland.com posts for April 26 and June 7.

Tags: bacon, Contemporary art, London, sotheby's
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WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR EGON SCHIELE AT SOTHEBY’S

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Egon Schiele's world record painting entitled Houses with Laundry (Suburb II). (Click on image to enlarge).

There was a world auction record for Egon Schiele at Sotheby’s on June 22. His Häuser mit bunter Wäsche (Vorstadt II) / Houses with Laundry (Suburb II) made £24,681,250, almost double the previous auction record for the Austrian artist.

The painting, sold by the Leopold Museum in Vienna, was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder. Executed in 1914 at the height of Egon Schiele’s short career (he died in 1918 at the age of just 28), the painting is one of the most impressive of the artist’s few monumental cityscapes and is loosely based on motifs drawn from Krumau, the town known to have inspired some of his greatest works. It was this town in Southern Bohemia in which Schiele’s mother was born, and to which Schiele and his lover Valerie (Wally) Neuzil moved in 1911 in order to escape what they perceived as the claustrophobic atmosphere of Vienna.

Overall, the sale achieved £96,968,000, within the pre-sale estimate of £77 to £111 million. It was 91.4% sold by lot and 98.4% by value. Records were also set for Marc Chagall’s Au-Dessus de la ville, which made £1,833,250, a record for a work on paper by the artist and Tamara de Lempicka’s La Dormeuse of 1930 which made £4,073,250/$6,617,809, a US dollar record for the artist.

The June Impressionist & Modern Art sale at Sotheby’s made £14,622,250, bringing the total for the June series to £111,590,250.

See antiquesandartireland.com post for May 5.

Tags: art, Schiele, sotheby's
Posted in ART, AUCTIONS | 1 Comment »

MODERN BRITISH ART AUCTION ACHIEVES HIGHEST EVER TOTAL

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Sir Stanley Spencer RA - Sunflower and Dog Worship sold for £5,417,250. (click on image to enlarge). (image copyright Sotheby's).

THE highest total ever for an auction of Modern British Art was achieved at Sotheby’s this evening. Just 30 lots brought in the remarkable total of £37,464,300 / $61,224,159, doubling the pre-sale high estimate of £16 / $26 million. Part I of The Evill/Frost Collection sale surpassed all expectations and established eight auction records.

The top lot was Stanley Spencer’s Sunflower and Dog Worship, which sold for £5,417,250 over a pre-sale estimate of £1-1.5 million. No less than five bidders vied for the painting. This broke the record set for the artist earlier at the same sale when Workmen in the House sold for £4,745,250.

The sale saw the highest price at auction for a Lucian Freud work on paper. There were new record prices Graham Sutherland, William Roberts, David Jones, Leon Underwood, Edward Burra, John Skeaping and Patrick Heron.

Sutherlands The Crucifixion made £713,250, Roberts Discussion in a Cafe made £373,250, July Change by David Jones made £32,450, Sungirl by Leon Underwood made £91,250, Zoot Suits by Edward Burra made £2,057,250, John Skeaping’s Pouter-Pigeon made £58,850 and Patrick Heron’s The Blue Table with Window made £1,049,250.

Boat on a Beach, a 1945 work on paper that records a trip Lucian Freud made to the Scilly Isles, sold for £2,617,250.

See antiquesandartireland.com post for March 7, 2011

UPDATE: The three-part sale of the Evill/Frost collection brought a combined total of £42,484,639 against a high estimate of £19 million.

Boy on a Sofa by Lucian Freud made £1,497,250. (click on image to enlarge, copyright Sotheby's)

Workmen in the House by Sir Stanley Spencer made £4,745,250. (click on image to enlarge, copyright Sotheby's)

Tags: Modern British Art, sotheby's, Stanley Spencer
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NEWLY DISCOVERED PORTRAIT OF CARMELITE MONK BY VAN DYCK AT SOTHEBY’S

Friday, June 10th, 2011

SIR ANTHONY VAN DYCK PORTRAIT OF A CARMELITE MONK. (copyright, Sotheby's). (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: IT MADE £713,250

A newly discovered portrait by 17th Century Flemish painter Sir Anthony Van Dyck features at Sotheby’s sale of Old Master and British Paintings in London on July 6. The intense and psychologically penetrating portrait of a young Carmelite monk is a hitherto unknown work, which Sotheby’s has discovered to have been painted by the youthful Van Dyck during the years he worked in Rubens’ studio.

Early last year Sotheby’s Paris office did a routine valuation to appraise artwork. A painting of extraordinary quality which the family had owned for at least two centuries had always been known as the “Confesseur de Rubens”. Experts say that while Rubens’ portraits are always formally composed, the current work, especially the way the young monk’s head is turned to one side, creates an impression of spontaneity.

The brushwork in the picture, painted in oil on oak panel, is clearly legible. This is more reminiscent of Anthony Van Dyck when he worked in Rubens’ studio, than of his teacher. Specifically, the use of thick paint to denote highlights in the sitter’s habit is a characteristic of Van Dyck’s personal style at this date, and can be seen in a series of paintings the artist made of the Apostles.

A large number of scholars have had the opportunity to study this picture at first hand. The consensus view is that it is by Van Dyck towards the end of the period during which he worked with Rubens in Rubens’ studio, circa 1617-1620. It is assumed that Van Dyck painted this intense portrait in Rubens’ house in Antwerp. It is estimated to make £600,000-£800,000.

UPDATE: IT MADE £713,250

Tags: sotheby's, Van Dyck
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A DIAMOND TIARA FROM THE 1920’S

Friday, June 10th, 2011

A diamond tiara from the 1920's at Sotheby's. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS MADE £277,250

A diamond tiara from the 1920’s highlights Sotheby’s sale of fine jewels in London on July 13. Estimates in this 288 lot sale range from £3,000-55,000. The tiara has an estimate of £35,000-55,000.

There are contemporary and period jewels, spanning three centuries of workmanship and design with signed pieces by designers like Repossi, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany and Boucheron. The entire sale is expected to raise more than £1.7 million.

An opal and diamond corsage. (click on image to enlarge) UPDATE: THIS MADE £25,000

An opal and diamond corsage from the mid-19th century highlights the 19th century jewel section. It was formerly in the collection of Doña Maria Cristina of Bourbon, Princess of the Two Sicilies (Widow of King Ferdinand VII of Spain) Queen Regent of Spain.

Designed as a series of ribbons and leaves and a central cabochon opal within a floral border, and set with cushion-shaped, circular-cut and rose diamonds, suspending a series of four tassels similarly set, it is estimated at £20,000-30,000.

Tags: jewels, sotheby's
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