Bloomberg reports midway through the week of Russian sales in London:

MacDougall Arts Ltd.’s sale of Russian 19th-century and 20th-century paintings raised 5 million pounds ($7.68 million), below the presale low estimate of 12 million pounds. The London- based auction house said its first-ever evening sale ended with “just under 40 percent” of the 62 lots sold. The top two lots accounted for about 40 percent of the total value sold. Read the rest of this entry »

The Irish Independent reports a pretty strong sale for Irish art in Dublin:

Although the organisers of the Irish art sale at Whyte’s had initially hoped for a total take near the €3m mark, early estimates indicated that about €1.5m worth of art was sold last night, with buyers picking up about three-quarters of the 170 lots on offer.

While other art markets are struggling with sales that must readjust expectations in the midst of a credit crisis, Ireland’s artists like Sean Scully (above, left) are holding on to their value.

Here are the results from Whyte’s and the story:

Auction paints a poor picture for art market in tough times (The Independent)

The Russian Art Sales Feel the Bite of the Bear Markets in Commodities

Bloomberg reports on the Russian sales in London:

Sotheby’s took 16.1 million pounds for two sales, against Christie’s International’s 3 million pounds and Bonham’s 1.7 million pounds. Three of the four auctions missed the companies’ own presale low estimates. [ . . . ]

Some collectors and dealers blame the weak results on unrealistically high prices auction houses set amid a global financial crisis that triggered a 65 percent drop in the Russian stock market in the last six months.

“We need to get past this otherwise the market risks stagnating,” said Samarine.

[ . . . ]

“We’re at an awkward moment where the market doesn’t want to buy at the old prices, and sellers don’t want to accept the new reality,” said London-based art dealer Ivan Samarine.

(More results after the jump.)

Bonhams sold one-third of the 244 lots offered for about 1.7 million pounds on a presale low estimate of 5.8 million pounds. None of its top lots sold.

Sotheby’s sold 59 percent of the 55 lots of 19th-century and 20th-century Russian paintings, netting 14.1 million pounds against a presale low estimate of 17.5 million pounds.

The Sotheby’s sale of Imperial works of art bucked this trend with 94% of the lots sold, 78% those went for above the high estimates.

Princess Collection Shines at London Russia-Art Sale (Bloomberg)

Was Sotheby’s the Favorite to Win the YSL Collection?

Pinault Steps In and Wins the Contest for Christie’s.

What Will This Do for the Paris Auction Market?

London’s First Post gives us the back story on Christie’s not-so-surprising success in getting the YSL art collection to sell in Paris in the Winter of 2009. The Independent confirms that Sotheby’s was close to a deal and values the collection at more than $500 million, making it the largest single owner sale ever. Those who have seen the collection describe it as “a room full of masterpieces.”

Reuters adds this quote from YSL’s dealer:

Antique dealer Alexis Kugel, who told Le Figaro his relation with the collectors was the closest a dealer could have with his clients, said: “For Yves Saint Laurent art was a vital need, indispensable for his inspiration, like water to survive. It soothed his depressive character.”

The Times tries to pour cold water over the whole affair by turning it into an important market test–which it will be–and using a bitchy quote from Godfrey Barker: “We now learn that Saint Laurent moved stealthily to become one of the biggest buyers in the most overpriced sector of the art market - paintings from 1900-25, which cost £5m to £25m each,” said Godfrey Barker, an art-market expert. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times Profiles Marlene Dumas as living female painter who fetched the highest price at auction.

Strange timing to be profiling Dumas who had her moment on the auction market some three years ago. But the story serves as a solid reminder in the run-up to the London sales that we live in an age of micro-markets where a painter will see their work have a two-year rise in value.

Here is how author Deborah Solomon describes Dumas’s own spin on the secondary market:

For all their moral gravity, Dumas’s paintings have led a separate, rather flashy existence in the more commercial precincts of the art world. In February 2005, at Christie’s in London, “The Teacher (sub a)” (1987) — a large, horizontal group portrait that turns a sentiment-laden class picture from her own childhood into a bruising reflection on authority — sold for $3.34 million. Virtually overnight, Dumas became “the world’s most expensive living female artist,” as the blogs reported, Read the rest of this entry »

Christie’s Latin American sale shows vitality in the market

From Christie’s press release:

Christie’s landmark Latin American Evening Sale realized both a new world auction record for Latin American Art with Rufino Tamayo’s Trovador at $7,209,000, and set the highest total ever for any auction of Latin American Art at $26,632,850. Tamayo’s magnificent Trovador more than doubled the previous world auction record for the artist, and eclipsed the previous record for the category, held by Frida Kahlo’s Roots, which sold for $5,616,000 in May 2006. The sale was 86% sold by value, 83% sold by lot.

Read the rest of this entry »

Following a successful $9 million sale of Orientalist Art in New York, Sotheby’s tries to build momentum in London this Friday.

According to their press office, Sotheby’s:

will present an impressive range of Turkish, North African and Middle East-inspired works in its Orientalist Sale on Friday, May 30th, 2008. The sale will present works by many of the leading names in the field, including Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847-1928), Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), Henri Rousseau (1875-1933), Théodore Chassériau (1819-56), Rudolf Ernst (1854-1904) and John Frederick Lewis (1805-76), all of whom were inspired by the khans, souks and bazaars of North Africa, the Middle East and Turkey in the 19th century. The 90 or so works - which include both paintings and sculpture - have a collective pre-sale estimate of £6.2-8.6 million.

The cornerstone of the sale will be a monumental masterpiece by the pre-eminent Turkish artist Osman Hamdy Bey (1842-1910), entitled A Lady of Constantinople, which is estimated at £3-4 million. The monumental piece is also arguably one of the most important works from the Orientalist genre ever to come to the market and it could set a new auction record for a work of this type.

Edward Hicks’s Peacable Kingdom leads Sotheby’s big sale

With 214 lots offered and 176 sold, Sotheby’s American Paintings sale totaled $86,006,200. That’s 82% of the lots sold. Among them were not only this Edward Hicks painting but 13 other record-setting works and 17 paintings that sold for more than $1 million. Carrying a high estimate of $77 million, the sale nailed the high estimate without the buyer’s premium.

Here are the top ten lots from the sale:

EDWARD HICKS, The Peaceable Kingdom . . . . ($6,000,000 - 8,000,000) $9,673,000

WILLIAM MERRITT CHASE, I Think I Am Ready Now ($1,500,000 - 2,500,000) $6,649,000

FREDERIC REMINGTON, The Wounded Bunkie ($3,000,000 - 5,000,000) $5,641,000

CHILDE HASSAM, Paris, Winter Day ($2,500,000 - 3,500,000) $3,961,000

FREDERIC REMINGTON, The Outlaw ($2,000,000 - 3,000,000) $3,401,000

MAXFIELD PARRISH, The Canyon ($2,500,000 - 3,500,000) $2,841,000

STUART DAVIS, The Music Hall ($500,000 - 700,000) $2,841,000

CHILDE HASSAM, Flower Garden, Isles of Shoals ($1,000,000 - 1,500,000) $2,505,000

WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT, The Ramblers ($2,000,000 - 3,000,000) $2,281,000

CHARLES C. COLEMAN, Azaleas and Apple Blossoms ($500,000 - 700,000) $2,281,000

With record prices in Western paintings, American Impressionism and Modernism, there’s new life–and a lot of money–in American paintings.

Christie’s had a blow out sale of American paintings yesterday with $72.5 million being paid for 111 lots out of 140. That’s 79% sold by lot and a record total for the sale. This Thomas Moran painting, “Green River Wyoming,” had a high estimate of $5,000,000. Ha! That would have been a bargain. It sold for $17 million, a record for a 19th Century American painting.

Here’s the rest of the top ten:

1. Thomas Moran, Green River of Wyoming, 1878 (3,500,000-5,000,000)$17,737,000
2. Albert Bierstadt, Indians Spear Fishing, 1862 (2,500,000- 3,500,000) $7,321,000
3. Marsden Hartley, Lighthouse , 1915 (5,000,000-7,000,000) $6,313,000
4. Childe Hassam, Spring in Central Park, 1908 (2,500,000- 3,500,000) $5,641,000
5. Thomas Moran, A Passing Shower in the Yellowstone Cañon, 1903 (1,500,000- 2,500,000) $2,505,000
6. George Inness, Sunset on the River, 1867 (600,000-800,000) $1,945,000
7. Walter Ufer, The Gateway, 1918 (500,000-700,000) $1,497,000
8. Joseph Henry Sharp, The Medicine Teepee, 1903 (500,000-700,000) $1,497,000
9. Walter Ufer, Making Ready, 1917 (600,000-800,000) $1,385,000
10. Edward Henry Potthast, At the Beach (300,000-500,000) $1,161,000