Up Close, Not Personal: Christie’s Up Close sale of small works did about as well as Sotheby’s own version of the gambit earlier this year. That is, the sale concept proved to be less appealing than the works in the sale that sold well. The quiet sale made £14.53m with a few stand out sales. For example, Giacometti’s small Homme (Apollon) made a very healthy £3.48m or nearly three times the high estimate with fees added; a tiny untitled Cy Twombly drawing attracted £525k over a £300k high estimate. Lucien Freud’s adorable postcard of a sleeping pup, Pluto, went for £908k over a £600k high estimate. A Nicolas de Staël, one of the few artists for whom work of this size is not uncommon in his oeuvre, saw his Composition make £440k over a £280k high estimate. A Piero Manzoni Achrome made of cotton was ginned up more than twice the high estimate to £392k. Finally, an Alberto Burri Sacco e Verde sold for nearly twice the high estimate to make £284k. …
Roy Lichtenstein’s Female Head (1977) will be featured at Sotheby’s on 16 November in New York. It will be on view through 8 October in London. Acquired from Leo Castelli Gallery in November 1977, just months after it was painted. It will carry a pre-sale estimate of $10-15m.
