The report on Sotheby's October 28th Livestream Evening sale includes the seller of a Magritte and two Picassos and the details of the van Gogh. It is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

Following Sotheby’s $142.8 million contemporary art sales, all 36 lots in the Impressionist & Modern Art sale sold for $141 million against an estimate of $111 million to $160 million after the withdrawal of 3 lots. For those who think the Impressionist and Modern market is in decline, the average lot price from the samplings provided was not very different from the contemporary art sold earlier. In fact, the high end did rather better.

Here, the major lots going into the sale were two lifetime cast bronze sculptures by Alberto Giacometti estimated at $20 million–$30 million and $12 million–$18 million. Both were being sold by Revlon chief Ron Perelman, and both were guaranteed. The cheaper of the two was withdrawn because it had been sold privately before the sale, while the other, Femme Leoni (1947) from an edition of six, sold for $25.9 million (prices include the buyer’s premium, estimates do not). Six-and-a-half-foot casts of Femme Leoni are rare on the market. Number 5 from the edition of 6 sold fifteen years ago for $8.4 million during a Christie’s New York Impressionist and modern art sale. Perelman’s was number 3 from the edition, and sold to an Asian buyer for a mid-estimate $25.9 million.

After a flurry of additional third-party guarantees were announced before the sale, it turned out that Sotheby’s had covered the ground on more than half the lots. In addition, 23 lots had their reserves lowered sufficiently to allow that many winning bids below estimate. Result? A well-managed crisis and a 100 percent sell-through.Continue Reading

The report is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

Christie’s rounded up the London Contemporary Art sales week this evening with its traditional combination of Post War and Contemporary art and 20^th century Italian art. The former had been estimated at £40.9 million-£56 million ($53.4 million-$73 million) for 27 lots after 2 were withdrawn, and made £49.2 million ($64.6 million). The Italian sale had 30 lots estimated at £9.7 million-£14 million ($11.8 million-$15.7 million) after 2 were withdrawn, but only made a disappointing £5.3 million ($6.9 million) with more than half the lots unsold.

Taken as a whole, comparative figures for last October’s London sales were £64.6 million ($84 million) for 49 lots of Contemporary Art, and £24.6 million ($32 million) for 36 lots of Italian art. So, all told, while lot numbers were down by 33%, the overall sale total was a more drastic 40% down from last year.

Taking the more buoyant contemporary sale first, Christie’s had the distinction of handling the only two £10 million lots of the week.

Peter Doig’s Boiler House carried the top estimate of the London week at £13 million ($15.7 million). Dating from 1993, the painting was from the “Concrete Cabins” series, which depict a Le Corbusier designed building in France and have sold in this price region before. Promised by previous owners, West coast collectors Ken and Judy Siebel, to the San Francisco Museum of Art who lent it to a Tate retrospective in 2008, it was sold instead to the anonymous consignor at this sale. Boiler House had a third party guarantee, and although never seen at auction before, attracted little competition and sold below the estimate, presumably to the guarantor, for £13.9 million ($18.2 million) including the premium.

In second place was a rare commissioned portrait by David Hockney estimated at £11 million-£18 million ($14.4 million-$23.5 million) with a third party guarantee– an odd estimate that made most people think the reserve was probably £10 million ($13 million). Made in 1971 in the artist’s inimitably cool style mostly reserved for his friends, Ossie Clark, Celia Birtwell or Henry Geldzhaler, but of the less famous Sir David Webster, a former administrator at London’s Royal Opera House, it was being sold by the Opera House to inject some much needed cash into its operation.  Hockney only accepted the commission because of his love of opera and making opera designs and probably never imagined it could be sold. As it was there were two bidders who took the bidding to the £11 million low estimate or £12.9 million ($16.9 million) including premium— the 6th highest price for the artistContinue Reading