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$103 M. Picasso Stuns in Christie’s $481 M. 20th Century Art Sale as New Format Triumphs

May 14, 2021 by Colin Gleadell

Pablo Picasso, Femme assise près d'une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), 1932.
Pablo Picasso,Femme assise près d’une fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse), 1932.
Christie’s.
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 follow-up to its new 21st century art sale, which brought in $211 million on Tuesday, was a slightly weightier 20th century art auction with 50 lots and a pre-sale estimate in excess of $345 million. Covering works made between 1880 and 1980, the auction made a grand total of $481.1 million, with just one lot unsold. (Prices for sold works include buyer’s premium; estimates do not.)

This week’s marquee sales were bound to be a close call between Christies’s and Sotheby’s. Before they were held, the former’s two sales were expected to bring in $490 million, while the latter’s three-auction marathon the previous evening was estimated at $436 million. But last night’s auction made Christies’s new formula look like a winner. Nine works carried estimates higher than $10 million, so the sale was seen as a test of confidence at the high end of the market.

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$93 M. Basquiat Leads Christie’s 21st C. Evening Sale, $17 M. Cryptopunks Among Trending Talent

May 12, 2021 by Colin Gleadell

Jean-Michel Basquiat, In This Case From, 1983.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, In This Case, 1983.
Christie’s
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.)

On Tuesday evening Christie’s launched its new 21st-century sale category (1980s to now) with a 39-lot sale estimated to fetch more than $145 million. Timed an hour later than normal, it ate into America’s dining schedules and Europe’s deep sleep time. And to say that it was all about Asia would be an exaggeration, as barely 7 or 8 lots attracted bidding from Hong Kong. Still, after two hours of remote bidding and eleven record prices, the sale totaled a very healthy $210.5 million, realizing a 95 percent sell-through rate (sold prices include the buyers’ premium; estimates do not).

There was no precise precedent for comparison, as previous contemporary art sales included postwar work, henceforth to be included in their 20th-century sales (starting in the 1880s). Christie’s did experiment splitting 20th century and 21st century in the late 1990s, leaving Impressionists to merge with 19th century, but it didn’t work. Now, a quarter of a century on, there is far more contemporary art to choose from. Christie’s last evening contemporary art sale in New York before the pandemic in November 2019 scored $325 million with 54 lots including postwar art; the equivalent sale in May 2019 was $441 million. The drop was to be expected after shifting the postwar material.

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Reuben Family Revealed as Buyer of $15.3 M. van Gogh Landscape

March 26, 2021 by Colin Gleadell

Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh, Scène de rue à Montmartre (Impasse des deux frères et le Moulin à Poivre), 1887.
Sotheby’s

The London-based Reuben family has been revealed as the buyer of a $15.4 million Vincent van Gogh landscape purchased during Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art sale in Paris on Thursday. Scène de rue à Montmartre (Impasse des deux frères et le Moulin à Poivre), from 1887, made its auction debut there after more than a century in private hands. A representative for the Reubens confirmed that the family had purchased the work.

The Reuben family collection, which comprises modern and contemporary art, including works by Picasso, Modigliani, Warhol and Basquiat, is jointly owned by British billionaire Simon Reuben, his brother David and daughter Lisa. Lisa, who ranks on the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list, manages the collection and has previously worked as a specialist in Sotheby’s contemporary art department in London.

In Thursday’s Paris evening sale, the van Gogh was offered twice. When it was initially offered, Lisa Reuben believed she had won the picture, which was estimated at €5 million–€8 million, but was outgunned by an online bidder, whose winning bid was received as the auctioneer let the hammer down. This brought the final price to €14 million ($16.5 million).

Later in the sale, auctioneer Aurélie Vandevoorde, Sotheby’s Paris director of the Impressionist and modern art, announced to the audience’s surprise that the van Gogh would be re-offered at the very end of the auction, without any explanation. The second time round, two bidders from Hong Kong, represented by Sotheby’s Asia chairmen Patti Wong and Nicolas Chow, competed for the work against London’s Sam Valette in increasing increments. Eventually, the Asian bidder backed down after Valette’s winning bid of €11.25 million ($15.4 million), which finally secured the painting for Reuben, and earned a big round of applause in the sale room.

In this case, the issue with the initial hammer bid made for the van Gogh was a matter of timing. In pre-pandemic times, it was easier for auctioneers to respond immediately to live bids in the sale room. Now, with the increase in telephone and internet bidding, and with the split-second difference in timing between those channels, simultaneous “with the hammer” bids, made as the gavel falls, have increased.

Led by Edvard Munch, Sotheby’s $132.6 M. London Sale Sets Records for Bahman Mohassess, Frank Dobson and More

March 26, 2021 by Colin Gleadell

Edvard Munch, Linde Frieze
Edvard Munch,Summer Day or Embrace on the Beach (The Linde Frieze), 1904.
Sotheby’s

The report is 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.)

In response to Christie’s £168 million ($230 million) 20th Century sale in London on Tuesday, Sotheby’s staged its now familiar cross category mix of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art today allowing for an Old Master or two to be thrown in and for them to stretch the sale title to “Modern Renaissance.” Sotheby’s was still the shorter sale, though. Comprising 47 lots with a pre-sale estimate of £66.6-£93 million ($92 million-$128 million), it came near the top at £96.9 million ($132.6 million). (Sold prices include the buyer’s premium, estimates do not.) Last year, the equivalent sales for Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art at Christie’s London comprised 80 lots which sold for £141.5 million ($194.7 million).

Two of the top lots going into the sale were by Edvard Munch, who is currently the subject of an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Both left the hands of Jewish owners during World War II before being sold and entered the collection of Norway’s well-known Olsen family, the current consignor. The original owner, industrialist Thomas Olsen, was a friend and patron of the artist, owning 30 works by Munch at the time of his death. Those works were inherited by his two sons Fred and Petter Olsen, who were at the center of a legal dispute around the estate that was settled in 2001.

In 2006, Fred sold two Munchs, including the Linde Frieze, at Sotheby’s in London, where they fetched a collective £23 million ($31.7 million). It’s possible that the buyer in 2006 was Petter, as the ghostly lakeside painting reappeared in yesterday’s auction with a £9 million–£12 million ($12.4 million–$16.5 million) estimate. Four bidders, from London, New York and Hong Kong, vied for the painting, which was one of eight guaranteed lots in the sale. This time, it realized a reasonable return over the 15-year holding period at an above-estimate £16.3 million ($22.4 million), and was won by the Hong Kong bidder.

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Monumental William Kentridge Drawing Sets Record in London Auction

March 24, 2021 by Colin Gleadell and Angelica Villa

William Kentridge, Large Typerwriters
William Kentridge,Large Typewriters,2003.

On Wednesday, a large-scale drawing by William Kentridge sold for £682,750 ($935,000) at an auction in London, setting a new record for a drawing by the South African artist.

Large Typerwriters (2003), a diptych made using charcoal and pastel, depicts two vintage typewriters. 5 bidders competed for the work during a contemporary art sale at Bonhams in London, where it was estimated at £350,000–£550,000 ($480,000–$755,000). It went to a buyer in Asia.

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