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Albada Jelgersma Collection ‘A Seminal Moment’ for Old Master Market, Says Christie’s

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In what Christie’s is calling a “seminal moment for the Old Master market,” the December sales of Old Master paintings in London will feature two sales comprising the collection of Eric Albada Jelgersma and his wife, Marie-Louise. The Albada Jelgersma paintings will get their own Evening sale. The rest of the collection of furniture, drawings, silver and the like will fill a a 350-lot day sale. These sales will take place December 6 & 7. The Evening sale will feature a pair of Frans Hals portraits, above, estimated at between £8-12m, and works by Judith Leyster and Anthony van Dyck.

Here’s Christie’s release:

Christie’s will offer a landmark, two-part sale of The Eric Albada Jelgersma Collection in London on 6 & 7 December. This is one of the most important private collections of Golden Age Dutch and Flemish pictures to have been formed in living memory, revealing the unerring eye of Eric Albada Jelgersma and his wife Marie-Louise Albada Jelgersma for outstanding quality.

Christie’s will devote a special, stand-alone Old Masters Evening Sale to The Eric Albada Jelgersma Collection comprising over 40 paintings, including works by the greatest artists from the 17th century, notably Frans Hals, Anthony van Dyck, Jan Breughel the Elder, Judith Leyster and Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder.

This sale is led by the finest pair of portraits by Frans Hals to remain together in private hands: Portrait of a gentleman, aged 37 and Portrait of a lady, aged 36 (estimate: £8-12 million) and includes arguably the most important Golden Age painting by a female artist left in private ownership, Merry Company by Judith Leyster (estimate: £1.5-2.5 million).

The Collection Sale will take place the following day and will comprise over 350 lots of furniture, decorative objects, sculpture, antiquities, silver, Asian works of art and a selection of the Old Master paintings. The quality and range of the Old Master paintings and works of art within the collection is extraordinary, and their appearance together at auction will constitute an historic pair of sales. Highlights will be on public view at Christie’s New York from 26 to 30 October and in Hong Kong from 23 to 26 November, ahead of the pre-sale exhibition opening in London on 30 November.

Si Newhouse’s Francis Bacon Study Offered at Christie’s

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With comparisons to the Mona Lisa and Picasso’s Dora Maar, Christie’s is pulling out the stops for Si Newhouse’s Francis Bacon small portrait of Henrietta Moraes that the auction house just announced for the November sales. Newhouse played an important role as a collector launching the current contemporary art market with his aggressive buying in the late 1990s that established important prices and demand. Over the last two decades, many of his significant pieces have been sold and re-sold at stratospheric mark-ups. The power of the Newhouse provenance is not necessarily reflected in the $14m low estimate on the Bacon being offered here. Katya Kazakina spoke to Tobias Meyer, who is handling the dispersal of Newhouse’s art collection, about the original acquisition in 2007. Kazakina says Newhouse, who was not afraid to pay good prices for works of quality he wanted to own, paid $9m for the work.

Here’s Christie’s release on the painting:Continue Reading

Sotheby’s Unveils $90m Collection Led by 3 Kandinskys, 3 Vlamincks

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Sotheby’s has been lying in wait to announce their big collection for the November Impressionist and Modern art sales in New York. Featuring three Kandinskys with a combined low estimate of $55m, this European owner’s collection has several works featured at the Courtauld Insitute in London for fifteen years.

Sotheby’s press release goes into greater detail, including descriptions of the Maurice Vlaminck works that are also a key part of the collection:Continue Reading

Four of Picasso’s Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie’s from Rose-Walters Collection

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Pablo Picasso, Femme au béret orange et au col de fourrure (Marie‐Thérèse) (1937) ($15-20m)

The sale of four of Pablo Picasso’s women from the collection of Washington, DC real estate developer Sam Rose and his wife, Julie Walters is Christie’s novel entry into the November sales cycle. The bulk of the value of the four works on offer representing one of Picasso’s wives and three of hisvcompanions—Marie-Thérèse Walter, Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque—is in the Marie-Thérèse pictured above. The combined low estimate for the four works is $28m. Behind the $15m Marie-Thérèse are two works with $5m low estimates, the Dora Maar and Jaqueline Roque, followed by Françoise Gilot’s portrait at $3m. Gilot, still living at 96 years of age, has experienced something of a surge in late-life interest in her own art works.

Here’s Christie’s release on the collection:Continue Reading

Di Donna Galleries Shows Pérez Simón’s Treasures

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Emmanuel Di Donna has an interesting glimpse into the collection of a Mexican telecom operator Juan Antonio Pérez Simón who, like his partner Carlos Slim Helú, owns a great deal of art. Slim built a museum in Mexico City, designed by his son-in-law, to show his works.  Pérez Simón has instead chosen to pack up 18 works vouchsafed to Di Donna Galleries. When art dealers exhibit collectors works there’s always a guessing game about the motivations of each party. Is the gallerist supporting an important client by giving him the focus, visibility and talking points his collection might not receive simply making loans and impressing guests? Or are these works being given an airing to see who might be inspired to make a (healthy) offer?

Whatever the motivation, Di Donna has combed through the 10,000 objections Pérez Simón owns to select these 18 paintings by Rothko, Dalí and Cézanne. Here’s how Di Donna describes the show:Continue Reading

Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Basquiat Show Puts Owners on Display

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One of the unexpected benefits of Bernard Arnault’s new Jean-Michel Basquiat show opening at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in October is the way the show is bringing together a group of far-flung works. Some 120 paintings will be in the show and a number of collectors like Yusaku Maezawa and Laurent Asscher have taken to Instagram to announce the works from their collections that will be making the journey. Curiously, as Carol Vogel reveals in her WSJ magazine preview of the show, Bernard Arnault is going to great lengths to keep his Basquiats anonymous:

Over the past 30 years he has amassed a world-class Basquiat collection. Asked just how big his holdings are, he would only admit that they total more than a dozen works and hang in all his homes, including his apartment in Paris, his house in the south of France and another place in the French countryside.

Arnault is lending a number of his paintings and drawings to the upcoming show at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, although neither he nor anyone involved in the show’s creation will say which ones. Contemporary art experts familiar with Basquiat’s work believe that among the loans from Arnault’s personal collection is the 1982 painting Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict. He is said to be lending a number of drawings as well. Arnault was so committed to making this show different from any preceding Basquiat exhibition that he wrote personal notes to collectors asking for loans and allowed the curators free rein to select from his own holdings.

The WSJ story also reveals at least one other new owner of a Basquiat joining the company of Larry Gagosian and Peter Brant, who will host the show at the opening of his Brant Foundation’s New York outpost in the Spring of 2019. Brant is the biggest lender to the Basquiat show:

Fifteen works from his holdings will be in the show, making him its biggest lender. Others contributing works include the philanthropists Lenore and Herbert Schorr, who were some of Basquiat’s earliest collectors; the Los Angeles philanthropists Eli S. and Edythe L. Broad; the Mugrabi family, who are New York–based dealers; the fashion designer Valentino Garavani and his longtime partner, Giancarlo Giammetti; and the Marieluise Hessel Collection at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Many labels in the show will read “private collection,’’ but according to several contemporary art experts, two of these mystery lenders are the Greek shipping magnate Philip Niarchos and Lorenzo Fertitta, the Las Vegas casino owner.

A New Exhibition in Paris Explores Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Work (WSJ. Magazine)

Al-Thanis Negotiating Paris Space for Art Exhibitions

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The Al-Thani family is finalizing a deal to have an exhibition space for its art in Paris. Le Monde reports that the Al-Thani family are in negotiations with a private developer representing the French state which has plans to re-develop L’hôtel de la Marine on the Place de la Concorde into a retail-office-and-cultural space. The French government and the Qatari government have been looking for ways to solidify ties in the current global climate. Le Monde says the Al-Thani family plan to use the space, which will open in 2020, to have a rotating exhibition of their art holdings:

According to our information, the National Monuments Center (CMN), which is running the private property on behalf of the State, is in the process of signing an agreement with Qatar so that the emirate can present it on a rotating basis. for twenty years, paying 20 million euros, the Al-Thani art collection, named after the ruling family.

The project was presented on Tuesday, September 4th, before the board of CMN, which manages a hundred buildings some quite prestigious in Paris, the Arc de Triomphe or the Pantheon. Joined by telephone, its president, Philippe Bélaval, did not want to comment on this information: “I do not deny or confirm. “

Undoubtedly the millions paid by the Al Thani family to the National Monuments Center (MNC) to exhibit are at the heart of the latest discussions. The amount will not be negligible to run a site – the Center expects 600,000 entries a year – when the state lacks money to maintain its heritage. 

Karshan Collection, Led By Richter’s Hände, Featured at Phillips

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Phillips has announced the sale of works from the Estate of Howard Karshan. Over the course of nearly fifty years, Howard Karshan and his wife, Linda, assembled one of the most significant collections of modern and post-war paintings and works on paper. The collection encompasses an incredible array of works by artists ranging from Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Sam Francis, and Cy Twombly, to Gerhard Richter, Georg Baselitz and Bruce Nauman, among many others.

Painted in 1963, Richter’s Hande is estimated at between £2-3m. Other works from the Karshan’s collection included in the London Evening sale in October. Georg Baselitz’s Untitled 1967 work; Cy Twombly’s untitled work from 1969; Richter’s Busch from 1985. An additional 50 lots from the Karshans will be in the day sale with examples by Joseph Beuys, Signmar Polke, Blinky Palermo and Jean Dubuffet. There are also works by Agnes Martin, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, Robert Smithson, Raymond Pettibon and Wayne Thiebaud.

Barney Ebsworth’s $300m Collection of American Art Debuts at Christie’s Paris

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Travel entrepreneur and art collector Barney Ebsworth built one of the leading collections of American art in private hands. He estimated that his collection had only one other rival in private hands. Among his great prizes were two of Georgia O’Keeffe’s best abstract works.

One he acquired at auction from the sale of the influential American art dealer Edith Halpert’s collection. The sale piqued O’Keeffe’s interest. Halpert had shown her work earlier in the century. The aged artist wanted to meet the man who bought Black, White and Blue.

Ebsworth declined her first few invitations to come to New Mexico. Finally, Ebsworth, who preferred to buy the work of artists who were no longer living so he didn’t have to engage with the artists, made the trek. The two hit it off. For many years after that, Ebsworth and O’Keeffe sought each other’s advice and counsel. Ebsworth was eventually called upon to mediate between the notoriously difficult artist and her long-time dealer.

Because O’Keeffe respected Ebsworth so much, she eventually sold him one of her other ‘best’ abstract works from her own holdings, Music—Pink and Blue I. Those two works might have fetched nine figure sums. Instead, they’ve been donated to museums. Black, White and Blue went to the National Gallery in Washington, along with Charles Sheeler’s Classic Landscape. The Seattle Museum got Music—Pink and Blue I and Marsden Hartley’s Painting No. 49, Berlin.

Such is the quality of the Ebsworth collection that even without those two extraordinary works, Christie’s has plenty of firepower to launch the collection. One of the lessons of Christie’s last few successes, the Leonardo and the Rockefeller Collection, has been global appeal of Western art and the need to bring that art to various cities around the world to cultivate unexpected collectors.

Today, Christie’s launches the Ebsworth collection with 11 works unveiled in Paris. From now until the end of October, the collection will travel to New York, Hong Kong, London, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In November there will be a single-owner day and evening sale of the works.

Christie’s estimates the collection will yield $300m. Rumors in the art market suggest Christie’s has guaranteed the family trust that figure. Among the eleven works touring are a Jackson Pollock estimated in the region of $50m, a Willem de Kooning Woman estimated in the region of $60m, and Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey which is estimated in the region of $70m.

Ebsworth claimed he was offered $60m for Chop Suey in the 1990s. That’s 20+ years ago and before the steep climb in international art prices. Then, again, tastes change; artists go out of fashion. Those three works with an aggregate estimate of $180m may be set to attract bidders. Ebsworth had a few other very significant works that have not been announced here.

Christie’s may be holding some of those works for later sales. Or the works might be family favorites still held by the family trust. The two works we don’t see either on the list of donations or announced for viewing in Paris are by artists with particularly active and advancing markets. We’ll be keeping our eye out for them.

In the meantime, here’s Christie’s release for the Paris show:Continue Reading

Teiger Collection Shoots for $100m at Sotheby’s Starting with October Sale

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Peter Doig, Buffalo Station I (1997-8), Estimate in excess of £6million

Sotheby’s announced this morning a single-owner collection from David Teiger, a management consultant who died in 2014, that it is calling The History of Now. Teiger bought both Contemporary art and American folk art. His patronage of young artists like Peter Doig, Elizabeth Peyton, Glenn Brown, and John Currin has paid off over time for his foundation which will benefit from some very strong prices for works like Peter Doig’s Buffalo Station I (1997-8) (above, estimated £6m) and Buffalo Station II (1997-8) (also estimated at £6m.) Big prices are expected for Teiger’s Grotjahns along with strong competition for his work by Chris Ofili. Here’s Sotheby’s release on the collection:

Offered across Sotheby’s sale rooms in London, New York and Hong Kong over the course of 2018 and 2019, this series of sales, estimated in excess of $100 million, will provide an unprecedented look into one of the finest Contemporary Art collections of our time. The inaugural London Evening sale, comprising 27 lots, will offer the leading innovators of Contemporary Art as well as the frontrunners and outliers who equally significantly form part of the daring cultural spirit of the last 30 years.

Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s European Head of Contemporary Art, said: “A true visionary, David Teiger collected with an avant-garde spirit, often rejecting art world consensus to forge his own path. His collection reflects the early patronage he offered to young artists such as Mark Grotjahn, John Currin, and Glenn Brown, as well as to dealers such as Tim Blum, Andrea Rosen and Gavin Brown. A time capsule of collecting in the late 1990s and early 2000s, this is one of those rare groups of works that perfectly capture the essence of the art and the spirit of collecting of its time.”

Building on the foundation of his Contemporary collection, Teiger ventured into the arena of American Folk Art in the 1990s. He quickly amassed one of the finest, museum-quality collections of Americana in the world, which will now be offered in a dedicated sale in January 2019.

Highlights from the inaugural sale will be exhibited in Hong Kong (28-31 August), Singapore (8-9 September), Taipei (15-16 September) and New York (20-24 September).

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