Swann Galleries’ auction of American Art on June 14 saw a total of $1,108,921 against estimates for the sale as a whole of between $1,009,700-$1,541,800 not including the buyer’s premium. Of the 300 lots offered 81% or 239 were sold. Though the prices were in the low five figures that’s evidence of an active market.

Here’s Swann’s take on their sale:

Nearly a fifth of the auction comprised works by the artist collective PaJaMa, consisting of Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Margaret Hoening French and their various partners and friends. Many of these works came from the collection of Jon Anderson and Philis Raskind-Anderson, including Jared French’s graphite Portrait of Paul Cadmus, 1931, and study for Elemental Play, 1946 ($10,625 and $11,250, respectively). The evocative chalk Nude Reclining on Bentwood Chairs with a Dog, circa 1975, by Paul Cadmus, reached $10,000.

All five works in the sale by Pavel Tchelitchew found buyers, with the 1930 pastel Portrait of Robert Cluzan leading the auction at $32,500. Cluzan was a communist police officer who sold Nazi secrets during WWII. Tchelitchew’s ink and wash Interiors (Skull), 1944, a motif for which the artist is well known, reached $11,250.

The increasingly popular section of sketchbooks saw competition for collectors and dealers seeking background information into beloved artists’ processes. Two sketchbooks by Ashcan artist Mahonri Young, grandson of LDS leader Brigham Young, sold after breakneck bidding for $22,500, a record for a work on paper by the artist, who is primarily known as a sculptor. A sketchbook of diners in Washington restaurants by Peggy Bacon nearly doubled its high estimate to sell for $5,750.

All eight works by Fairfield Porter saw strong results, including two sketchbooks featuring primarily urban scenes, which sold together for $6,750. The highlight was Coastal Scene, a charming pastel view of Maine islands that encapsulates the artist’s oeuvre, purchased by a collector for $20,000. The double-sided watercolorRocky Coastal View, also of Maine, reached $13,750.

An auction record was established for Emilio Cruz, an African-American artist of Cuban descent whose work is gaining recognition: the undated oil paintingFloating Figures, a fine example of his expressive blend of figuration and abstraction, reached $17,500.

1. 278       Pavel Tchelitchew, Portrait of Robert Cluzan, color pastels, 1930.                                           $32,500 C
2. 202       Wolf Kahn, Poisonous Yellow-Green, oil on canvas, 2001.                                                      $31,250 C
3. 36         William Glackens, Le Royal Conti-Isle Adam, oil on canvas, circa 1926.                                   $27,500 C
4. 12         John Singer Sargent, Head of a Young Girl, pencil, circa 1875-78.                                            $25,000 C
5. 108       Mahonri Young, two sketchbooks, with approximately 86 drawings, various media.                    $22,500 D
6. 131        John Steuart Curry, Plowing Before a Storm, oil on canvas, circa 1935.                                     $21,250 D
7. 87         Rockwell Kent, Reverence, gouache, 1926.                                                                          $20,800 D
8. 95         Guy C. Wiggins, St. Patrick’s, New York, in Winter, oil on board, circa 1940.                             $20,000 C
9. 197       Fairfield Porter, Coastal Scene, color pastels.                                                                        $20,000 C
10. 200*     Emilio Cruz, Floating Figures, oil on canvas.                                                                       $17,500 C

It’s been quite a while since we’ve heard of any art funds launching. The idea has been a perennial, blooming and fading with regularity like the seasons. In concept, art funds would seem to make a great deal of sense. In execution, they’re very difficult to pull off because very smart players (with outside financial backing) already exist in the market. In fact, there are quite a few of them both visible and less-than-visible.

Now Kenny Schachter reveals that UTA Brant—a fund more than year in the making—is launching with UTA raising money and Peter Brant providing the art smarts.

The news is interesting because of where we are in the cycle. Art values have risen a great deal over the last decade and a half. But those same values seem to have plateaued in the last three years. That might make the best case for it being an artist picker’s market. It might also suggest returns will be harder to achieve going forward.

The United Talent Agency and collector/trader Peter Brant are launching the UTA Brant Fine Art Fund, seeking to raise $250 million to speculate on “best-in-class” works by blue-chip postwar (i.e. 1945-70) and contemporary (i.e. 1970-present) artists, with an investment lock-up of seven years or more. UTA has operated an uneventful downtown LA art gallery for the past few seasons, recently relocating it to Beverly Hills, and Brant has played at the art market (spectacularly) for 40 years. […] Brant, who is unequivocally among the world’s most knowledgeable participants in the art market with an enviable, legendary personal hoard, is said to have achieved a 19.18 percent rate of return from his personal art investing from 1996 to 2016, which for some unknown reason grows to 27.41 percent for the same period by the last page of the offering. This is plain sloppy. It also states that Brant guaranteed a total of $100 million of art from 2013 to 2016, with a profit of $6.2 million on the bets.

The other interesting piece of information is that last sentence on guarantees. Who knows how that has been calculated. But remember that this is marketing material and UTA Brant wants you to think of 6.2% yield on guarantees as good money.

Kim Jong-who? At Art Basel, $165 Million Sales and Other Dizzying Disclosures Made the Rest of the World Disappear (artnet)

The AMM Fantasy Collecting Game for the Impressionist & Modern auctions in London is now open.

How does it work? We put together 64 lots from the sales with nearly £200m. You get a budget of £50m to “buy” at the low estimate the works you think will perform best. Follow the results on our scoreboard and, if your collection totals more on hammer price than the others, you’ll win a cash prize. Top ten collections win.

The game closes June 19 at 6pm BST or 1700 UTC.

Yesterday, a Fang head from Gabon was sold in Paris for €2.5m well above the €1.5m high estimate. Another Fang statue, once owned by dealer Paul Guillaume, estimated at €700k is in Christie’s Durand-Dessert sale on June 27th.

On 27 June Christie’s in Paris will offer 105 African art treasures from the celebrated collection of Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert, assembled over the course of more than 30 years.

Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert built their collection of African art over the course of 30 years, and the rich variety of objects and forms represented in the 105 pieces offered at Christie’s in Paris on 27 June represents a significant moment for the market. This is not only because of the analytical and original approach the couple applied in each acquisition, but also because of their visionary take on exhibiting the most radical 20th-century art in their gallery, which was the subject of a 2004 retrospective organised by the Museum of Grenoble.

The most emblematic work in the collection is an extremely rare Mbembe drum figure. Mbembe statues from south-eastern Nigeria are among the oldest and most spectacular preserved wooden sculptures in sub-Saharan Africa; fewer than 20 sculptures are known of this group, which was first introduced to the market in 1974 by Hélène Leloup (formely Kamer).

The exceptional Fang statue shown above was once owned by the Parisian art dealer and tastemaker Paul Guillaume (1891-1934), and is among a group of works considered the epitome of African classicism. In the early 20th century, Fang statuary could be found in the homes of sophisticated European collectors and was widely admired by avant-garde art critics. It has remained one of the most sought-after types of African art ever since. Conceived by a master sculptor as a guardian and protector, statues such as this would sit on top of a bark box containing relics of a clan’s ancestors.

Ignoring convention, the Durand-Desserts used African art to explore the origins of contemporary art.<