Art Market Monitor

Bonhams will sell a collection of works by Jewish modern artists belonging to the World War II–era School of Paris this season in London. Featuring works by Moïse Kisling, Léon Indenbaum and Jules Pascin, among others, the sale, titled “L’ Ecole de Paris 1905-1939: The Jewish Artists,” is expected to achieve £350,000–450,000 ($478,000–$617,000) and will hit the auction block on March 3 at Bonhams New Bond street location.

The group of 86 lots comes from the collection of the Nieszawer and Princ families, which own Bureau d’art, a Paris- and Tel Aviv–based art dealership and research firm with specializing in School of Paris artists. First established by French art dealer Nadine Nieszawer, the collection of works was later expanded by her son and daughter-in-law Boris and Deborah Princ.

Kisling’s Nature morte au pichet (1917), an early Cubist still life painting, by the Polish-born artist will lead the sale. Kisling moved to Paris in 1910 when he was 19, and lived and worked in the city’s Montparnasse and Montmartre districts, where he came in contact with contemporaries such as Picasso and Modigliani. The painting is estimated at £30,000–£35,000 ($41,000–$48,000).

The work last came up to market in December 2016, when it sold at Shapiro Auctions for $32,000. Prior to that, it sold during a Sotheby’s London Impressionist and modern art day sale in February 2007 for £38,400 ($72,500).

Among the other top lots in the Bonhams auction is La Cavalière (ca. 1917), a painted oak panel depicting a woman on horseback, formerly installed as part of staircase by Russian artist Léon Indenbaum. Best known as a sculptor, Indenbaum forged friendships with Modigliani and Diego Rivera, both of whom painted portraits of Indenbaum. By 1929, the artist had garnered a circle of prominent patrons including designers Jacques Doucet, Paul Poiret, and banking brothers Georges and Marcel Bernard. During the war, Indenbaum remained in hiding. According to Bureau d’art’s online entry on the artist, many of his works were lost or destroyed.

Other highlights in the sale include Bulgarian artist Jules Pascin’s Les Provinciales and La Figurante du Palace (1927). Made following a period spent studying under painter Georg Grosz in the early 1900s, Les Provinciales dates from his early years working in Paris, at the beginning of his extra-marital relationship with Matisse Academy model, Lucy Krohg, who is the painting’s subject. The work is expected to achieve a price between £15,000–£18,000 ($25,000–$30,000).

Pascin made La Figurante du Palace while living on the Boulevard de Clichy. The work dates from the period in his oeuvre is known as ”nacré,” named for the pearly hue of his paintings. It is expected to achieve a price of £18,000–£22,000 ($25,000–$30,000).

A painting of a reclining nude by the Czech painter Georges Kars, whose works recalls that of his friend and fellow painter Suzanne Valadon, will also be included in the sale. It is estimated at £10,000–£15,000 ($14,000–$20,000).

The National Institute of Anthropology and History, a division in the Mexico government dedicated to the preservation of cultural artifacts, has filed a legal claim over 33 objects of Pre-Columbian art set to be auctioned at Christie’s on February 9 in Paris.

According to a report published on Tuesday by Spanish outlet El País, the organization argues that the works, which originate from Mexico, should be repatriated to the country. The government group filed its claim in Mexico, and it has also called on the nation’s Ministry of Foreign Relations to take action to recover the objects.

“It was determined that the auction catalog includes pieces that correspond to cultures originating in Mexico, which is why they are part of the nation’s heritage,” said the Institute in a statement obtained by El País.

Representatives for Christie’s did not respond to requests for comment.Continue Reading

Last week, the Fondation Pierre Bergé–Yves Saint Laurent acquired a group of couture items belonging to one of the designer’s close friends and top clients, French ballerina Zizi Jeanmaire, during an online auction of her wardrobe at Christie’s in Paris. Bidding for the auction ended on January 26.

The foundation, which was established in 2002 upon the late designer’s retirement, purchased eight items for a total of €16,250 ($19,550). The entire collection of the dancer, who died this past July, sold for €161,000 ($194,000).

Saint Laurent first met Jeanmaire in 1956 while he was working for Dior in Paris. In 1962, he went on to found his namesake couture label, taking on the dancer as one of his top clients. He dressed Jeanmaire for various stage appearances, among them her 1961 performance of Mon Truc en Plumes, and in 1963, he dressed her for the musical Spectacle Zizi Jeanmaire.Continue Reading

Following the record-breaking $92 million sale of a rare Botticelli portrait in New York, Sotheby’s ended the first segment of its Master Week with the sale of works from the collection of Hester Diamond, a late New York arts patron, dealer, and designer. The Diamond sale was slated with a pre-sale estimate of $23.3 million–$35.3 million with with buyers’ premium.

So far, Sotheby’s New York Masters Week generated more than $148 million, showing that mid-pandemic market for name brands in the classics segment is solid. Thursday’s marquee sale brought in $114.5 million, with the Diamond sale— one segment of a two part auction—totaling $26.7 million with premium.

As an art collector, Diamond had unique path. With her husband Harold, she began buying modern and contemporary art in the 1960s. It wasn’t until her husband’s death in 1982, however, that Diamond changed course, looking to Old Masters works as a new (and more affordable) avenue for her connoisseurship. By 2004, she had sold off a large portion of her modern art holdings at auction.

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