Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Basquiat Show Puts Owners on Display

by

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)

Christie’s Frieze Week Sales Aim for Major Auction Event

by

Christie’s is making its big push to convert the auction calendar with this year’s Frieze sales. First the February auctions moved to March. Now the Frieze comes quite early in the month of October and the sales are being pushed as part of a huge travel and art opportunity:

The art fairs, museums, galleries and auction houses together attract a huge global audience. This year the exhibitions in London’s museums and galleries are of the highest calibre: Jasper Johns at the Royal Academy, Jean-Michel Basquiat at Barbican, Rachel Whiteread at Tate and Brice Marden at Gagosian Gallery all stand out as highlights. Christie’s presentation this year is unlike anything we have ever seen before in October.  When I began in this business, eighteen years ago, October was a mid-season auction with a value of around one million pounds and now we will have five auctions and one exhibition that cross all aspects of creative visual production in the 20th and 21st centuries. I am particularly excited by the ‘Masterpieces of Design and Photography’ auction since these two fields have huge potential

The cycle will include five auctions: Post-War & Contemporary and Italian Evening sales, the design and photography cross-category sale, a day sale and Christie’s own version of Sotheby’s ill-fated small works sale. Among the highlights are:

  • Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Red Skull (above), one of around five known major skull paintings executed during the pivotal year of 1982
  • Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, In piazza San Marco di notte con Teresita (1961, estimate on request)
  • Alighiero Boetti che guarda un negativo (1967, estimate: £2,500,000 – 3,500,000)
  • Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild(1986, estimate: £2,200,000-2,800,000)
  • Andy Warhol, Coke Bottle

Christie’s Announces €30m Prat Collection for FIAC in Paris

by

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jim Crow, 1986. (Est on request)

Auctions and art fairs are being paired together like never before. Now Christie’s Paris is holding a single-owner sale the weekend of FIAC in Paris this October:

Christie’s is honoured to announce the sale of the collection of Jean-François (who died in 2011) and Marie-Aline Prat on Friday 20 and Saturday 21 October 2017, during the week long Paris international contemporary art fair, FIAC. Comprising more than 200 works, this exceptional collection is a testimony to almost half a century of a passion shared by an inseparable couple, united by the same passion for modern, post-war and contemporary art. Including some of the most important international figures of the 20th century, such as Jean- Michel Basquiat, Sigmar Polke, Lucio Fontana and Robert Ryman, the collection also highlights the Prats’ taste for French artists like Jean Dubuffet, Yves Klein, Simon Hantaï and Martin Barré. Estimated in the region of €30,000,000 to 40,000,000, this auction will be divided into two sessions (evening and day sales) with a preview exhibition from 14 to 21 October at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild (11, rue Berryer 75008, Paris).

Basquiat Takes Over Market Leadership

by

The NY Times has a story capitalizing on the interest in tonight’s Basquiat sale at Sotheby’s. That’s interesting because the usual tone from the Times is that art auctions are some canary in the coal mine of moral decay and ruin.

In this story, the Times situates the artist for its readers eschewing some of the complexity of how Basquiat’s market has been structured with the support of a group of interested parties. That seems to be changing as Robin Pogrebin produces some numbers showing that Basquiat has emerged into market leadership right now:

There are no fewer than 16 Basquiats on offer at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips’s evening auctions this season, which together represent an estimated minimum value of about $119 million — out of a total of $690 million for the three sales. Basquiat is, both numerically and financially, the week’s heavyweight artist.

Basquiat replaces Richter and Warhol as the artist attracting the most dollars. Already Phillips has sold four works for $2.6m in their day sale with another $8m or more on offer later this afternoon in their “early” Evening sale.

Christie’s sold $56m worth of Basquiat’s work last night. Sotheby’s has $70m or more available tonight too. Continue Reading

Sotheby’s Ups the Ante with $60m Basquiat Head

by

Jean Michel-Basquiat, Untitled, 1982 Oilstick, acrylic and spraypaint on canvas 72 1/8 by 68 1/8 in. Estimate: In excess of $60 million
Jean Michel-Basquiat, Untitled, 1982
Oilstick, acrylic and spraypaint on canvas
72 1/8 by 68 1/8 in.
Estimate: In excess of $60 million

A year ago, Adam Lindemann gave the Basquiat market a major shot in the arm when he consigned his mammoth and long-sought-after work at Christie’s where it made a surprising $57m selling to Japanese internet fashion billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.

Before Lindemann’s sale, the Basquiat market seemed to be taking a hit from a few ill-timed repeat sales and sense that buyer’s had been sated. Now it would seem that Sotheby’s is aggressively pushing the market forward with this untitled work from 1982 that is estimated above the record at $60m or more.

And Sotheby’s has backed  this play with their own money. It’s a bold, risky move that will ratchet up the expectations for their May sale.

Here’s Sotheby’s release on the work:Continue Reading

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor