Christie’s First Open = $13,666,875
A Calder Necklace Takes Flight
Christie’s First Open sale this September is filled with a few surprises. There’s an Oscar Murillo painting that is looking to capitalize on the recent run of record sales for the Columbian artist. A Tauba Auerbach will also be on sale along with Katya Kazakina’s find:
When Philadelphia resident Norma Ifill paid $15 for a striking brass necklace at a flea market eight years ago, she had no idea it was by Alexander Calder.
“This guy had it in a box on the ground,” Ifill said in a telephone interview. “I thought it looked so tribal. I wore it about four-five times max and every time I wore it, people always admired it. I can’t believe I had a Calder necklace all this time and had no idea.”
The necklace carries a $200-300,000 estimate in the First Open catalogue, the culmination of a long route for Ifill that began with an ad for a Calder jewelry exhibition in Philadelphia and ended with the Calder Foundation tracking the item down to a 1943 show at MoMA.
Warhol in China, $50 Million in Cars, $15 Calder: Hot Art (Bloomberg)
Jack Hamilton Bush (with a Little Help from Andy Williams) Explodes to $1.5m in Sales During Christie’s First Open
Leading Christie’s First Open sale were four works from the Andy Williams collection by Canadian Color Field painter Jack Hamilton Bush. The sales, ranging from the $200k range to $600k, were all for anywhere between four and 10 times the high estimates.
First Open Data Sheet
Christie’s September First Open sale made $7.548m with80% of the lots sold and an average price of $38,510. That’s a good sale. The numbers show the Contemporary art market has recovered nicely and continues to consolidate from the frenzied years of the credit bubble. The charts below show that recovery as sales volume dipped to a third of the 2007 height last year.Continue Reading
Christie's First Open (Highlights)
Sale totals $7.548m
Lots 1-6: Six of the seven Ray Johnson works sell within the estimates. One work passes.
Lot 8: Kiki Smith, Small Deer shoots through est. to sell for $50k hammer or $62.5k
Lot 9: Robert Longo, Study for Black Wing sells for $35k against $22k high est.
Lot 13: Vik Muniz, Marlene Dietrich passes at $32k
Lot 14: Barnaby Furnas, Suicide sells above the $12k est at $17,500
Lot 16: John Currin, Refinisher passes.
Lot 17: Lisa Yuskavage, Untitled (Kasha) sells below est. range for $55k hammer.
Lot 18: Richard Prince, Good Nurse sells within est. for $60k hammer.
Lot 20: Julian Opie, Woman goes just above the low est. for $55 hammer.Continue Reading
