Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

Sotheby’s Has 90 Works on Paper from Spielvogels with $40-60m Estimate for November

by

Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and Ambassador Carl Spielvogel are selling their collection of 90 works on paper (above from left to right: Magritte, Rothko, Pollock, Lichtenstein, and Johns) ranging from Degas, Matisse, Braque and Miró to Pollock, Newman, Rothko, Twombly, Lichtenstein and Freud. The entire collection is estimated at between $40 to $60m and will be sold across multiple sales:

Works featured in the Contemporary Art Evening Auction include

  • an example of Mark Rothko’s mature work, created just two years prior to his tragic death in 1970, which is estimated at $5/7 million.
  • a Pollock that shows him working through a major stylistic development in 1951 (estimate $3/4 million)
  • an incredible group of seven works by Jasper Johns that includes examples of his numbers and flag (well-timed with the current RA show + recent catalogue raisonné)
  • five drawings by Lichtenstein that correspond directly with major oils

Works featured in the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale:

  • a Degas scene of three dancers from 1889 through to a 1970s Picasso nude
  • 5 works by Picasso crossing his career from 1901 to 1971, led by a scene from 1935 that foreshadows the compositional arrangement that would ultimately manifest in Guernica two years later (estimate $1.5/2.5 million)
  • a Magritte gouache at $2/3 million

Phillips Has $10m Lichtenstein Double-Sided Woman

by

Lichtenstein, Woman Sunlight, Moonlight (In excess of $10m)
Lichtenstein, Woman Sunlight, Moonlight (In excess of $10m)

Phillips has scored a nice out of the spotlight work without having to compete with its rivals. A Lichtenstein being sold by the foundation, the $10m work is just the sort of consignment that can generate fees and possibly surprise to the upside. Here’s Phillips release:Continue Reading

Has Roy Lichtenstein’s Masterpiece Sold?

by

roy-lichtenstein-masterpiece-1962

Josh Baer is reporting in his Baerfaxt newsletter that Agnes Gund has sold her prized Roy Lichtenstein, Masterpiece from 1962. Baer quotes a price for the work at $150m which seems about right given the importance of the work and fact that it sold privately where prices can be higher for a number of reasons (including discretion.)

‘Girl in a Mirror’ Slides in Value

by

Looks like Tom Dean made a great deal.

You’ll remember that Dean was the collector who bought Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Girl in a Mirror’ from Gagosian Gallery’s Deborah McLeod during the depths of the financial crisis. McLeod is the one who sent the email coaxing Dean to make “an insulting offer.”

Eventually he did. And the sale became the basis of a lawsuit between Jan Cowles and Gagosian.

Tom Dean had bought the editioned work with some condition problems for $2m. Gagosian had picked it up for $1m from Cowles’s cash-strapped son. On Tuesday, another example of the series of 8 works sold in London for $3.7m, an 85% gain in three years time for Dean if he had sold.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that ‘Girl in a Mirror’ is down from the 2010 sale price of $4.9m and $4m in 2007 which book-ended the financial crisis in the US. Perhaps the uncertainty surrounding Europe brought the London sale price down by more than $1m. Or maybe the

Dean’s work might not have been worth the same amount (we haven’t checked the condition reports.) And there’s no telling if another one of these works would find a ready buyer tomorrow.

 

 

Cowles v. Gagosian Over Lichtenstein

by

Although Gagosian settled the confounding sale of a Mark Tansey painting that had been partially donated to the Met, the same seller—or, we should say, owner—has another issue with the gallery. According to the New York Post, Jan Cowles claims the gallery overstepped in another transaction:

Court papers filed by Cowles last night state the Tansey, along with a $4.5 million work from Roy Lichtenstein’s “Girl in Mirror” series, were sold by her son, Charles, to Gagosian, “without her knowledge or consent” in 2008-2009. Court papers say the Lichtenstein, in good condition, was shipped to art fairs, then sold to a mystery buyer for $2 million in “damaged condition.” Cowles argues the work was not damaged and may have been sold in a “dishonest fashion.” Her lawyer, David Baum, said, “Gagosian’s conduct was blatant and egregious.” Gagosian’s rep declined to comment.

$14m Suit Hits Gagosian (NY Post)

Christie’s Goes After the Pop Dollar

by

Kelly Crow got the early release of Christie’s PWC sale in New York this November. The lead lot is Courtney Ross’s Lichtenstein classic comic book painting which is priced at $35m. That work is backed up by a Warhol Liz offered at $16m that overlaps nicely with Christie’s own sale of the late actress’s estate and the Gagosian show of Liz paintings that opens next week downtown.

All of this is because Brett Gorvy knows the big money will pay for Pop art:

Mr. Gorvy said he’s also been monitoring the buoyancy of Pop prices amid recession and figures Warhol still enjoys broad appeal. “The new buyers are the most powerful buyers in the marketplace now,” he said, adding that he’s watched the pool of buyers who can spend $30 million-plus on a Pop painting double in recent years, thanks to wealthy, emerging markets like China and Brazil. “These guys want impactful paintings that are easy to understand.”

Pop Art to Take Center Stage at Christie’s (Wall Street Journal)

$40m Lichtenstein Announced

by

Kelly  Crow has the news that Christie’s is selling Roy Lichtenstein’s “Oh . . . Alright” with a third-party guarantee and a $40m estimate which confirms Josh Baer’s reporting:

“Ohh…Alright…” has never been auctioned off before, but it has been shown to collectors on the private marketplace, dealers say. Most notably, it was included in a not-for-sale show of the artist’s “Girls” series two years ago at New York’s Gagosian Gallery. Its familiarity within the marketplace could prove a turn-off to some longtime American collectors, who tend to chase harder after paintings that have been tucked away in a collection for decades. On the other hand, international collectors who are entering the Pop market now are gravitating to artists’ seminal works without paying as much attention to recent market shufflings.

At the market’s peak two years ago, Christie’s privately brokered the sale of another 1964 Lichtenstein redhead, “Happy Tears,” for roughly $35 million, up from the $7.1 million the auction house got for that same work six years earlier, according to Brett Gorvy, Christie’s international co-head of postwar and contemporary art.

Pop Goes the Art Market: A $40m Lichtenstein? (Wall Street Journal)

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Advertise on Art Market Monitor