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Sotheby’s Solo Imp-Mod Sale in London = £148.9m

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(Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Sotheby's)

This recap of Sotheby's London Impressionist and Modern sales is available to AMMpro subscribers. The first month subscription is free. You can cancel AMMpro at any time.

Sotheby's hybrid Evening sale of small works and Impressionist and Modern masterworks was an uneven success with some real surprises as the two sales tallied £127.9m for the Impressionist and Modern sale + £20.9m for Actual Size, the small works sale or £148.9m ($187.7m) combined. On a hammer basis, Actual Size failed to reach the low estimate while the Impressionist and Modern sale just reached the low estimate. The sell-through rates were 65% and 74% respectively for Actual Size and the Imp-Mod sale.

These numbers may reflect the state of estimates—especially when they are undergirded by actual buyers who took positions pre-sale with irrevocable bides—which are quite high and require a fair bit of work for the specialists to rally bidding interest. With estimates peaking, there are two likely outcomes for the category (Impressionist and Modern works, not small ones.)

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Miró Constellation to be Sold at Sotheby’s in June

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The Acquavella gallery show of Joan Miró’s Constellations closed on Friday leaving the owners of one of the handful of works from the series in private hands free to announce a sale. The consignment is with Sotheby’s and the estimate is upon request but understood by the trade to be $30m. That’s a lot of money for a small work on paper.

Nonetheless, previous sales of Miró’s constellations have been equally pricey when adjusted for time and markets. In 1995, one of the Constellations made $4.7m above a $3m high estimate. The last public sale of a constellation was in 2001 from one of the Stanley Seeger sales when Nocturne sold for $5.6m above a $3.5m high estimate.

Another Miró work on paper of a similar size from 1940, Le Coq, made $13.1m in 2007.

So, if $30m is the asking price, there’s more than a good chance that someone will offer an Irrevocable Bid at that price. Could a bidder come in above that? Possibly. But such is the state of the art market these days that we’re likely to see  (or not see since it will take place in private) the negotiation for sale of the painting during the coming weeks as the IB is worked out. Someone owes Acquavella a commission.

Artelligence Podcast: Joan Miró’s Constellations at Acquavella Galleries

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Acquavella galleries has brought together the 23 gouaches in Joan Miró’s Constellations series that were last seen together in 1993 at the Museum of Modern Art.

Considered by many to be the height of Miró’s achievement as an artist, these works gain power and impact from being shown all together. Indeed, the condition for many of the loans was that the entire series had to be on view.

The suite of images was produced between January of 1940 and September of 1941—but it was not until 1958 that André Breton named them “Constellations.” When Miró and his family fled France for Spain ahead of the German invasion in June of 1940, he took virtually nothing with him apart from the portfolio of his ten completed Constellations.

“Since they were first exhibited at Pierre Matisse’s gallery in New York in early 1945, after having been smuggled out of Europe, the Constellations have been celebrated as one of the most powerful artistic statements of the 20th century,” said Bill Acquavella.

Margit Rowell is an art historian and curator who works mostly in Paris and New York. She has held curatorial positions at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and as curator of drawings at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

A Cache of Miró Works Assembled for Investment Has Become a Rallying Cry for Portuguese Socialists

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Miro in his studio

Politics makes funny things into important symbols. Such is the case of the trove of Joan Miró works that were acquired by a Portuguese bank that was taken over by the government. Although the works have never been shown in the country, Portuguese lawmakers are fighting a battle to stop the sale of the collection and even bully the government into building a museum around the works.

Rafael Minder’s terrific story in the New York Times shows how art has become a potent symbol for left politicians:

“The obsession with eliminating everything that is public is leading the government to go further down the privatization road, and perhaps they consider paintings to be part of the same strategy,” said Gabriela Canavilhas, a Socialist lawmaker and Portugal’s former culture minister. “But even in Detroit, which was declared bankrupt, their final decision was not to sell any art.” […]

“The only good thing about BPN is that they at least brought some special art to Portugal,” said Álvaro Beleza, a Socialist Party official. “We’re in economic trouble, many state assets can be sold, but there are limits and keeping these paintings is part of our dignity.” […]

The Miró collection has not been shown in public in Portugal. In fact, Pedro Lapa, director of the Berardo Collection Museum and one of the few Portuguese art experts to have seen the works, said he had been stunned to discover “such a huge collection was here and not even properly stored by the bank.”

Mr. Lapa said he failed to convince BPN, and more recently the government, to organize an exhibition. Portugal should now strive to create a new museum built around the Miró collection and other works to fill a cultural gap, he said, as “no Portuguese government ever built an international collection of modern art.”

Asked why a Catalan painter like Miró should be used to promote Portuguese culture, Mr. Lapa was unperturbed. “People go to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, but Leonardo was Italian and not French,” he said.

Portugal’s Move to Sell Miró Works Raises Debate of Preservation vs. Privatization (NYTimes.com)

Portugal Determined to Sell Mirós, Blames Auction House for Withdrawn Sale

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Miro in his studio

The recriminations from the 85 withdrawn Joan Miró works that were meant to be sold earlier this week in London are already flying. Although a judge ruled the sale could go through, Christie’s chosen to postpone the sale. Now Portugal’s government has re-affirmed its desire to see the works sold:

Christie’s backed out because of a legal imbroglio in Portugal, where the opposition Socialists had lodged a challenge to the Miro auction.

Although a Portuguese court shot down the Socialists’ request on Tuesday, Christie’s decided to not go ahead after the court pointed out “irregularities” in the export of the paintings. […] Passos Coelho said Christie’s was to blame for the aborted auction, saying the firm was responsible “for organising everything”, including the export paperwork and insurance.

“With its experience, it should have taken more care,” he said.

The prime minister said Portugal was still determined to sell the paintings — with Christie’s “or maybe other auction houses” — because it was unable to maintain the multi-million-euro cost of maintaining and securing the valuable artworks.

Portugal still plans Miro art sale despite auction hitch (AFP)

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