Christie's Auction Preview Event Young Collectors Cocktails & After Party Tonight 9/21/09

In every auction there is always a piece that, I would really like to own...Well this Marilyn Minter photograph would make a nice B-day or Christmas present. Make a note, they both happen in December! Love it! Edition of only 5 , estimated between $18,000.00-$20,000.00

Rob Wynne- Oops!

Collector Cesar Llacuna posing in front of a Gerhard Ritcher photograph

Guests admiring a Keith Haring sculpture
The crowd admiring the art up for auction on display and sipping tasty cocktails




Great collection of works up for auction at Christie's First Open sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art. Tonight was the preview event for Young Collectors .

The quality ,range of works and great estimates will most likely guarantee a successful auction.Special thanks to Manish Vora and Artlog for the cordial invitation to the event.

Here is more information about it.

Join Artlog & theChristie’s Post War and Contemporary Art Specialists for a private event featuring free cocktails and a chance to meet other young collectors previewing the Christie’s First Open sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art. The sale offers an array of exciting paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. Presenting the opportunity to enhance an existing collection or start one anew, First Open kicks off the category’s fall season with works by some of the most sought after artists working today as well as a selection of works by Post-War masters. The sale will feature works by Andy Warhol, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner, Kiki Smith, and Gavin Turk, among others.

Leading the sale is Flowers by Andy Warhol, dated 1964 (estimate: $500,000-700,000). T Among the contemporary works being offered is Kerry James Marshall’s Terra Incognita, 1991 (estimate: $300,000-400,000). The selection of sculpture also includes Kiki Smith’s Small Deer, 2001 (estimate: $12,000-18,000) and Brillo 5, 2003 by Gavin Turk (estimate: $20,000-30,000). Additional highlights include a work on paper by Sam Francis, Untitled, 1974 (estimate: $10,000-15,000), a cibachrome print by Gerhard Richter Guildenstern, 1998 (estimate: $7,000-9,000) and a painting by Richard Anuszkiewicz, Soft Yellow, 1976 (estimate: $8,000-12,000). The First Open will also include works by Keith Haring, Mona Hatoum, Takashi Murakami, and Guyton Walker among others.

Risk-Defying Sale of Contemporary Art at Christie's

The second highest price, £1,721, 250, went to a perfectly figural picture. Richard Prince’s “Country Nurse” in inkjet print and red paint is the enlarged interpretation of the cover design of a novel by Maud McCurdy Welch.
Photo: Christie's

Well...ART news from across the pond (London) seem to indicate that there is still hungry appetite for works of art. Let's keep it going folks for art's sake!

Newcomer, Artist Jules De Balincourt is moving up to to the high big auction leagues after this auction result. 

Please read NY Times article by Souren Melikian.

Enjoy!

By SOUREN MELIKIAN
Published: July 1, 2009
LONDON — The art market jauntily jumped the last of the most dreaded hurdles laid in its path on Tuesday evening. To the considerable delight of many professionals, Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale, seen by market pundits as the most risk-fraught of all fields, brought £19.06 million, or $31.77 million.


Of the 40 paintings, color prints and three-dimensional works in sundry media and techniques, only five remained unwanted. The minimal failure rate, 12.4 percent, compares with the finest performances on record when the market was at its height. True, the money spent that evening is a fraction of what contemporary art auctions achieved in the glorious recent past when the proceeds at Christie’s and at Sotheby’s easily exceeded $300 million in New York and the equivalent of at least half that amount in London — the all-time high at Christie’s New York was $384 million in May 2007, and at Christie’s London it was £86.24 million in June 2008.

But if the Tuesday evening session came nowhere near achieving such numbers, the fault does not lie with bidders. It was the consignors who displayed timidity and balked at the thought of entrusting auction houses with any of those works that somehow drive contemporary art buyers into a frenzy of desire.

As it is, they gladly took what was on offer. Peter Doig, one of the most interesting artists on the contemporary scene, was represented by a large scene, “Night Playground,” done between 1997 and 1998 in a semi-Naif style, very different from his accomplished manner of more recent years. Yet that became his second most expensive work ever at auction as it fetched £3.01 million, the highest price paid that evening.

From the moment go, bidders were so keen that they chased artists rarely or even never seen at auction.

Jules de Balincourt is hardly a worldwide celebrity even if Christie’s experts graciously hailed him in the catalog as “one of New York’s fastest rising art stars.” “Internal Renovations,” painted in oil, acrylic and spray paint on paper in two parts looks like the picture of an architect’s presentation maquette for an urban rehabilitation campaign in some Godforsaken dump. If it is not, it is a pretty good spoof of one. Done in 2006, it went to a Berlin gallery, Arndt & Partner, where it was acquired by the consignor, whose love of the art may be rather fickle. Financially, he or she did very well. “Internal Renovation” made £67,250, exceeding the highest expectations. This was the third time that the artist’s work had appeared at Christie’s.

Joana Vasconcelos, a Lisbon artist born in 1971, was trying her luck at auction for the first time with “Golden Independent Heart.” The title refers to a big affair in translucent yellow plastic cutlery involving the use of painted iron, a motor, a metallic chain and a CD. Keen to make sure that her Independent Heart would be spinning at the right speed, to the sound of music chosen by her, the artist made the trip to assist Christie’s team as they mounted the whole thing in the viewing room. This is an old Vasconcelos. It was “executed in 2004,” the catalog notes. The consignor bought it from Ms. Vasconcelos but the entry does not say whether he tired of the spinning heart or just wanted to make a few bucks. Thus the artist got lucky. At £163,250, her musical contraption went well over the high estimate.

As ever in contemporary art sales, there was no remote suggestion of a common denominator between the works that did best.

The second highest price, £1,721, 250, went to a perfectly figural picture. Richard Prince’s “Country Nurse” in inkjet print and red paint is the enlarged interpretation of the cover design of a novel by Maud McCurdy Welch. The writer is unkindly characterized in Christie’s catalog as “the author of many ... steamy, dime-store love stories.” Perhaps this is why it only just matched the lower estimate, still costing its new owner a hefty price.

Contrast that with the third highest price in the sale, £1.39 million, paid for a 1974 picture by Gerhard Richter, “1025 Farben” (1025 Colors). Here the painter, who would later display a stunning mastery in the brushwork of some of the most beautiful abstract compositions of the 20th century, was content with painting tiny color rectangles. The picture deceptively resembles some color chart with endlessly repeated variants, destined for a supplier of deluxe house paint. It did not match the lower end of the estimate, but as color charts go, it was not cheap.

Jeff Koons came fourth in line after Mr. Doig, Mr. Prince and Mr. Richter in the race to high scores. Market commentators will have difficulty in building up a rationale to explain how he managed to join the club of the First Five runners with “Moustache,” which sold for £1.1 million. The painted aluminum and wrought iron apparition hanging from an orange steel chain irresistibly calls to mind some outsize prop for a Walt Disney movie or animation.

The last of the Big Five in declining order was Frank Auerbach’s “Tree in Mornington Crescent.” Done in 1991-1992, it betrays the legacy of German Expressionism in the uncontrolled fury of the brushwork. Figuration only faintly survives in a work that points to the influence of Expressionist Abstractionism. Enthusiasm greeted this picture, which went above its high estimate at £886,000. By contrast, Francis Bacon’s very fine “Study for Portrait” dating from 1986-1988 barely made it, selling for £870,050, below the lower end of the estimate.

The sale followed no discernible aesthetic direction, perhaps because aesthetics had no place in such an event. Ironically, this is a sign of financial health if nothing else. It has always been so in past sales of contemporary art. And in the current recessionary climate, no news is splendid news.

The Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé Realises $483.8 Million at Christie's

Wow!
This a good piece of business for Christie's!
Considering the status of the Global Economy ..this is a success!
Please read about

General view of the interior of the Grand Palais where the auction of the collection belonging to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé is being held. Photo: EFE/Yoan Valat.

PARIS.- The three-day sale of the magnificent Collection of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé at the Grand Palais, offered by Christie’s in association with Pierre Bergé & Associates auctioneers, realised in total €373,935,500 / £332,802,595 / $483,835,144. A remarkable 95.5% of lots sold by lot, and 93% sold by value. This historic sale set a world record for the most valuable private collection sold at auction, was the highest grossing sale in Europe on record, and set multiple world records for Impressionist and Modern Art, 20th Century Decorative Arts, Silver, Sculpture and Works of Art. One of the most exceptional and significant collections of art in private hands, it generated unprecedented interest from bidders throughout the world and pre-sale estimates for both the sale as a whole and the individual works, were significantly exceeded.

Highlights of these exceptional and rare works of art, each with impeccable provenance, captured the attention of international collectors as they were exhibited by Christie’s, in association with Pierre Bergé and Associates, in New York, London, Brussels and Paris in the last four months. The spectacular public exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this unique curated collection of art and to experience the evocative atmosphere of Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment at rue de Babylone, was viewed by over 30,000 visitors over 3 days (21-23 February), and over 1500 people gathered for each of the sales, held in a specially built saleroom, the largest in Christie’s history.

The top lot of the sale was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911 by Henri Matisse, which sold for €35.9 million / £31.9 million / $46.4 million. 16 works of art sold for over €5 million and 61 works of art sold for over €1 million. Numerous world auction records were set in each sale, and in almost every part of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Collection, a tribute to their discerning eye for provenance and museum quality.

The proceeds of the sale will go to the Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, created to prolong the history of the House of Yves Saint Laurent, and to a new foundation that will be set up for scientific research and the fight against AIDS.

Pierre Bergé said: “The sale of the collection that I had built in partnership with Yves Saint Laurent draws to a close and has been a triumph. My expectations have been fully realized. I thank Christie’s for the organization of both the preview exhibitions and the sale itself in the setting of the Grand Palais. I offer my gratitude to the public who came in huge numbers and were prepared to queue patiently for many hours. The results of the sale exceed our highest expectations and confirm the potential of the Paris marketplace to rise to such an occasion. The results also demonstrate that even in a difficult economic climate, works of art of great quality preserve their power and their value.”

Impressionist and Modern Art
On 23 February, at the inuagural session of the sale, the most significant collection of Impressionist and Modern Art in private hands sold for a total of €206 million / £183 million / $266 million, a world record for a private collection at auction and the highest total achieved for any Impressionist and Modern Art sale in Europe. The top lot of the evening was Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose, 1911 by Henri Matisse, which sold for €35.9 million / £31.9 million / $46.4 million, the highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction, and 8 works of art sold for over €5 million. 25 works of art sold for over €1 million (24 lots for over £1 million / 25 lots over $1 million). 7 world records were set for artists at auction, including Matisse, Brancusi, Mondrian, de Chirico, Duchamp, Klee and Ensor.

Thomas Seydoux, International Head of Impressionist and Modern Art said: “This record sale, which achieved the highest total for any Impressionist and Modern Art sale in Europe, and was the most valuable private collection ever sold at auction in the world, was a tribute to two great men: Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent. Collectors, gathered in the largest saleroom that Christie’s has ever seated, responded to the opportunity of a lifetime to buy into a Collection carefully assembled over almost five decades. There was significant bidding on the telephone from a deep pool of international buyers and many rare and exceptional works, each with impeccable provenance and condition, set world record prices for artists at auction. This historical sale demonstrated the timeless appeal of Impressionist and Modern art, this long-established and highly valued category.”

Other major highlights of the sale included:

•Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.), a magnificent example of Constantin Brancusi’s earliest and enigmatic sculptures in wood sold for €29.1 million / £25.9 million / $37.7 million (estimate: €15,000,000 – 20,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

•Three abstract paintings by Piet Mondrian, which each belong to key stages in the artist’s work, and express degrees of tension between line, form and colour were all sold above their high estimates. Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir, 1922 sold for €21.5 million / £19.1 million / $27.9 million (estimate: €7,000,000-10,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction; Composition avec grille 2, 1918 sold for €14.4 million / £12.8 million / $18.6 million (estimate: €7,000,000-10,000,000), and Composition I, 1920, sold for €7.0 million / £6.2 million / $9.0 million (estimate: €5,000,000-7,000,000).

•Fernand Léger’s great mechanical paintings of 1918 and 1919, painted during one of his most brilliant periods drew significant attention: Composition, dans l’usine, 1918 sold for € 5.5 million / £4.9 million / $7.1 million (estimate: €6,000,000 – 8,000,000). La tasse de thé, 1921, sold for € 11.4 million / £10.2 million / $14.8 million (estimate: €10,000,000 – 15,000,000).

•The ready-made masterpiece “La Belle Haleine – Eau de Voilette” by Marcel Duchamp, with the assistance by Man Ray in 1921, witnessed fierce bidding in the room and realized € 8.9 million / £7.9 million / $11.5 million, nearly 9 times its estimate of €1,000,000 – 1,500,000, a world auction record for the artist.

•James Ensor’s monumental Le désespoir de Pierrot, the most important work of art by the artist to be presented at auction in the last 25 years, sold for € 4.9 million / £4.4 million / $6.4 million (estimate: €2,000,000 – 3,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

•Three works of art were acquired by two of the most important French museums in Paris: Les Lilas by Edouard Vuillard and Au Conservatoire by James Ensor was bought by the Museé d’Orsay, and Il Ritornante by Giorgio de Chirico was bought by the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Old Master and 19th Century Paintings and Drawings
The sale of Old Master and 19th Century Paintings and Drawings on 24 February totalled €22.2 million / £19.7 million / $28.7 million. 75% of lots sold by lot, and 90% sold by value. Drawings from the 19th century, predominantly portraits by Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones generated significant interest and Portrait d’Alfred et Elisabeth Dedreux by Theodore Gericault, the figurehead of French Romantic painting, was the top lot of the sale and realised €9.0 million / £8.0 million / $11.6 million (estimate: €4,000,000 – 6,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction. 5 works of art sold for over €1 million (4 lots for over £1 million / 6 lots over $1 million). 6 new world auction records for artists were set.

Cécile Bernard, Ketty Gottardo and Etienne Hellman, specialists in charge of the sale said: “The works of art offered, which ranged over four centuries, from the early 16th Century to the early 20th Century, mirrored this unique collection's breadth and exceptional diversity. Each of the twenty-four works that were sold had exceptional provenance and an impressive art historical pedigree; thus attracting very active bidding from top international collectors and connoisseurs”.

Major highlights of the sale included:

•Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ elegant Portrait de la comtesse de la Rue, 1890, sold for €2.0 million / £1.8 million / $2.6 million (estimate: €2,000,000,000 – 3,000,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction

•Jacques-Louis David’s Portrait d’homme de profil, which has long been thought to be a self-portrait sold for €577,000 / £513,530 / $746,580 (estimate: €400,000 – 600,000), a world record for a work on paper by the artist at auction.

•Théodore Gericault’s Portrait d’Alfred et Elisabeth Dedreux sold for €9.0 million / £8.0 million / $11.6 million (estimate: €4,000,000 – 6,000,000), a world record for the artist, and a world record for any ‘non-impressionist’ painting from the 19th Century. International collectors and connoisseurs where quick to recognise the significance of this painting, its relevance within Géricault’s oeuvre, its status as an icon of early romantic portraiture, and its particularly unforgettable atmosphere.

• Arnold Böcklin’s Odysseus and Polypheme, 1986, sold for €577,000 / £513,530 / $746,580 (estimate: €400,000 – 600,000), a world record for a work on paper by the artist at auction.

Silver, Miniatures and Objets de Vertu
The afternoon sale of Silver, Miniatures and Objets Vertu on 24 February totaled €19.8 million / £17.6 million / $25.7 million and set a new world auction record for a silver sale. An impressive 100% of the works sold to an audience of over 1,000 people. The star lot of the session, which saw over 111 breath-taking lots of silver, silver-gilt and gold come under the hammer, was the Osterode cup, a silver-gilt quadruple cup, 1649, which sold for €853,000 / £759,000 / $1.1 million (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000). The collection of Hanover cups alone, one of the most exciting collections of early German silver to appear on the market for years, totalled €6.1 million / £5.4 million / $7.89 million. Collectors also bid fiercely for drinking cups in the form of lions, bears, horses, deer, a unicorn, bull, swan, owl and even an elephant with soldiers in the castle turret on its back.

Anthony Phillips, International Director, Silver said: “The sale of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s silver collection was a record sale. Not only was it the most valuable silver sale ever in the world, but numerous world records were established. A truly international group of collectors responded positively to the museum-quality pieces of rare silver, silver-gilt and gold and in particular to the collection of Hanover cups”.

Major highlights of the sale included:

• The top lot of the huge standing cups – formerly in a German royal collection was the Osterode cup which sold for €853,000 / £759,170 / $1,103,697 (estimate: €100,000 - 150,000).

• A 16th century silver hunting bear sold for €313,000/ £278,570 / $404,990 (estimate: €80,000 - 120,000).

• An important Louis XIV rose-cut diamond and enamelled gold-mounted presentation miniature, portrait by Jean I Petitot (1607-1691), circa 1680 which fetched €481,000 / £428,090 / $622,366 (estimate: €200,000 - 300,000). This work was acquired by the Louvre.

• The remarkable pair of German gold and enamel tazze, probably Augsburg, circa 1730 which sold for €481,000 / £428,090 / $622,366 (estimate: €200,000-300,000).

20th Century Decorative Arts
The 24 February evening sale of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Berge’s meticulously selected group of Art Deco treasures, a sophisticated celebration of one of the most brilliant chapters in Parisian cultural life, realised a total of €59.1 million / £52.6 million / $76.5 million, a world record for a collection of 20th century decorative arts. 95% of lots sold by lot, and 98% sold by value. The star lot of the evening was Eileen Gray’s ‘Dragons’ armchair, circa 1917-1919, which achieved €21.9 million / £19.4 million / $28.3 million, a world record for a work of 20th century decorative art at auction, and a world record for the artist at auction. 10 works of art sold for over €1 million (10 over £1 million and 10 over $1 million). The auction saw a total of 12 artist records established.

Philippe Garner, International Head and Sonja Ganne, European Director, 20th Century Decorative Art & Design said: “Tonight’s sale was a homage to the great personalities, designers, collectors and patrons who so marked their era in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s and, of course, to the pioneering vision of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé as collectors.”

Leading highlights of the sale included:

• Eileen Gray’s ‘Dragons’ armchair, circa 1917-1919, originally in the collection of Suzanne Talbot, sold for €21.9 million / £19.4 million / $28.3 million, a world record for any work of 20th century decorative art at auction, and a world record for the artist at auction (estimate: €2,000,000-3,000,000). Gray’s unique Enfilade, circa 1915-1917, realised €3.9 million / £3.5 million / $5.1 million (estimate: €3,000,000-5,000,000).

• The Gustave Miklos pair of palm wood and lacquered bronze banquettes, 1928-1929, commissioned by Jacques Doucet, sold for €1.7 million / £1.5 million / $2.2 million (estimate: €2,000,000-3,000,000), a world auction record for the artist.

• Monumental in size and striking in design, the Jean Dunand pair of lacquered and gilt metal vases, 1925, stirred competitive bidding and sold for €3 million / £2.7 million / $3.9 million (estimate: €1,000,000-1,500,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

• Works by Claude Lalanne sold for prices that far exceeded their estimates and a spectacular set of fifteen bronze and galvanised copper mirrors, modelled as branches, 1974-1985, sold for €1.8 million / £1.6 million / $2.4 million (estimate: €700,000-1,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction. Specially commissioned by Yves Saint Laurent, in 1974, they took 11 years to complete.

• The sculptural YSL bar, François-Xavier Lalanne’s first commission from Yves Saint Laurent, and a centrepiece of the library in Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment in rue de Babylone sold for €2.7 million / £2.4 million / $3.5 million (estimate: €700,000-1,000,000), a world record for the artist at auction.

• A pair of floor lamps, 1930 by Eckart Muthesius commissioned by the Maharaja of Indore for his Modernist palace sold for €2.5 million / £2.2 million / $3.2 million (estimate: €400,000-600,000), far exceeding the world record for the artist at auction.

Sculpture and Works of Art
The afternoon session of the Sculpture and Works of Art sale on 25 February realised a total of €24.2 million / £21.5 million / $31.3 million. 95% of lots sold by lot, and 98% sold by value. The top lot was a 16th century bronze double head of Janus, unusual in both its iconography and its scale, which attracted committed bidding from a wide range of private and trade buyers and sold for €2.0 million / £1.8 million / $2.6 million (estimate: €100,000 – 200,000), a record for a 16th century French bronze. 5 works of art sold for over €1 million (4 lots for over £1 million / 6 lots over $1 million).

Donald Johnston, Director and Head of European Sculpture, said: “The depth and breadth of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s collection of sculpture was an inspiration. Seen in its entirety and splendour at the public exhibition at the Grand Palais, it captured the interest of a large number of new private buyers from all over the world. This culminated in one of the longest-lasting sculpture sales ever to be held. Over six hours, 278 lots works dating from the 13th to the 19th Century were sold, bringing the sale total to €24.2 million, triple its low estimate.”

Major highlights of the sale included:

• A group of parcel-gilt white painted carved wood allegorical busts representing the four continents, French, from the 18th century sold for €841,000 / £748,000 / $1 million (estimate: €200,000 – 300,000).

• An exquisite silver gilt and ruby mounted rock crystal vase, Milanese, from the late 16th or early 17th century, which was formerly in the French royal collection, sold for €529,000 / £470,810 / $684,473 (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000).

• A bronze figure of Hermaphrodite, attributed to Gianfrancesco Susini sold for €625,000 / £556,250 / $808,688 (estimate: €400,000 – 600,000), a world record for a bronze by the artist.

• A 17th century German turned ivory cup and cover sold for €457,000 / £406,730 / $591,312 (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000), a world record for a German turned ivory.

• A Venetian parcel-gilt polychrome circular enamel ewer basin, circa 1500 sold for €421,000 / £374,690 / $544,732 (estimate: €180,000 – 220,000), a world record for any Venetian enamel.

Asian Art, Ceramics, Furniture, Islamic Art and Antiquities
The evening session of the Sculpture and Works of Art sale on 25 February, which included a wide range of Asian Art, Ceramics, Furniture, Islamic Art and Antiquities and conveyed Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s taste for exceptional decorative works, realised a total of €42.8 million / £38.1 million / $55.4 million. The top lots were exceptionally rare bronze heads of a rat and a rabbit made for the Zodiac Fountain of the Emperor Qianlong’s Summer Palace in China which each sold for €15.8 million / £14.0 million / $20.3 million. 3 works of art sold for over €1 million (3 over £1 million and 5 over $1 million). Other major highlights of the sale included:

• An important gilt and red lacquered wood figure of Buddha, China, Ming dynasty, 16th century, sold for €313,000 / £278,570 / $404,997 (estimate: €30,000 – 40,000).

• An impressive Roman marble minotaur, circa 1st-2nd century A.D., the focus of the apsidal terrace outside Yves Saint Laurent’s apartment at rue Babylone, sold for €913,000 / £812,570 / $1.6 million (estimate: €300,000 – 500,000).

• An exquisite over life-sized and imposing male marble torso, circa 1st-2nd century A.D., which stood in the entrance hall of rue Babylone, sold for €1.2 million / £1.1 million / $1.6 million (estimate: €300,000 – 500,000).

• A Louis XIV exotic tapestry, Gobelins, after a painting by Albert Eckhout and Frans Post, possibly woven in 1720 by Jean Lefebvre Fils sold for €553,000 / £492,170 / $715,527 (estimate: €100,000 – 150,000).

• A set of eighteen Italian chairs from the Rococo period from the Palazzo Carrega-Cataldi in Genoa, which surrounded a monumental Art Deco dining table in marble and silvered bronze in rue Babylone, sold for €961,000 / £855,290 / $1.2 million (estimate: €300,000 – 500,000).

Job Art Losses Continue-Sotheby’s Sacks Auctioneer, Furniture Experts in U.S. Offices

The Art Auction houses started 2009 leaving staffers out of the job.
ART Fag City reported on Christie's chopping heads without any warning and now it is Sotheby's turn. Please read article below written by Linsday Pollock of Bloomberg News.

I want the new government to take power and turn this Economy around. I fear for myself, my dear fellow artists, Museums, Non For Profit Art Organizations and the Art business in general. Then, I see all in the news all the home foreclosures and people losing everything because some one's greed and wonder ...Had we been too Greedy?
And the answer is yes we have. Myself included...


Sotheby’s Sacks Auctioneer, Furniture Experts in U.S. Offices


By Lindsay Pollock

Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sotheby’s has fired about 60 staffers in the U.S. since mid-December, including an auctioneer who was on the rise and an impressionist and modern-art scholar who logged 35 years at the company, according to six current and former employees.

Among those let go are Christopher Gaillard, the head of the contemporary-print department who was considered a rising star as an auctioneer, and John Tancock, the art scholar and a senior vice president.

Sotheby’s staff reductions have cut across departments, seniority levels and offices, according to these employees. Longtime experts in ceramics and French and English furniture were among those fired. About half of the nine jobs in the Los Angeles office were terminated, as well as staffers in the Chicago and Miami offices.

Sotheby’s spokeswoman Diana Phillips declined to comment.

Rival Christie’s International began cutting jobs on Monday.

“The recent wave of terminations at the auction houses reflects the ongoing contraction of the art market,” said art lawyer Peter Stern of McLaughlin & Stern, LLP.

Sotheby’s hasn’t released its fourth-quarter earnings figures yet. Sales during that quarter are usually profitable for auction houses. At Sotheby’s major Nov. 11 contemporary-art sale, about a third of the 63 lots went unsold.

Employees in Sotheby’s North American offices totaled 605, and 1,555 worldwide, as of Dec. 31, 2007, according to the latest company filings. Sotheby’s declined to provide more recent numbers.

Sotheby’s said it expected $5 million in restructuring charges and projected $7 million in savings from salaries and costs for 2009, according to a filing in December.

Christie’s Firings

Christie’s has cut about 80 employees in the New York office, said one staffer who was let go and asked not to be identified. The cuts were made across departments, including contemporary art, 19th-century art, prints and administrative.

“Virtually all departments and geographies are affected by the reorganization,” Christie’s spokesman Toby Usnik said in an e-mail statement. He declined to provide details.

The auction houses are accustomed to paring back. In 2001 and 2002, in the wake of a price-fixing scandal, Sotheby’s cut around 400 positions, or 14 percent. Christie’s axed 15 percent of its staff.

To contact the reporter on the story: Lindsay Pollock in New York at lindsaypollock@yahoo.com;

Famed Portrait Fails to Sell at Auction

Francis Bacon-Self Portrait

ARTmostfierce reports more bad news as I wait to see who's next being laid off from work today!

Times are tough folks... get off from the Diva Wagon!

If Francis Bacon work is not moving ...it is a sign of the times. For those whose inflated ego gets

in the way when valuating your own work...start taking cues !

NEW YORK (Nov. 13) - The fall New York art sales limped to a close on Wednesday, leaving a market bruised and bloodied but still standing.
Christie's post-war and contemporary auction took in $113.6 million, half of a low pre-sale estimate of $227 million, with 68 percent of the lots on offer finding buyers.

Francis Bacon 's "Study for Self-Portrait" had been considered the highlight of the auction with an estimated sales price of $40 million or more. But bidding stopped at $24.7 million, drawing gasps from the crowd.
Bacons have seen huge price spikes in recent seasons, including a record $86 million.
"The market is continuing, but clearly at a different price level," Christie's president Marc Porter said.
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"There's no panic in the market, but there is an adjustment," he told Reuters, contrasting that to the volatility gripping other markets such as oil or real estate.
"While it had declined, you've seen it find a stable level, with a lot of support."
The spotty sale was consistent with Impressionist, modern and contemporary art auctions at Christie's and rival Sotheby's over the past two weeks.
The result was "about as expected going in," said Amy Cappellazzo, international co-head of contemporary and post-war art at Christie's, given the turmoil gripping world financial markets for the past two months.
Althouth the Bacon portrait failed to sell, there were high point in the auction, including a nearly $15 million Richter, a $13.5 million Basquiat and new records for Joseph Cornell and Yayoi Kusama.
"The market is continuing, but clearly at a different price level," Christie's president Marc Porter said.
"There's no panic in the market, but there is an adjustment," he told Reuters, contrasting that to the volatility gripping other markets such as oil or real estate.
"While it had declined, you've seen it find a stable level, with a lot of support."
Baird Ryan, managing director of the art-related financial services firm Art Capital Group, agreed with auction officials' contention that the two weeks of sales, while falling about one-third shy of estimates set before the financial crisis, showed there continues to be demand for fine art.
'A Correction'
But Ryan noted that other markets had seen a fall-off of about 20 to 40 percent, "and that's what you're seeing here. There is a correction going on." He said auction houses will have to edit sales to offer "a selected group of works with cautious estimates."
Still it was impressive that "in such a period of remarkable financial stress you can sell over $100 million worth of art in an evening," Ryan added. "People are focused, and active."
On Wednesday, there was protracted bidding for Kusama's "No. 2," which soared to $5.7 million or more than twice its low estimate, smashing the artist's record. Richter's "Abstraktes Bild (710)," the sale's top lot, also beat its estimate as did Basquiat's "Untitled (Boxer)." Records for Paul McCarthy and Robert Irwin were also broken.
But five straight lots including three Warhols and a Richter with values as high as $15 million went unsold.
Art expert and author Sarah Thornton, who chronicled several years spent infiltrating the art world for the book "Seven Days in the Art World," said the sales "could have gone much worse."
"Given the state of the financial world, it's remarkable to see a group of people spending money the way they are," she said. "There are obviously some people who still have a lot of money to spend."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Christie's is at it again!

ARTmostfierce is still pretty busy but, still keeping up with the art news.

Christie's is the hot topic this week !
Here is an article by Carol Vogel of The New York Times highlighting Christie's latest record breaking artwork auction .

Enjoy and don't forget to use sunscreen!
Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency
“Le Bassin aux Nymphéas,” the record-breaking Monet.


By CAROL VOGEL
Published: June 25, 2008
LONDON — The summer auction season here began at Christie’s on Tuesday night when a standing-room-only crowd of dealers, collectors and art lovers came from all over the world to watch and bid on one of the largest London sales the auction house has held. Early in the evening a record price for a Monet, $80.4 million, was set for one of the rarest of his waterlilies.


A sea of hands shot in the air when that painting, “Le Bassin aux Nymphéas,” which had been expected to sell for $36 million to $47 million, came up on the block. Among at least six would-be buyers, a blond woman in the front row bid tenaciously against several Christie’s representatives on the telephone with clients. When the price hit nearly $70 million, Christopher Burge, Christie’s honorary chairman in the United States and one of the evening’s two auctioneers, leaned over and said to the woman, “Take as long as you like.” The woman, identified as Tania Buckrell Pos of Arts & Management International, a London company, ended up winning the painting on behalf of an unknown client, and the salesroom burst into applause. The previous record for a Monet, $41.4 million for “The Railroad Bridge at Argenteuil,” was set last month at Sotheby’s in New York.

“Le Bassin aux Nymphéas,” from 1919, a large horizontal work measuring more than 3 feet by 6 feet, is from a series of four that Monet signed and dated and that experts consider to be among the most important paintings from his late period. Unlike most of his late works, which remained unfinished at the time of his death in 1926, this series was sold by him. One is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; another was cut in two; and a third is in a private collection, having been sold at Christie’s in New York in 1992 for $12.1 million, a stellar price at the time.

The Monet up for auction Tuesday belonged to J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller, collectors from Columbus, Ind. Mr. Miller, the chairman of the Cummins Engine Company who died in 2004, and Mrs. Miller, who died in February, helped transform Columbus into a showcase for modern architecture by supporting historic buildings and projects.

In addition to the Monet the Millers also owned a Cubist Picasso, another popular work in the auction. “La Carafe (Bouteille et Verre),” painted in the winter of 1911-12, went to a telephone bidder for $7.3 million, above its high $5.9 million estimate.

The Miller collection was the highlight of an otherwise bumpy auction. The evening sale totaled $284 million. Of the 81 works offered, 15 failed to sell. After the collection went on the block, the energy in the salesroom dissipated, with some of the lower-priced works selling below their estimates or not at all. (Final prices include the commission paid to Christie’s: 25 percent on the first $50,000, 20 percent of the next $50,001 to $1 million and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.)

That the Miller collection was sold here rather than in New York is a sign that London is considered a crucial marketplace for the top end of the art market, as more rich Russian collectors put down roots here. (Timing also helped, Christie’s experts said. The Miller children had estate taxes to worry about.)

Playing to Russian collectors, Christie’s sale included a group of works by Russian artists. One, called “The Flowers,” from 1912, by Nathalia Goncharova, was estimated to bring $6.9 million to 8.9 million. It sold for $10.8 million, a price that set two records: for the artist at auction, and for a female artist at auction.

Another big seller on Tuesday was “Dancers at the Bar,” a Degas pastel being sold by an unidentified private collector. The work, from around 1880, is considered important not only for its composition — two young dancers, their white skirts and pink ballet slippers perfectly rendered — but also because of its provenance. It had been owned by Louisine Elder, the wife of H. O. Havemeyer, the American sugar magnate whose bequest forms the bulk of the Met’s Degas collection. The pastel remained in the Havemeyer family for three generations before being sold at Christie’s in New York in 1982 for $1 million.

That price, while seemingly high at the time, looked like a bargain compared with the bidding on Tuesday. Five bidders wanted the work, which ended up selling for $26.5 million, well above its estimate of $7.9 million to $12 million. The winner was Brett Gorvy, a co-head of Christie’s postwar and Impressionist art department, bidding on behalf of a client on the telephone. The speculation in the sales room was that the Christie’s representatives had on the telephone some of Russia’s newly rich collectors.

Several works that had belonged to Simon Sainsbury, the British philanthropist and grocery store magnate who died in 2006, were also for sale Tuesday. Among the best was an early pointillist painting by Signac, “Collioure, Les Balancelles,” a composition of sailboats in the water created in September and October 1887 while he was in the seaside Mediterranean town of Collioure. The painting sold for $5.8 million, higher than its expected estimate of $3.6 million to $4.9 million.

Christie's Invading The Gallery Scene!

Looks like the auction houses like Christie's are now invading the Art Gallery Business turf!

Not only they increased their premiums but, they want to compete with the galleries as well.

Will the other auction houses follow this new trend? Get meow mix ready!

ARTmostfierce is currently extremely busy with a personal project.
In the meantime enjoy this article from NY Magazine written by Alexandra Peers Published Jun 22, 2008

This fall, François Pinault, the owner of Christie’s auction house, is opening an art gallery in New York. Tradition in the art world holds that auction houses stick to the resale market, while galleries nurture artists until they become big enough names to trade at auction. But what happens when the auction house cuts out the middleman?



Last year, Pinault’s Christie’s International bought the London gallery Haunch of Venison, which represents Bill Viola, Richard Long, and Keith Tyson. It could be a savvy move for Christie’s if the market slows: Collectors traditionally turn to selling through dealers, not at auction, when prices weaken or when they need cash quietly.



The New York gallery, which opens September 12, will be located in a 17,000-square-foot duplex penthouse atop the same building as Christie’s headquarters in Rockefeller Center. (A Chelsea space could happen later.) Collectors have already toured the gallery, including, a source says, Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire who reportedly paid a record $86.3 million for a Francis Bacon.



Gallerists are up in arms. Art Dealers Association of America head Roland Augustine has said that the purchase of Haunch was to “get product for auctions” and wondered, to Artnet, if the deal would “raise some eyebrows” given America’s antitrust laws. Meanwhile, Haunch was frozen out of the Frieze and Art Basel art fairs.



Haunch honcho Robert Fitzpatrick chalks up the ban from art fairs to misunderstanding and, perhaps, jealousy. “With the acquisition by Christie’s, there were very substantial resources at the gallery’s disposition, and you could do things with and for artists that would not have been possible before,” he says. Besides, “It’s a separate operation,” says Christie’s deputy chairman Brett Gorvy, even if the top people at both report to Christie’s CEO Ed Dolman.



So far, Haunch’s efforts to appear independent have met with mixed success. Potential buyers who arrived at the Christie’s contemporary sale last month found a request in the auction materials that a Clyfford Still for sale be loaned to Haunch’s first New York show. Then, while Christie’s originally announced that Haunch employees could not bid at auction because of conflicts of interest or issues of market manipulation, its co-founder was spotted bidding on a Jeff Koons. Explains Fitzpatrick, “At Christie’s, we bid only and exclusively on behalf of clients, not for ourselves. We don’t share bidding information. There’s a Chinese wall.” But the dealers see it crumbling.

London Art Auction Fear Factor

ARTmostfierce is too tired to post a blog tonight (thanks to Jury Duty). I found this article from the NYSun worth reading.The rest of the article you can find on the link.
Enjoy!


London's Grand Finale
By Coincidence Sales Break A Pattern
By Marion Maneker

In London, the auction houses pride themselves on how quickly they dispatch their sales. In what amounts to a long weekend of activity, the London sales usually come fast and furious. New York houses, by contrast, draw out their marquee events into a two-week festival of art.

By sheer accident this February, the London sales, which resume tomorrow, have broken the pattern. Now, set against the uncertain state of the world economy, what used to seem like a one-act play has turned into a grand opera. With the auction cycle caught in a brief intermission, now is a good time to recap the ups and downs of the drama and preview the finale.

Two weeks ago, Sotheby's had a strong Impressionist and Modern art sale held in between Christie's two solid but uneven sales. The results added a little drama to the story. Christie's Postwar and Contemporary art sale hit a high overall number but had an uncharacteristically large number of unsold lots. Some big names — and smaller ones, too — failed to draw bidders. That's the sort of thing that makes the art market's stomach tighten into a knot of uncertainty.

Last week, though, Sotheby's gala (Auction) Red in New York showed the contemporary market's remarkable strength, even if dealer and co-sponsor Larry Gagosian was seen bidding on most of the lots. Nevertheless, star power met wall power — the sale beat high estimates and set a surprising number of records. Please click on the link below for the rest of the article.

http://www.nysun.com/article/71873