Christie's May sales of Impressionist, Modern, Postwar and Contemporary art totaled $1.76 billion, the highest single-week total in auction history.
The 27 artist records set over the week's seven auctions were led by the $179.4 million paid for Pablo Picasso's "Les femmes d'Alger (Version 0)" (Women of Algiers), the most valuable work of art ever sold at auction, and by the $141.3 million paid for Alberto Giacometti's "L'homme au doigt" (Pointing Man), the most valuable sculpture ever sold at auction.
Bidders from 48 countries in the Americas, Europe, the Mideast, and Asia registered to participate in the sales. There were over 40 bids above $100 million for Picasso's cubist depiction of nude courtesans.
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In addition to the 147 lots that sold during the weeklong sales for over $1 million, there were 18 lots that sold for $20 million and seven for $50 million. This was the first time that Christie's had combined its traditional separate categories of Impressionist and Modern art, postwar and contemporary art into a single sale week of auctions and online sales.
www.christies.com/lotfinder/salebrowse.aspx?
intsaleid=25299&viewType=list
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Sotheby's four May art auctions totaled $892.9 million, with the Impressionist and Modern art sales grossing $420.4 million and the Contemporary art sales $472.5 million.
Combined with the $160.9 million achieved at its May Magnificent Jewels Auction in Geneva, Sotheby's reported a grand total of $1.05 billion for the week of May 5-12.
More than 30 percent of the lots sold at the May 5 evening sale of Impressionist and Modern art were purchased by Asian private collectors, including Vincent van Gogh's 1888 "L'Allée des Alyscamps" that sold to a Chinese buyer for $66.3 million.
Picasso's 1948 "Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil" (Woman with hair knot in a chair) sold for $29.9 million to the Chinese media mogul Wang Zhongjun, co-founder of Huayi Brothers Media Corp., a film production company, record label, and talent agency. Claude Monet's "Bassin aux nymphéas, les rosiers," a 1913 oil painting of an arch of roses overlooking a pond of water lilies, was purchased for $20.4 million by the Dalian Wanda Group, China's biggest commercial real estate conglomerate.
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The Contemporary art auctions were led by Mark Rothko's 1954 "Untitled (Yellow and Blue)," an 8-foot-tall abstract painting that sold for $46.5 million to an anonymous buyer with the underbidder an Asian collector.
Roy Lichtenstein's comic book-style painting "The Ring (Engagement)" was purchased by a Hong Kong collector for $41.7 million, which was nearly 20 times the $2.2 million it brought in 1997 at Sotheby's.
The $160.9 million realized at Sotheby's May 12 Magnificent Jewels Auction was the highest total for any jewelry auction. It was led by the "Sunrise Ruby," a 25.59-carat Burmese stone that sold for $30.3 million, setting records for any ruby, any non-diamond jewel, and any stone by Cartier.
www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/2015/impressionist-modern-art-evening-sale-n09340.html
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Works by contemporary artists lead Skinner's American & European Works of Art and American & European Prints & Photographs auctions Friday at its Boston gallery.
Topping the 4 p.m. paintings, sculpture, and drawings auction is “Blue Flower,” a square grid-like composition expected to bring $1.5 million-$2 million. Created in 1962 by the Canadian-born abstract artist Agnes Martin (1912-2004), the collage of vertical and horizontal intersecting quarter-inch squares of canvas stained a pale cornflower blue was affixed to the canvas surface with small nails and stretched over a 11⅝ -by-11⅜ -inch panel in a frame.
"A Cape Cod Shore," painted in 1908 by the Philadelphia-born artist William Glackens (1870-1938), and "Coast of Monterey," painted in 1912 by the British-born American landscape artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926) both have $250,000-$350,000 estimates.
Another water scene is "North Shore Harbor View" by the Illinois-born Jane Peterson (1876-1965), which is being sold to benefit a Massachusetts nonprofit institution. The estimate is $70,000-$90,000, which also is the estimate for "Annunciation," a 1931 surrealistic depiction of the angel Gabriel standing behind a figure of Mary all in a muted palette of blues and grays by the Russian-American artist Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957).
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Also expected to be among the 10 top sellers are two charcoal-on-paperboard drawings by Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), both inscribed "to my cousin Mary Amy." The study for "Tom Sawyer (Schoolmaster Flogging Tom Sawyer)," an illustration for an edition of Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," has a $30,000-$50,000 estimate while the study for the painting "Girl Sick in Bed," the cover of the Jan. 23, 1937, Saturday Evening Post has a $60,000-$80,000 estimate.
Topping the sculptures is "Petite Flore drapée," a nearly 2-foot bronze by the French sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) depicting a young girl with bare breasts holding up her dress. The estimate is $120,000-$180,000.
www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2817B
Topping the more than 100 prints and photographs being offered at the noon auction is "Pembroke Studio Interior" a 1984 color lithograph by David Hockney (b. 1937), considered one of Britain's dominant Pop artists. The estimate is $15,000-$25,000.
Among other Pop artists whose works are featured in the sale are Andy Warhol (1928-87), Claes Oldenburg (b. 1929) and Jeff Koons (b. 1955),
Warhol's "Northwest Coast Mask," a color screenprint on paperboard from his 1986 "Cowboys and Indians" series, is number 28 from an edition of 250 and expected to bring $10,000-$15,000.
Oldenburg's 1969 "Profile Airflow," a black and gray lithograph on paper with a green polyurethane overlay of a new streamlined design of a 1934 Chrysler Airflow is number 60 from an edition of 75. The estimate is $15,000-$20,000.
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Koons's "Puppy," a nearly 18-inch glazed white ceramic vase created to reference his 1992 colossal 40-foot "Puppy" topiary sculpture that sits at the entrance to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, has an $8,000-$12,000 estimate. It is No. 804 from the 1998 edition of 3,000.
Topping the photography are two images made by the German-born American Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995), who produced over 2,500 picture stories and 90 covers over his 35-year career with Life magazine. His 1932 photograph of an ice-skating waiter in tails at St. Moritz, Switzerland, has a $5,000-$7,000 estimate and his "Dying Monk in Varlaan Monastery. Thessaly, Greece" has an $8,000-$12,000 estimate.
www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2816B
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Sports memorabilia appraiser Leila Dunbar will give verbal appraisals of sports items on May 30 from 10:30 a.m. till noon at the Concord Museum in Concord in conjunction with the museum's exhibition "The Art of Baseball." There is a per-person limit of two items for appraisal, with a fee of $15 per item for museum members and $20 for non-members. Registration required: online or call 978-369-9763, ext.216.
www.concordmuseum.org/calendar.php?
event=234
Virginia Bohlin can be reached at vbohlin@comcast.net.