René Magritte’s Miroir Universel sells over estimate for$6,661,000, via Rae Wang for Art Observed
The November auctions are over, as Christie’s capped its final major evening sale of the year to strong results, with 13 lots going unsold out of the 62 offered, tallying a final of $145,545,000. (more…)
One of Monet‘s Waterlilies paintings from 1905 will be auctioned at Christie’s on November 7th, with a presale estimate of $30 – $50 million. The piece is being auctioned by the Hackley School, in Tarrytown, NY with the help of Herb Allen, whose father had donated the piece to the school (his alma mater). The school will also consign paintings by Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, bequeathed to it by the Allen family. Christie’s expects to bring in at least $2.5 million each for the Pissarro and Sisley pictures. (more…)
Jeune Arabe, Kees Van Dongen (1877) sold for $13.8 million – a new record for the artist
In contrast to the slim pickings made available to buyers at Christie’s Modern and Impressionist Evening sale on November 3, last night’s sale at Sotheby’s offered many iconic works that had bidders excited and which resulted in an auction that Simon Shaw, Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department in New York described as “a shot in the arm for the art market. A real vote of confidence.” The evening’s auctioneer Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, commented that after all his time at Sotheby’s he had never seen such an active sale. And indeed it was, with a grand total of $181,760,000 over a high-end estimate of $163,600,000, this sale marked the first time since May 2006 that Sotheby’s in New York have exceeded their top estimate.
L’Homme qui Chavire, Alberto Giacometti – an instantly recognizable icon of the modern era cast in 1951. Sold for a remarkable $19,346,500.
More text, images, related links and video after the jump….
Head of a Muse, Raphael via Guardian UK
-Offered for the first time at public auction as part of Christie’s Old Masters sale, Raphael’s drawing “Head of a Muse”- a study for a figure in one of his Vatican frescoes, if it achieves its estimate £12-16million, will break the auction record for an old master drawing currently held by Michelangelo’s and Leonardo da Vinci’s works [Guardian UK]
-As art collectors become more cautious with their purchases, dealers at Frieze and FIAC fairs put works on reserve, among them $40 million Mondrian allegedly put on hold for Bernard Arnault [Bloomberg]
-Ms. Temkin, the chief curator of painting and sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, introduces unexpected changes, unframing certain paintings and subjecting the almost sacralized permanent collection to frequent renewal [The New York Times]
“Your Mercury Ocean” Skateboard by Olafur Eliasson via aarting
-Another collaboration between Mekanism and Olafur Eliasson results in a 13-ply deck 3d patterned skateboard with a mirror coating [aarting]
-In related, Olafur Eliasson commissions by the mayor of Copenhagen to design a bridge for the Danish capital; the artist shares his plans for a transparent bridge in a close vicinity to the water [The Art Newspaper]
– The survey carried out by the Art Fund, the UK’s independent art charity, shows that despite the substantial drop in public funding and investment income, a figure that proves to grow in the context of economic fall is the number of visits to museums [Art Knowledge News]
-In the midst of economic uncertainty, gallery Matthew Marks, which represents artists such as Jasper Johns, and Peter Fischli and David Weiss, plans on expansion with a new space on the West Coast [The New York Times]
To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)
State prosecutor, Jacques Dallest, displays stolen paintings via ReutersUK
A Frenchman living in Florida has been charged with conspiring to sell four masterpieces, stolen from the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Nice, France back in August 2007. The Frenchman, Bernard Jean Ternus, was caught trying to sell four paintings, by Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley, and Pieter Breugel, to undercover FBI agents. The four recovered paintings were Falaises près de Dieppe by Claude Monet, Allée de peupliers de Moret by Alfred Sisley, and Pieter Breugel’s Allégorie de l’eau and Allégorie de la terre.
French Man Living in Florida Indicted for Conspiring to sell stolen works [Artdaily]
Frenchman in Florida charged in Monet, Sisley Art Heist [CBC]
U.S. charges Frenchman over stolen Monet, other art [ReutersUK]
Frenchman Charged With Plotting to Sell Stolen Monet Painting [Bloomberg]
French Citizen charged in brazen Art Theft [CalgaryHerald]
Art thieves aren’t just in it for the Monet [Guardian]
