Frank Stella, Delaware Crossing (1961), via Sotheby’s

The New York auction weeks are underway in New York, following the conclusion of a lackluster sale at Sotheby’s this evening, where the premier works from the estate of Alfred A. Taubman took the block, spread across a 77-lot auction that saw 8 works fail to find a buyer, including several top lots, while reaching an underwhelming auction tally (given the presale estimate of $500 million) of $377,034,000, with a considerable percentage of works selling well below estimate. (more…)

Cy Twombly, Untitled (2006), via Phillips

The sales have concluded tonight at Phillips London, as the auction house capped a procedural yet impressively consistent outing, seeing a white glove sale where all 36 lots sucessfully found a buyer, bringing a final total tally of nearly £32 million for the night. (more…)

Germany’s Cultural Minister is pushing to pass a new law that will strictly limit the international sale of works deemed of particularly high cultural value, as well as potential fakes and illegally sold antiques, particularly works valued over €150,000 ($164,000) and/or older than 50 years.  The proposal has seen staunch opposition from a number of artists, including Gerhard Richter.  “No one has the right to tell me what I do with my images,” the artist said this week. (more…)

The Art Newspaper notes the increasingly complex internal workings of the guarantor system at Christie’s this week, including a growing number of behind the scenes deals and third-party guarantees or investors that help push works to ever higher prices.  “It is becoming more complex and confusing, and that’s not what you want to have in an art market where prices are at this level,” says economist Olav Velthuis. “With the market expanding and prices rising so high, you want more transparency—but this is resulting in the opposite.” (more…)

Andy Warhol, One Dollar Bill (1962), via Sotheby’s

The results are in for Sotheby’s Evening Sale tonight, drawing the first half of the 2015 market year to a close with a mixed sale that saw impressive strength in unexpected places and a number of major letdowns at the higher end of the sale, ultimately closing on a final tally of £130,376,500, well shy of the £203 million mark the auction house had trumpeted earlier this month, with 9 of the 58 lots going unsold. (more…)

Francis Bacon, Study for Head of Isabel Rawsthorne and George Dyer (1967), via Christie’s

Another auction come and gone for Christie’s tonight in London, and another set of strong results, as the auction house capped a 76 lot sale to the tune of £95,646,500, meeting expectations, and setting several records for non-blue chip artists along the way, with 10 lots going unsold, including a string of Gerhard Richter works that may signal a downturn in the artist’s market popularity. (more…)

Ai Weiwei, Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads (2010), via Phillips

Sales have concluded at tonight’s Contemporary and Post-War Evening Sale at Phillips Auction House in London, capping a strong outing by the company that saw 10 of the 53 lots going unsold.  With somewhat sluggish proceedings and a few surprises, the auction seems to be something of a stumble in Phillips’ attempts to challenge the larger auction houses this week.

Sigmar Polke, Carnival (1979), via Phillips (more…)

Gallerist Jonathan Green has found a previously unknown pastel work by Claude Monet taped to the inside of another two works he purchased at auction last year.  “We were very excited,” Green told the Guardian. “Pastels by him are incredibly rare. These are a pointer to his future. You can see his fascination with light.” (more…)

An outcry by Irish cultural and business elite has led to a postponed Old Masters sale at Christie’s, which was planning to sell a selection of works taken from a crumbling home outside of Dublin.  An initial offer by a group of donors to purchase the pieces led to a hold on the sale, which included works by Rubens and Francesco Guardi. (more…)

Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism, 18th Construction (1915), via Sotheby’s

The Impressionist and Modern sale has concluded at Sotheby’s tonight, with 51-lot sale that failed to live up to the auction house’s pre-sale proclamations of a record breaking sale.  The auction brought a final total of £178,590,000, falling just shy of the £186.44 million record for London auctions it was expected to beat. (more…)

Claude Monet, Iris Mauves (1914-1917), via Christie’s

The London summer auctions are underway, after Christie’s opening sale this evening at its King Street location, a steady if somewhat relaxed sale that seemed a markedly subdued affair compared to the fireworks the auction house saw last month in New York.  Capping the 52-lot sale with a final tally of £71,461,000, the evening was still a strong entry in the auction house’s recent outings.  Despite lackluster bidding, the sale achieved a remarkably strong sell-through rate, with only 8 works going unsold.  The auction house seemed content to let a number of works go just below estimate, continuing a commitment to a sales-first strategy outgoing president Steven Murphy had outlined late last year. (more…)

As London auction houses prepare for this week’s Impressionist and Modern sales, Bloomberg recaps the battles between giants Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and the aggressive stance on auction guarantees that have helped to define the massive prices achieved in recent sales.  “Our profit margin is good,” says Christie’s recently appointed CEO Patricia Barbizet. “Guarantees are risk management and offer an assurance to the seller.” (more…)

Sotheby’s is looking to break the record for the most expensive art auction in London this week, with an Impressionist and modern sale expected to top £203 million.  “The forthcoming sale offers a rich range of highly desirable works, including those that rank among the finest by Manet, Degas, Klimt, Malevich, Gauguin and Miro,” says Helena Newman, global go-chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art department. (more…)

Sotheby’s has announced that its London Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale, scheduled for June 24th, will lead with Edgar Degas’ iconic sculpture Petite danseuse de quatorze ans, estimated at £10-£15 million.  “The artist’s ambitious and highly innovative work marks the pinnacle of his achievements as a sculptor, and its forthcoming sale represents a rare opportunity to acquire an icon of Impressionist art,” says Helena Newman, Sotheby’s Co-Head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide. (more…)

Established artists and classic masterworks are increasingly finding themselves in the crosshairs of eager art flippers, Bloomberg reports, pointing in particular to a Francis Picabia that saw a massive 220% gain in price in less than six months.  “Because art is seen as an asset class, the more rapid turnover is considered encouraging. There’s a whole new generation of collectors who are playing the art market,” says Frances Beatty, VP at Richard L. Feigen & Co. (more…)

CNBC is reporting that the mystery buyer of the record-setting Picasso canvas this month is still at large, refuting the New York Post’s reporting that former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani had purchased the work for a record-setting $179 million. (more…)

The New York Post quotes an unnamed source disclosing that the mystery buyer of the record setting, $179 Million Pablo Picasso several weeks ago in New York is former Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani.  “The painting almost certainly will not go on public display in Qatar because of the nudity, even though it is a cubist work,” the source says. (more…)

The Telegraph looks at the record-breaking sales last week at Christie’s in the context of the auction house’s penchant for pre-sale guarantees, noting that over $250 million of the Looking Forward to the Past sale’s monumental $706 million final tally was guaranteed.  They are effectively buying market share,” says one unnamed art advisor. (more…)

A piece in the Financial Times notes that the value of the global art market topped €51 billion last year, an astounding figure that comes as Christie’s topped a $1 billion in sales this week alone.  Featuring in-depth analysis, the article notes the U.S. and China as the top shareholders in market value, and as well as the interesting detail that most dealer inventory rarely moves in under 6 months, despite that current clamor for works on the market.    (more…)

Francis Bacon, Seated Woman (1961), via Phillips

The Phillips Contemporary Evening sale has concluded, bringing to a close a week full of fireworks and smashed records with a relatively lackluster sales event that saw several impressive sales, countered by a number of less than exceptional performances.  Of the sale’s 71 lots, 14 went unsold, and few others managed to surpass high estimates, bringing the final sales tally to a respectable $97,100,000.   (more…)

Piet Mondrian, Composition No. III Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black (1929), via Art Observed

The auction week has come and gone, and Christie’s has closed out a major week for both its Impressionist/Modern and Contemporary Departments, as the combined sales of its three Evening events this week have collectively brought in well over a billion dollars in sales.  This Evening, the Impressionist and Modern Evening sale added an exclamation point to the proceedings, bringing in a final tally of $202,608,000 that saw a major new record for Piet Mondrian. (more…)

Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994), via Art Observed

Christie’s has concluded the first days of Frieze week in style tonight, continuing its impressive performance over the course of the Contemporary Auction week with a strong sale tallying $658,532,000.  Selling 72 of the 85 lots offered, the sale saw several major records fall during the course of the evening, signaling the intense enthusiasm for the contemporary market both in the U.S. and abroad. (more…)

Christopher Wool, Riot (1990), via Sotheby’s

Another night come and gone in New York, and another impressive evening auction in the books as Sotheby’s concludes its Contemporary and Post-War Evening Sale this Tuesday night with a final tally of $379,676,000, failing to top Christie’s impressive auction from one night prior despite some impressive sales records of its own.  The 65-lot sale saw 8 of the works go unsold, for a final sell-through rate of 87.7%, a hard figure considering last evening’s single unsold lot out of 35. (more…)

Pablo Picasso, Les Femmes D’Alger (1955), via Art Observed

The crown for the most expensive artwork at auction has returned to the master, as Pablo Picasso’s Les Femmes D’Alger lived up to its lofty expectations at auction this evening, as Christie’s “Looking Forward to the Past” exhibition kicked off Frieze Week (and a week of Contemporary Sales in New York) in grand style, tallying a massive $705,858,000 for a 35-lot offering that saw numerous records fall by the wayside, and only one lot going unsold, on the way to Picasso’s triumphant evening. (more…)