This is Money, the financial news site for the UK’s Daily Mail, reports that Poly Culture, China’s largest auction house, is a likely candidate to acquire Bohhams. The current controllers, chairman Robert Brooks and collector Evert Louwman, began looking for a buyer earlier this year for the auction house, which is perhaps best-known for its sales of vintage and antique cars. (more…)
Banksy, Save or Delete Jungle Book, 2001 (est. £60,000-80,000, realized £78,000), via Bonhams
Tuesday night’s auction of Urban Art at Bonhams in London – the fourth auction of its kind the house has mounted – realized just over £455,000 for 51 of 67 lots sold. Attesting to interest in the artist following the release of his film Exit Through the Gift Shop, ten Banksy lots offered at the sale accounted for approximately half of the evening’s earnings. The top lot was Banksy’s Save or Delete Jungle Book, which sold for £78,000 against presale estimates of £60,000-80,000. The image was created for a poster campaign about deforestation but was never circulated due to copyright issues with Disney.
Shepard Fairey, Peace Goddess on Wood, 2008 (est. £8,000-12,000, realized £27,600), via Bonhams
More text and images after the jump…
Damien Hirst’s ‘For the Love of God’ via Artinfo
Ukrainian collector Viktor Pinchuk, who is currently hosting Damien Hirst’s retrospective in Kiev, is revealed as the fourth stakeholder in the artist’s platinum, diamond-encrusted skull, which has yet to sell despite a £35 million offer from Alberto Mugrabi [The Art Newspaper]
in related, Fiats decorated by Hirst have had little problem selling at a London charity auction [Art Review]
Two proposed tax-free ports in Paris and Singapore aim to revolutionize international art handling [NY Times]
Roxy Paine with one of his ‘Dendroid’ sculptures via Artinfo
National Gallery of Art commissions a Roxy Paine ‘Dendroid’ sculpture [National Gallery of Art via Artnet]
Art Basel’s Marc Spiegler says that now is an essential time for collectors to buy work from galleries to support artists and local art scenes [ArtInfo]
In conjunction with Saatchi, the Times lists top 200 artists of the 20th century with Picasso and early Modernists at the front [TimesUK]
Three arts professionals describe how they collect for their own homes [Financial Times]
Sam Francis, Grey, the subject of an auction dispute at Christie’s
Shipping magnate Gregory Callimanopulos appealing court decision in auction dispute with Christie’s and Broad Art Foundation over Sam Francis’ ‘Grey’ [ArtForum]
Art during the Nazi regime: Van Meegeren and Göring, forgery and thievery [New York Times]
Unusual Renoir painting recovered in Venice 25 years after it was stolen [Artinfo]
Edward Hopper, Rooms by the Sea, recently acquired by Yale University. via ArtDaily
Yale University counter-sued over Van Gogh painting ‘The Night Café,’ seized during the Communist takeover of Russia [Bloomberg.com].
In related, Yale University Art Gallery acquires Edward Hopper preparatory drawings ‘Rooms by the Sea’ and ‘Western Motel and the Study’ [ArtDaily]
Young collectors pooling resources and sharing art [Financial Times]
Pablo Picasso’s Homme à l’épée for sale in London. via The Telegraph.
€7 – 10 millionv notebook of Picasso sketches discovered stolen from the Picasso museum in Paris [ArtDaily]
and in related, two ‘Musketeer’ paintings by the artist to be auctioned at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, respectively [The TelegraphUK]
As early as 2010, the Louvre may be at risk financially, despite a wave of acquisitions totaling an estimated €38 million [NYTimes]
Andreas Gursky’s ‘James Bond Island III’ via FOTO8
An interview of Andreas Gursky in which he speaks of scaling down his monumental prints, the influence Bernd and Hilla Becher, and working with North Korea [FOTO8]
Vito Acconci closes his studio, citing cash flow troubles [The Architect’s Newspaper via ArtInfo]
Massimiliano Gioni navigates Venice during the Biennale opening via NY Times
Following curator and critic Massimiliano Gioni and his various party obligations at the Venice Biennale [NY Times]
Points on whether or not the recession is indeed good for art [GuardianUK]
Gagosian has hired Richard Meier to double the space in his Los Angeles Gallery [The Art Newspaper]
62 Imlay Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn, recently leased by Christie’s for storage
Christie’s leases a building for storage in Red Hook, in what is likely one of the largest real estate deals in Brooklyn this year [Brownstoner]
A guide to investing in contemporary art in current market conditions [NY Times]
Sotheby’s London Russian Art Evening Sale totals £7.9m with 17 of 28 lots sold [Art Market Monitor]
Video of Banksy’s exhibition in Bristol via BBC
Banksy secretly sets up exhibition in Bristol museum [BBC]
Beginning June 16, 2009 the Metropolitan Museum of Art will display ‘The Torment of Saint Anthony,’ now widely believed to be Michelangelo’s first painting, before it goes to its new home at Kimball Museum in Texas [ArtDaily]
Picasso’s Château de Vauvenargues via Artinfo
Picasso’s Château will open to the public this summer [Artinfo]
Billionaire collector Eli broad contends that the downturn in the art market has bottomed [Bloomberg]
Christie’s similarly calls a leveling off of the art market’s downshift [Reuters]
The rag market in Moscow, by Vladimir Makovsky. Sold for £1.33 million. Picture via the Guardian.
Russian art collectors, who have been keen participants in the art market for the better part of this decade, have largely kept their distance from this year’s series of Russian art auctions in London. For the past nine years, the Russian art auctions typically attracted highly competitive bidding from Russian oligarchs and their representatives. Activity is now dwindling markedly, correlating roughly but unmistakably with the net worth of Russia’s billionaires, who have lost tens of billions due to massive equity and commodity market declines of roughly 2/3 off their highs.
MacDougall Arts’ auction, a Russian art specialist, sold just under 40% of the works on offer, raising £7 million less than its presale low estimate of £12 million. Sotheby’s, the market leader for Russian art, fared somewhat better, selling £25 million worth of art (albiet against an estimate of £30m to £43m) and setting nine artist records, which was the third highest total for a series of Russian Art sales at Sotheby’s. Christie’s sold £3 million worth of art, while Bonham’s sold a third of its offerings, collecting £1.7 million. Many of the pieces on sale were from the collection of Monika, Princess of Hanover, Countess zu Solms-Laubach, a German aristocrat and distant relative of the British royal family. Her collection fetched £1.95 million, almost twice its estimate of £1.1 million, providing some solace to Sotheby’s, who sold most of her works. Egyptian Girl, by Vasili Polenov (shown below), also provided a bright spot when it sold for £1.05 million pounds, more than triple its top estimate and setting an artist record. The Joker by Mikhail Klodt (shown below), was sold for £313,000, well over its top estimate of £180,000, while The Clearing by Ivan Shishkin (shown below) topped its £200,000 estimate when it sold for £289,000.
Sotheby’s Russian sales signal duller art market [Financial Times]
Sotheby’s 2008 November Series of Russian Art Sales Total $37.9 Million [Art Daily]
Russians Shun 60% of London Art Sale, Wait for Prices to Drop [Bloomberg]
Princess Collection Shines at London Russia-Art Sale [Bloomberg]
Bargain Buy: Christiet’s Sells Russian Painting for 10 Pounds [Bloomberg]
Russian Art Week at Christie’s in London [Art Daily]
more pictures after the jump…
Zaha Hadid and Karl Lagerfeld, image via Vanity Fair
Karl Lagerfeld and Zaha Hadid’s roving Chanel art space [Vanity Fair]
Art as an opaque, high risk/return asset class [FTimes]
Sotheby’s posts quarterly loss on lower commission margins [WSJ]
DiCaprio, his bike and his mom show up at Bonham’s NY debut [NYPost]
Alanna Heiss is PS1 [NY Mag]
A 5-part video series on Francis Bacon [Ubuweb via C-Monster]
Kehinde Wiley’s St. Sebastian II (Columbus), 2006 via Columbus Museum of Art
Michael Jackson via MJsite
Michael Jackson planning collaboration with Kehinde Wiley?[PR Inside]
UK’s planned taxes on incoming art from non-domiciled residents could discourage wealthy donors and supporters [Financial Times]
London’s February auctions prove that despite shaky financial climate, demand is still high for Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary works [NYTimes]
Recap of Jeff Koons talk at the 92nd St. Y [Art Fag City]
Salander O’Reilly Gallery in NY goes bankrupt: Ownership of works held at gallery still yet to be determined [Bloomberg]
Ed Ruscha talks about new show “Ed Ruscha: Paintings” on view at Gagosian London [Gaurdian]
Banksy’s Kate Moss/ Marilyn Monroe portrait fetches $191,000 at Bonhams [Bloomberg]
Rolls Royce auctioned at Bonhams via Elite Choice
Bonhams has announced its plans to move to a three-story space on the corner of 57th Street and Madison Avenue in New York. This site formerly housed the Dahesh Museum. The move, as well as the decision to sell their Scottish headquarters in Edinburgh, is part of an effort to raise the Auction house’s profile.
Bonhams Auction House [Bonhams]
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Dahesh Museum [Dahesh Musem of Art]
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Art Sales: Auctions Weather the Storms [Telegraph]
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Bonhams Hosts First Urban Art Show [Art Observed]
Faile “London 12” via Bonhams
Bonham’s in London is hosting its first ever street art auction on February 5th. Banksy, probably the most well known of the artists has 22 out of the 75 lots up for sale. Banksy’s anarchist works are expected to bring in the most profit, however there are many other noteworthy street artists being featured as well. Adam Neat, the youngest of the group, has had an estimate of £25,000 – 30,000 for his “Apprentice” piece.
Eric Fischl via Art Into
Art Info Talks to Eric Fischl [Art Info]
Works Stolen from Anselm Kiefer’s Property [Art Forum]
Bonhams has Record Year in 2007 [Bloomberg]
Bankrupt Art Dealer Salander Seeks Permission to Sell House [NYT]
Eli Broad Renegs on LACMA [New York Times]
On Russian to London Capital Flows to Contemporary Art [Financial Times]
On Bonhams First Middle Eastern Art Auction [Bloomberg]
2007 Review of Bidding Prices at Art Auction [Financial Times]
The Nahmad’s Trade – Art as a Security [Forbes]
Photos: Christian Coleman for ArtObserved
“Banksy Does New York,” the first New York gallery show for British-born street-artist Banksy, opened this Sunday, December 2nd, at Vanina Holasek Gallery on West 27th Street.
Just this October more than 50 Banksy works went to auction at Bonhams and Sotheyby’s, both in London. Nearly all the works sold for at least double their top estimate. (more…)
