AO Art Observed™

“Study for self portrait” (1964) by Francis Bacon was valued at $40 million but was a no sale at Christie’s last Wednesday, via Artnet

The New York Times called it: “easily the worst two weeks of high-end Impressionist, modern and contemporary art auctions in more than a decade” and though gravity of this statement belies some successful sales in the November auctions, in the end there seems to be little question that the art auction landscape has shifted to become a buyer’s market.

The November auctions from Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips lasted roughly two weeks with approximately a 2/3 sell rate and 143 of the 399 offerings failing to sell. The sales would total under $1 billion, well below their combined minimum estimate for the sales of $1.7 billion. Sotheby’s and Christie’s brought in roughly $728.9 million for the Impressionist, modern and contemporary art primary sales which is down $1.6 billion from November, 2007 and $1.3 billion from November, 2006.

The summary points seem to be, in part, that there were some indisputable failures of the unsold works such as Roy Lichtenstein’s Half Face With Collar, seen below, from Sotheby’s Tuesday evening auction (estimated at $15 million to $20 million) and the Bacon self-portrait, seen above, at Christie’s on Wednesday (estimated at $40 million). The Bacon failing to sell was for many a symbol of the current market situation in that it stood in sharp contrast to the Sotheby’s May sale of the Francis Bacon triptych for $86.2 million to Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich (when it thus became the most expensive contemporary artwork sold at auction).

However, there were still some records and strong showings with works such as the Malevich, seen below, at $60 million (at estimate), which was a record for a Russian painting, and Munch’s Love and Pain aka “Vampire,” seen below, for $38.1 million above its $30 million estimate (both on Monday the 3rd at Sotheby’s) and a Juan Gris, seen below, at an artist record of $20.8 million, also above its estimate of $12 million to $18 million, at Christie’s auction on Thursday the 6th. Nonetheless, most works sold in the low range, or below estimate, or not at all with works by artists that show up infrequently performing generally better and works that show up more often at auctions, such as the Warhols and Hirsts, faring poorly.

Also of note in summarizing the November auctions was the Monday the 3rd Sotheby’s success of the big name financiers Henry Kravis of KKR who sold Edgar Degas’s “Dancer in Repose” for $33 million and former Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld selling 16 Modern and Impressionist drawings for $13.5 million against estimates of $15 million to $20 million, but clearing a reported $20 million guarantee nonetheless from the house.

All this leads to the final recurring news point of the auctions: the painful result of over-market guarantees by the major houses. The applicable guarantees were set in pre-bust summer headier times, but when in place during the November sales they would cost the auction companies losses in the many tens of millions. In two weeks of sales the auction houses guaranteed 80 artworks worth $405.8 million but sold only 60, for a combined total of $342.3 million and an estimated loss of $63.6 million (according to the Wall Street Journal’s calculations). Sotheby’s publicly reported that guarantees were responsible for a $28.2 million loss at its contemporary art auctions last week which adds up to total losses from Sotheby’s from guarantees of roughly $52 million this fall. Bill Ruprecht of Sotheby’s said of the guarantee drubbing: “We’re preparing for a different market. We are out of the guarantee business at least for a while.”

Sotheby’s Says It Lost $10.6 Million More From Art Guarantees [Bloomberg]
In Faltering Economy, Auction Houses Crash Back to Earth [NYTimes]
Making Sales Look Stronger [Wall Street Journal]
Call This One ‘Crisis With a Pipe’ [Wall Street Journal]
Art boom over as auctions fail to bring home Bacon [TimesUK]
Art makes loss but Fuld is still an old master [TimesUK]
Art sales: The week that brought the boom to an end [GuardianUK]
Unsuccessful Auctions OK With Shafrazi [NY Mag]

Previously by ArtObserved:
AO November Auction Roundup 4 of 5: Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Art Sale, New York, Thursday, November 13th, Results “brutal” but Phillip’s clear due to lack of Guarantees

AO November Auction Roundup 3 of 5: Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art, New York, Wednesday, November 12th: Basquiat’s “Boxer” sells while the Bacon does not, “The market is adjusting down”

AO November Auction Roundup 2 of 5 (AO On-Site): Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York, Tuesday, November 11th: Sotheby’s crushed by guarantees, Eli Broad: “It’s a half-price sale”

AO November Auction Roundup 1 of 5: Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art, New York, Thursday November 6th: “Obviously, prices have changed”

AO Auction Results: Christie’s “The Modern Age,” the Alice Lawrence and Hillman family collections sell for less than 50% of estimate as Rothko and Manet headliners are pulled

AO Auction Results: Sotheby’s New York Impressionist and Modern Art, despite select notable sales, overall results were poor

more images after the jump…

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“Untitled (77/23 — Bernstein)” (1977) by Donald Judd sold for $3,218,500 against an estimate of $4.0 million, via ArtInfo

PHILLIPS DE PURY’S CONTEMPORARY ART SALE, New York, Thursday, November 13th

Total Lots Offered: 51, originally 56
Total Lots Sold: 30
Total Sales Value: $9.6 Million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $23-$32 Million

Before Phillips de Pury’s Contemporary Art sale began in New York on Thursday evening November 13th, five works were withdrawn, including John Currin’s Standing Nude from 1993 (est. $500–700,000), pictured below, Richard Prince’s Untitled (Tire Planter) from 1999 (est. $120–180,000), and an Anselm Kiefer work. Total sales were $9,608,700, which was less than half of the low estimate of $23 million. By way of comparison, a comparable Phillips sale a year ago fetched $42.3 million. In the end, 41% of the lots (21 lots) were unsold (51% unsold by value) and those that did sell did so at below estimates. Anything estimated to sell at more than $1 million was either withdrawn or went unsold. In attendance were collectors such as Adam Lindemann, Stavros Merjos, Stefan Edlis of Chicago, Maria Baibakova, Mera and Don Rubell, Zurich dealer Doris Ammann, and executives from the Russian luxury goods giant Mercury Group which, as covered by Art Observed here, recently purchased the Phillips de Pury auction house.

Despite the dismal outcome of the totals, Phillips de Pury’s in the end appeared prescient versus its competitors Sotheby’s and Christie’s who both got crushed by over guaranteeing works in a down market, by contrast, Phillips guaranteed none of the 51 works offered, save for a single neon text 2005 sculpture by Kendell Geers, which had a low estimate of $60,000 and sold for $56,250. In a comparable sale last November, Phillips guaranteed about half the lots.

$9.6 Million at Phillips De Pury [ArtNet]
Phillips Sale Totals Less Than Half the Low Estimate [New YorkTimes]
Phillips Goes with the Downward Flow [ArtInfo]
Hirst Painting Flops at ‘Brutal’ New York Art Auction [Bloomberg]

more story and pictures after the jump…

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Rene Magritte's "L'Empire des lumiéres" (1947) via Christie's

On Wednesday November 5th, Christie’s conducted its sale of the estates of two separate widows (the Alice Lawrence and Hillman family collections) bearing similar works of mostly late 19th and early to mid-20th century pieces, in an auction thus titled “The Modern Age.” These auctions included works by headliners such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Mark Rothko, Fernand Léger, Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio De Chirico and René Magritte. The event followed the latest Sotheby’s auction for Impressionist and Modern art on Monday (as covered by AO here) which disappointedly totaled $223.8 million against the $338 million low estimate. Additionally, the Modern Age sale corresponded to a particularly steep post-presidential race drop in the public equity markets in which the Dow plunged 486 points.

The auction results were no surprise considering the current tepid environment in the art market: The two collections listed 58 lots, of which 17 did not sell, for a total sale of $47 million, which was less than half of its $104 million low estimate. Christie’s said 51% of buyers were American and 29% European. Though Surrealist lots by Magritte (see image above) and De Chirico (see below) did well, of the lots that were brought in were the most expensive of the sale, notably, Manet’s “Fillette sur un banc/Girl on a Bench,” a 1880 portrait of a girl with a wide-brim hat estimated at $12-18 million (see image below), and Rothko’s “No. 43 (Mauve),” estimated at $20-30 million. Other works by Cézanne, Renoir, and de Kooning also failed to sell.

Bleak Night at Christie’s, in Both Sales and Prices [NY Times]
Art-Market Rout Persists: Rothko Snubbed at Auction [Bloomberg]
Buyers Cool to Private-Collection Art at Christies [Reuters]
Market Forces Bring Fire-Sale Prices for Christie’s “Modern Age” [Art Info]
The Modern Age: Property from the Hillman Family Collection [Art Daily]
Christie’s Wan and Woeful Night [CultureGrrl]
Christie’s Website

more auction results, quotes and images after the jump…

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Danseuse au Repos, the 1879 painting by Edgar Degas is a highlight of this evening’s Sotheby’s auction though it remains to be seen if it will sell for its estimated $40 million, via NY Times

After extremely high sales in May which tallied $1.56 billion, and then more recently lackluster sales in London which missed low estimates by up to $40 million, as covered by Art Observed here, the art world is up for a major test in the next two weeks as Sotheby’s and Christie’s begin tonight selling contemporary, impressionist, and modern works that add up to high estimates of $1.76 billion, including a work by the Russian Kazimir Malevich (”Suprematist Composition” 1916, a $60 million geometric work) and a $40 million self-portrait by Francis Bacon and other works from high profile financiers Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. co-founder Henry Kravis and Lehman Brothers Chief Executive Officer Fuld.

Despite Pablo Picasso’s 1909 painting ‘Arlequin’ (which was estimated at $30 million) being pulled before the Sotheby’s auction recently, this evening’s Sotheby’s impressionist and modern art sale is slated to tally about $320 million and includes 71 lots including “Danseuse au repos” by French Impressionist Edgard Degas which is expected to go for $40 million (pictured above).

This auction will be followed by Christie’s $153 million high estimate November 5th sale which includes works from the estates of the widows, Rita Hillman and Alice Lawrence, and then a November 6th sale, comprised of art from various owners, estimated to total up to $344 million. Sotheby’s November 11th sale of contemporary art could total up to $281.6 million and features works by John Currin, Richard Prince, and Yves Klein. Following that is Christie’s November 12th sale with a high estimate of $321.7 million, featuring Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich’s Jean-Michel Basquiat painting of a boxer at an estimate of $12 million.

On Auctions Overall:
Big Prices, Big Risks at Fall Art Auctions [NY Times]
NY art auctions under microscope amid financial crisis [AFP]
Art world dreading declines at upcoming key NY sales [Reuters]
Kravis, Fuld Brace for N.Y. Auctions as Collectors Lower Prices [Bloomberg]
Falling under the hammer [Financial Times]
It’s not a pretty picture Christie’s, Sotheby’s may be on the hook [New York Post]
Art sales face acid test in midst of credit crunch [Financial Times]
Exceptional Work by Francis Bacon Leads Christie’s New York Post-War & Contemporary Art Sale [ArtDaily]
Things Are Cold, Clammy at City Auction Houses [NYObserver]

From ArtObserved:
Metallica’s drummer to sell Basquiat painting at Christie’s New York, November 12th auction; ‘Boxer’ to be displayed during Frieze Art Fair in London [ArtObserved]
Sotheby’s hopes to smash Russian art at auction record with $60 million sale of Malevich painting in New York on November 3rd [ArtObserved]

On withdrawn Picasso:
Picasso work withdrawn from Sotheby’s sale [Reuters]
Picasso painting pulled from sale [BBC News]
Picasso Work Is Withdrawn From Sotheby’s Sale [NY Times]
Sotheby’s Withdraws Picasso’s Arlequin From Impressionist and Modern Art Sale [Art Daily]
Picasso Withdrawn From Sotheby’s Imp-Mod Sale [Artinfo]
Picasso painting withdrawn from Sotheby’s auction [Associated Press]

Auction Information:
Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale - Sotheby’s November 3 [Sotheby's]
Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale November 5th [Christie's]

more pictures from the Sotheby’s Sale and other auctions after the jump…

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George Michael via TelegraphUK

At Frieze, George Michael and partner annouce plans for 10,000 sf Dallas space for $200 million in British contemporary art [FirstPost]
Emily Rauh Pulitzer gives $45 million for Harvard’s collection, as well as 31 works, incuding Picasso, Modigliani, and Giacometti valued at an additional $200 million [Boston Globe]
Jackie Wullschlager summarizes 20 years following Damien Hirst’s curated “Freeze” show of YBA ’s [FinancialTimes]
Two new London outposts for existing galleries: Yvon Lambert across from White Cube and Pilar Corrias in Rem Koolhaas-designed space in Fitzorivia [ArtReview.com]
A Fernando Botero video interview on his Circus series, and part two here [Vernissage]
In new Moscow Museum of Modern Art branch, Sotheby’s previews 50 20th-century works, including Bacon, Warhol and Picasso to be sold for estimated $200 to $300 million in New York in November [The Moscow Times] more on that, and Christie’s Moscow previews, here [NYTimes]

Duane Hanson’s “Flea Market Lady” staffs Emmanuel Perrotin’s booth at Frieze via New York Magazine

In the midst of perhaps the most spectacular global financial and credit market cave-ins ever experienced, The Frieze Art Fair in London, one of the three largest contemporary art fairs, felt a slowdown in some attendance indicators, sales volume and pricing; a harbinger of similar buyer sentiment reflected in anemic sales totals from all of the three major contemporary art auctions that followed in London over the weekend from Sotheby’s, Phillips and Christie’s respectively. In light of the true magnitude of the global wealth disrupted in recent weeks, overall, the output of the Frieze art fair and the concurrent contemporary art auctions likely could have been worse. The following is a roundup of the news and images looking back from the close of the Frieze fair as well as detailed summaries of each auction.

Takashi Murakami’s “Tongari-Kun” 2004. Though it was headliner of the Phillips Auction on Saturday, it failed to sell. Image via Phillips

Newslinks, images and more on the Frieze Art Fair and on the Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips auctions after the jump…

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Cory Arcangel’s “Golden Ticket” to the 2008 Frieze Art Fair via Artnet

With over 150 galleries, The Frieze Art Fair, set in London’s Regent’s Park, began selling works by over 1,000 artists on October 15. Since its first year in 2003, the Frieze fair has grown to be regarded as the youngest and perhaps the most cosmopolitan and cutting edge of the global fairs, which include Art Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach and the Venice Biennial. The fair, which runs until the 19th of October, and the London auctions that will occur this evening and this coming weekend, mark the first major opportunity for transparency into the the status of the global art market since the widespread financial turmoil began. Following Damien Hirst’s groundbreaking, clearing house, £111.5 million, direct-to-market auction of his own work at Sotheby’s last month (as covered by ArtObserved here) the market has had some clouds brewing over it, with beginning indications of weakness manifesting in events such as Sotheby’s lackluster first evening sale of contemporary Asian art in Hong Kong earlier this month (as covered by ArtObserved here), which sold £7 million against expectations of £30 million to another auction that same weekend in which Sotheby’s sale of modern 20th-century Chinese art left over a third of the lots unsold. More recently, the Singapore Art Auctions were also a dissapointment.

London’s Frieze Prepares for a Chill [Wall Street Journal]
Crisis Imperils U.K. Art Fairs, $183 Million Sales, Dealers Say and Auction Houses Guarantee Top Lots; Dealers See Falling Demand and Paltrow, Saatchi, Zhukova Browse Frieze Art as Sales Go Slowly, Aguilera Parties, Damien Hirst Has a Head Case: London Art Buzz [Bloomberg]
Deep Frieze: UK’s hottest art fair braces itself for the chill of the banking crisis and Prank canvas [GuardianUK]
Frieze Art Fair: Super-rich to cast economic crisis aside and Andy Warhol’s Skulls up for auction [Telegraph]
All the fun of the fairs: the art world gathers for Frieze [Independent]
The Post-Materialist | Frieze Art Fair [TheMoment]
Diary: Frieze Frame [ArtForum]
Frieze Factor [Artnet]
Frieze: First night blur [ArtReview]
Frieze Art Fair 2008 [Frieze Art Fair]

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Untitled (1982) (known unofficially as The Boxer) by Basquiat, via

Lars Ulrich, drummer for heavy metal band Metallica and erstwhile art collector, is putting up an untitled Basquiat painting up for sale in New York through Christie’s.  Known as ‘The Boxer,’ it depicts a triumphant black boxer with arms raised, painted in Basquiat’s signature style: very raw with elements of graffiti and ‘primitive’ aesthetics. The painting was a feature of the Basquiat retrospective shown at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston in 2005.  Christie’s will be putting ‘Boxer’ on sale on November 12th, and will display it in London over the weekend of October 17th to coincide with the Frieze art fair, when collectors will converge en masse in London.

Basquiat’s ‘Boxer’ is expected to sell for $12 to $16 million, with some estimates going as high as $20 million. Given the art market’s recent performance, it remains to be seen if the auction will break the artist’s previous record of $14.6 million for an unnamed painting from 1981. Nevertheless, given the fact that Basquiat has a limited, in-demand body of work due to a premature demise, pricing is still expected to be at the higher end of estimates.

Brooklyn Museum: Basquiat Retrospective with biographical information
Metallica Drummer to Sell Basquiat ‘Boxer’ [New York Times]
Another Rock Star Auctioning Off His Rare Basquiat [New York Observer]
Metallica Drummer Puts $12 Million `Boxer’ Basquiat Up for Sale [Bloomberg]
Metallica drummer to sell Basquiat painting in NYC [Washington Post]
Musician selling a Basquiat at Christie’s [Crain's New York]
Good as Gold [Art Market Monitor]

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Richard Serra via TigerofSweden

With his show on at Gagosian London, [AO] a lookback at the soon-to-be-70 iconoclast Richard Serra [Guardian UK]
New York gallery sues Ex-Enron official Jeff Shankman regarding his attempted extortion of six figure sums lest he “go public” that works sold to him were fake [Bloomberg]
Irish group begins futures market trading based on famous Mei-Moss art price index [Financial Times]
Controversially Christie’s-owned Haunch of Venison gallery moving to landmark, Victorian, David Chipperfield-renovated building owned by the Royal Academy [ArtInfo]
Arab and Iranian art on the rise, the sales of which grew from £1 million in 2006 to £17 million (thus far) in 2008 with 260% price increases in that time [TelegraphUK]
In related, Sotheby’s announces intentions to open branch in Doha, Qatar [ArtDaily]

Desmond by Jean Michel Basquiat, up for auction at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Auction, via Christie’s

In addition to selling a rare portrait by Francis Bacon, Christie’s October 19 auction catalogue features a long list of post-war luminaries. Several portraits of Mao and Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol figure prominently among the auction’s offerings. A sculpture by Jeff Koons, as well as pieces by Jean Michel Basquiat, Gerhard Richter, Richard Prince, Anish Kapoor, Willem de Kooning, Lucian Freud and a plethora of other artists account for the rest of the lots. The priciest of 48 lots is expected to be Lucio Fontana’s canvas, Concetto spaziale, la fine di Dio, which should fetch around £12 million pounds ($21.8 million).

Christie’s: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Christie’s: Press Release for Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Fontana work may fetch $21.8 million in Record Christie’s Sale [Bloomberg]
Bacon Portrait Expected to Sell for £7.5 million at Christie’s Auction in October [ArtObserved]

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“Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio” by Lucio Fontana via Christie’s

Highest-valued sale Christie’s has yet to auction during Frieze Art week will be a Lucio Fontana egg-shaped canvas estimated at $21.8 million [Bloomberg]
LACMA announces $55 million gift directed toward new pavilion amongst other endeavors from POM Wonderful and Fiji water owners [ArtDaily]
Street artist Kaws, now at Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami (as covered by AO here), collaborates on shoes with Marc Jacobs [TheWorldsBestEver]
An interview with Catherine Opie, whose work can now be seen at the Guggenheim [Artforum]
Ukrainian (not Russian, as cited in linked article) steel oligarch Victor Pinchuk announces Director for his new Kiev museum and that he was in fact a major buyer at Hirst’s Sotheby’s auction [ArtInfo]

Portrait of Henrietta Moraes by Francis Bacon, via the BBC

Francis Bacon, one of the best known painters of the 20th century and the focus of a recent retrospective at the Tate Britain, is in the news again. His 1969 portrait of socialite Henrietta Moraes, who also posed for Lucian Freud and other British artists, will be on sale at Christie’s Postwar and Contemporary auction on October 19th, in London. The painting, which was previously owned by Guinness heir Garech Browne, is expected to fetch £7.5 million.

Christie’s: Postwar and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Go See: Major Francis Bacon Retrospective [ArtObserved]
Bacon Portrait Press Release [via Art Market Monitor]
Bacon portrait to sell for £7.5m [BBC]
Bacon Bit and the Whole Hog [Art Market Monitor]
Old School Bad Boy’s Messy World [New York Times]

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‘Study for Agony I’ (1946-7) by Arshile Gorky, part of a Christie’s auction which will include works from the Kathleen and Richard Fuld collection, via Art Market Monitor

“I’ve been selling things for the past few years, but nobody cared until now,” Kathleen Fuld was reported to have said to the New York Times in an interview with Carol Vogel. Kathleen Fuld, trustee of MoMA–and wife of beleaguered Lehman Brothers’ CEO Richard Fuld–recently announced that she will be auctioning 16 works of post-war and contemporary art through Christie’s on November 12th, following a related report  (covered by AO) that Lehman may sell some or all of its 3,500-work corporate collection. The Fulds make regular appearances on ARTNews list of Top 200 collectors, and have been collecting since the 1980s, focusing mostly on drawings and studies that yield insight into the artists’ creative process. The auction will include drawings from the likes of Barnett Newman, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning and Agnes Martin, and is expected to raise $15 to $20 million.

Study in Financial Agony: Lehman Chief’s Wife Hires Christie’s to Auction $20 M. Collection [New York Observer]
Fallen Tycoon to Auction Prized Works [Wall Street Journal]
Kathy Fuld, Wife of Lehman CEO, to Auction Artworks [Bloomberg]
Lehman Brothers CEO is a top art collector. For a few more minutes. [C-MONSTER]
The Russians Aren’t Coming, They’re Already Here! Lehman Chair Looks to Moscow to Sell His Art Collection [New York Observer]
Fuld Folds Paper [Art Market Monitor]
Modern Drawings Head for Auction [New York Times]

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Lucian Freud’s rarely-seen, unfinished Portrait of Francis Bacon via Artdaily

Lucian Freud’s unfinished Francis Bacon portrait to be auctioned by Christie’s London in October [Art Daily]
MoMA purchases Chinese contemporary art from private collection [Art Newspaper]
Osaka museum pulls three Chagall’s after authenticity is questioned [Art Info]
Jeff Koons “Man of Trust documentary” sold in €2,500 limited edition kangaroo mirror boxes at Colette [World's Best Ever]
On the vulnerability of the global art market “which has risen so very high on little more than PR and salesmanship” [Financial Times]

Vawdavitch, Franz Kline (1955) via Artinfo

Next Friday, September 12, the new Haunch of Venison gallery in New York City will open its doors for the first time with an exhibit called “Abstract Expressionism – A World Elsewhere”. The exhibition will feature over 60 works from Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Aaron Siskind, David Smith and Clyfford Still. The Christie’s owned gallery represents notable artists such as Bill Viola, Keith Tyson, and Wim Wenders and has additional locations in London and Zurich. When the gallery was purchased last year by François Pinault, the owner of Christie’s auction house, there was a substantial amount of controversy surrounding the transaction. The purchase of the gallery presented a new take on the relationship between auction houses and galleries, and how the line might blur between the primary and secondary markets of the art world.

Christie’s auction house buys London’s Haunch of Venison contemporary art gallery [IHT]
Haunch of Venison’s New York Moment [The Imagist]
American Perspective [Artinfo]
Auction Houses Vs. Dealers [NYSun]
Haunch of Venison - “Abstract Expressionism—A World Elsewhere” [Haunch of Venison]

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Dakis Jaonnou’s Yacht “Guilty” Designed by Jeff Koons

More on Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou’s Jeff Koons-designed yacht [GQ]
Interview with Takashi Murakami: “maximalist” [Esquire]
More on Sarah Thornton’s Seven Days in the Art World [Portfolio]
A telling selection of 30 years of quotes from Tracey Emin [GuardianUK]
Portrait auctioned for $21,850 in 1998 by Christie’s is now attributed by some to Leonardo Da Vinci and may sell for over $50M [NewYorkTimes]

Tete de Diego, Giacometti sculpture found in apartment, via FBI

On Monday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation posted 137 artworks on their homepage as part of a two year long effort to track down their rightful owners. In 2006, a Manhattan eccentric who went by the alias William Milliken Vanderbilt Kingsland passed away, leaving behind an extensive collection of art piled inside his one bedroom East 72nd Street apartment. Christie’s has valued the higher-end works at around $2.4M.

Looks for owners of Stolen Paintings [Artdaily]
NY Art World Shock: Stolen Paintings in Famous Collection [New York Post]
Two Years Later, the F.B.I. Still Seeks the Owners of a Trove of Artworks [NYtimes]
Stolen Art Uncovered: Is it yours? [FBI] and a gallery on the website of the recovered works here

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Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron via Financial Times

On Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Swiss architects of the Tate Modern [Financial Times]
Amy Cappellazzo of Christie’s entertains in her home to support Pratt Institute [NYSun]
French designer Agnes B.’s other hat: art dealer [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s reprises monumental sculpture exhibition and sale in Chatsworth, UK [Art Daily]
German artist Jonathan Meese remixes Robert Wilson’s Watermill Center, underwear stapled to walls involved [NYTimes]

Burst *008, a prefab by Douglas Gauthier and Jeremy Edmiston via MoMA

More on the prefabricated housing design exhibit at MoMA [Artinfo] and still more here [NYMag]
Sotheby’s accused of losing Italian Renaissance painting in $32M lawsuit [NYPost]
An editorial view on the merits of artists explaining their work [GuardianUK]
Following the controversy, the former Salander-O’Reilly gallery is now on sale for $75M [NYTimes]
Christie’s NY holding first contemporary design auction [Artinfo]
New laws restrict art-donation tax breaks [Wall Street Journal]
Art Collectors auction themselves off at SCOPE [Artinfo] also here [NYSun}

Guan Yi via The art Newspaper

Guan Yi, China’s top collector of contemporary art, has ambitions for Beijing [The Art Newspaper]
Christie’s sales for first half 2008 up 10% on new demand from the likes of Middle East, Russia and Asia [Bloomberg]
Russian Andrey Melnichenko’s $400M, 400 foot yacht docks in Norway to pick up some Monet’s sans EU import taxes [TimesUK]
Christie’s Paris to sell Yves Saint Laurent’s art collection February ‘09 [NYSun]