AO Art Observed™

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]

La Surprise, Jean-Antoine Watteau (c. 1718) via Christie’s

Christie’s Old Master Sales that took place last Tuesday, July 8th, featured quite a few ‘lost’ works of art, and generated over $47 million. In addition to the three rediscovered Goya drawings which sold for a combined $8 million, La Surprise by Jean-Antoine Watteau led the Old Masters Sale with a record breaking $24,376,385. The Watteau painting had been lost for almost 200 years, and was assumed to be destroyed until it appeared last year in a private English collection. It is the highest paid price for a French Old Master painting sold at auction to date, and well exceeded it’s $5.9-$9.8 million estimate. The sale also featured artwork by Anthony Van Dyck, Pieter Brueghel II, Thomas Lawrence, William Larkin, Jan Josefsz Van Goyen, and many more notable old masters.

Rediscovered Watteau Masterpiece Sells for Record $24.4 Million [Artdaily]
A Watteau sets record at £12.36 million in an uneven Old Masters sale [IHT]
Lost Watteau Fetches Record; Old Masters Languish at Christie’s [Bloomberg]
ČR buys 8 Liechtenstein works at Christie’s auction [Praguemonitor]
Goya sketches “lost” for 130 years sold at auction [ReutersUK]
Goya Boosts Christie’s Drawings Sale [NYSun]
Francisco de Goya at Christie’s London [Coxsoft]
‘Lost’ Goya drawings sold for £4m [BBC]
Art buyers find ‘lost’ works [LATimes]
Christie’s Auction Results [Christie's]
Goya Boosts Christie’s Old Masters Drawing Sale on Tuesday [Artobserved]

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Bajan Riñendo, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) via BBC

Three drawings from Spanish artist, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, sold at Christie’s Old Masters Auction on July 8th for $7.9 million, double the pre-sale estimate. The three drawings had been rediscovered after being ‘lost’ for the past 130 years. The trio was last recorded at an auction in Paris in 1877, and did not resurface until the Old Masters Auction at Christie’s last Tuesday.

Goya sketches “lost” for 130 years sold at auction [ReutersUK]
Goya Boosts Christie’s Drawings Sale [NYSun]
Francisco de Goya at Christie’s London [Coxsoft]
‘Lost’ Goya drawings sold for £4m [BBC]
Lost Watteau Fetches Record; Old Masters Languish at Christie’s [Bloomberg]
‘Lost’ Goya works sell for 4m pounds at Christie’s [Economic Times]
Christie’s Auction Results [Christie's]

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Olafur Eliasson, ‘Visualization of The Parliament of Reality’, Bard College via Artdaily

Bard College has Olafur Eliasson’s 1st permanent US installation [Artdaily]
MoMA purchases 23 photo works from eight Chinese artists controversially bought in bulk [Bloomberg]
Two Pulitzer Prize winning authors gain rights to new Francis Bacon biography [Bookseller]
Next-generation, under-30’s legacy arts patrons: on the scene [NYTimes]
Tracey Emin’s $122,000 4-inch bronze sparrow goes missing from public work and then is inscrutably returned (publicity stunt?) [BBC]

Naked Portrait with Reflection, Lucian Freud (1980) via Artinfo

Christie’s held its Postwar and Contemporary Evening sale on Monday, June 30th, setting new records and selling 83% of the lots. The four largest sales came from Jeff Koons, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Andy Warhol. Other artists who were featured in the finely curated sale were Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, and Gilbert and George just to name a few. Out of the 48 lots that sold, 30 of them made over $1 million, and the total sale raised $172 million. This is Christie’s best result for a post-war and contemporary art sale in Europe.
Bacon Self-Portraits Fetch $34.5 Million at London Art Auction [Bloomberg]
Koons sculpture highlights record-breaking art sale [APF]
Koons record as London art sales draw to close [Reuters]
Christie’s London Bests Own Contemporary Record [Artinfo]
Record price for Koons sculpture [BBC]
Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art Sale [Christie's]
Bacon Triptych Sells for $34.4 Million in London [NYTimes]
Dead Artists Breathe Life Into Auctions [Wall Street Journal]
Koons’s ‘Balloon Flower’ sits in St. James Square before sale at Christie’s June 30th [Art Observed]

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Balloon Flower (Magenta), Jeff Koons via flickr W10

Jeff Koons’ magenta colored Balloon Flower sits in St. James Square waiting to be sold on Monday, June 30th, at Christie’s London. From the series Celebration, the enormous flower was previously owned by the Rachofsky Collection in Texas. It has been deemed the highlight of Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale, and is estimated to fetch $23.5 million.

Koons Dallas ‘Flower’ may fetch $23.5 Million at Christie’s London June 30th [artobserved]
Jeff Koons Sculpture May Fetch 12 Million Pounds at Christie’s [Bloomberg]
Win One, Lose One for Dallas Museum [NYTimes]

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A Christie’s worker takes a closer look at Monet’s Le basin aux nymphaes via yahoo

At Christie’s auction yesterday Monet’s water-lily painting, Le basin aux nymphaes, sold to an anonymous collector for $80.5 million, well over the estimated $35 to $47 million. This is a record breaking sale for the artist, and a tell tale sign that there is some life in many sectors of the art market. The other big sale of the evening was Degas’, Danseuses a la barre, which sold for $26.5 million.

A Monet Sets a Record: $80.4 Million [NYTimes]
Monet fetches record $80.5m [FinancialTimes]
Christie’s in London Sells Monet Masterpiece for $ 80.5 Million A Record for the Artist [artdaily]
Monet record smashed as art market boom goes on [Forbes]
$80M A Whole Lot of Monet [NYPost]
A lot of Monet as Christie’s sells waterlilies for record £41 million [Times Online UK]
Monet record smashed as art market boom goes on [Guardian UK]
In London, Will Moderns Move? [NYSun]
AO Preview: Christie’s London Impressionist and Modern Art [ArtObserved]

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Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh (1889) via Artdaily

Van Gogh’s Cypresses and The Starry Night exhibited now at Yale [artdaily]
Haunch of Venison, a Christie’s-owned-gallery, causes some rebuke in the system [NY Mag]
Update: The Sun Reviews Byrne ‘playing the building’ and Burden at Rockefeller Center [NYSun]
A Summer gallery line-up for Paris [Bloomberg]
Time lapse video from Cans Street Art Festival in London, covered by AO here [Wooster Collective via WorldsBestEver]
Sotheby’s selling (post-cubism) Italian Futurism as the next big trend? [Economist]

Le bassin aux nympheas, Claude Monet (1919) via Christie’s

Christie’s London will conduct its Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale this Tuesday, June 24.  The sale will feature work from artists such headliners as Monet, Degas, Giacometti, Goncharova, Bonnard, Picasso, as well as many other notables. Viewing of the works on the block will continue until the day of the show.

Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale [Christie's]

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Le bassin aux nympheas by Monet via BBC News

Rarely seen Monet is up for auction at Christie’s [BBC]
Berlin as a new artistic and cultural capital of Europe? [NYTimes]
Jeff Koons joins Gucci jury for Venice film festival in September [Variety]
The ‘Artek Pavilion,’ sold as an art piece by Sotheby’s, can be used as display space for collectors[NYSun]
“Louise Bourgeois: the Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine” showing at New York’s Film Forum [Film Forum]
16 Young British Artists reunite in London for “Freeze 20”[ArtInfo]

Dakis Joannou’s Jeff Koons-designed yacht ‘Guilty’ via Artforum

Art luminaries gather on collector Dakis Joannou’s Jeff Koons-designed yacht in Greece [artforum]
Study: number of US artists tripled since 70’s to 2 million with $34,800 average income [artinfo]
A profile of contemporary German collector Falckenberg and his 2,000 works [Bloomberg]
Early Hirst painting disgarded to thrift shop by mistake [The Independent]
The NYTimes reviews Lichtenstein at Gagosian uptown NY [NYTimes]
New Museum announces 1st US Elizabeth Peyton survey show [New Museum]
Market uncertainty, Christie’s competition cited in 12% quarterly profit drop for Sotheby’s [the Art Newspaper]

Olafur Eliassion courtesy of NY Mag

The technics of Olafur Eliasson’s upcoming falls project [NY Mag]
Christie’s, Sothebys assert no collusion in recently dual increase in premiums [ArtInfo]
Toxic leak risk leads to armed guards of Hirst’s lamb at LACMA [LA Times]
Banksy contemporary Nick Walker sells $1.5M of street Art in London [Bloomberg]
Clemente works at the Gallery Met at Lincoln Center [New York Times]
$21M record sale of Latin American art at Sotheby’s [ArtDaily]

Visitors Outside Art Basel in Switzerland via myswitzerland.com

Freud Painting Sells for $12 Million [Bloomberg]
New Freud Paintings Enter the Market [Times Online, UK]
Roman à Clef [artforum]

The painting, titled Girl in Attic Doorway and dating from the mid 1990s, was reserved during much of the fair’s preview yesterday. The work sold today via Freud’s international agent, Acquavella Galleries, for $12 million to a buyer who wished to remain anonymous. This sale follows Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s record-breaking purchase of Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping for $33.6 million at Christie’s last month, making the British painter “the world’s most expensive living artist.”

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Dasha Zhukova via daylife

26-year old “Dasha” Zhukova building Moscow contemporary space backed by billionaire Roman Abramovich (recent global record buyer of Freud and Bacon) [artinfo]
More on David Byrne ‘playing the building’ in New York [NY mag]
Turner Prize-winner Mark Wallinger may build 164 ft horse in Kent, UK for ‘Angel of the South’ project [Guardian.co.uk]
Christie’s Paris sells Louise Bourgeois spider for record $4.5M [Bloomberg]
A revisit of the Young British Artist Freeze show after 20 years [Guardian.co.uk]

Yue Minjun, “Gweong-Gweong” via ArtNet

This weekend marked Christie’s first Hong Kong Evening Sale with artists such as Zeng Fanzhi, Zao Wou-ki, Yue Minjun setting auction records. Monday’s sale was the second day of Christie’s six-day auction of 2,400 paintings, gems and antiques that the company expects could tally HK$1.7 billion, according to Bloomberg.

Gun-Slinging Robot, Wooden Beams Mark Quiet Hong Kong Art Sale [Bloomberg]
Smiling Bombs, 101-Carat Diamond Lead Christie’s Hong Kong Sale [Bloomberg]
Picasso Women, Hirst Spots Mark Hong Kong Bid for Art-Fair Fame [Bloomberg]
Asian Contemporary Art Sets a Record [NYTimes]
Asian art records tumble at Christie’s Hong Kong auction [China Post] 5.26.08

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Kauffman Desert House in Palm Springs via greatbuildings

Christie’s auction of Neutra house didn’t actually close [NYTimes]
Recent auction results belie underlying market weakness [Economist]
Herzog & de Meuron to design Kolkata Museum of Modern Art [ArtForum]
Ukranians as a new force in art buying [Financial Times]
A financial take on the state of the art market [TheStreet.com]
Guggenheim and Met hunt for museum heads [New York Sun]

Balloon Flower (Magenta) via jeffkoons

A Jeff Koons sculpture, Balloon Flower (Magenta), which has been in the Dallas collection of Howard and Cindy Rachofsky for seven years, is set to be auctioned at Christie’s London June 30 and may fetch $23.5 million. The sculpture, originally purchased for $1 Million, has gained value as Koons has emerged as one of the world’s most influential contemporary pop artists. Balloon Flower is from the same “Celebration” series as the sculptures which are currently on view on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Koons Prices Balloon, ‘Flower’ Will Be Sold [NYTimes]
Jeff Koons: Iconoclast [Sundance]
Koons Sculpture to Fetch Millions[Bloomberg]
Christie’s Announces Sale of Koons [Art Daily]
Rachofsky’s Sell Koons to Focus Collection [Dallas News]
Koons Balloon Soars to Auction [ArtInfo]

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