Contantin Brancusi, La Muse Endormie (1913), via Christie’s

The first auction of the week has come and gone in New York, as Christie’s notched an impressive outing for its Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale, confirming expectations of a solid return of buying interest in the secondary market.   Considering the past several outings for the auction houses in London and New York, where only a handful of buyers were reportedly keeping the market afloat, this week’s sales hit a different note entirely, with ample phone bids that saw one major auction record fall with Constantin Brancusi’s La Muse Endormie demolishing expectations at over $57 million, and marquee lots performing quite well over the course of the evening.  (more…)

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…)

Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse (1901), all photos via Sotheby’s

The first week of sales is in the books in New York, as Sotheby’s concluded its Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale last night, following up on a somewhat lackluster sale the prior evening with a briskly paced sale and solid results that lost momentum in the late minutes of the event, ultimately selling 36 of 47 lots for a final tally of $306,712,000. (more…)

Bill Koch is selling a pair of works this November in New York, boasting a combined estimate of over $110 million. The works are Picasso’s La Gommeuse, which is estimated at $60 million, and Claude Monet’s Nympheas.  The sale of these works may see Koch making up to 11 times what he paid for the works.  “Monet is as desirable in China, Singapore, Taiwan as he is in Russia, Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S.,”co-head of Sotheby’s worldwide Impressionist and modern art department Simon Shaw said. “He is an accessible, modern brand.” (more…)

Andrew Shannon, the man who punched an immense hole in the surface of at $10 million Claude Monet landscape at the National Gallery of Dublin, has officially been sentenced to 5 years in prison for his actions.  Shannon is also banned from any art museum for 15 months after his release. (more…)

John Myatt, the famous forger who spent years behind bars for his fraudulent versions of works by Monet and other artists, is interviewed this week in The Independent, and comments on the state of fraud investigations in the current art landscape.  “The art industry has been nodding through paintings with extremely dubious histories,” he says. “It’s been colluding with galleries and auction houses for 50 to 60 years and I know the Police Art & Antiques Unit even went to one museum with evidence of fraud and they weren’t interested – they said they were happy that the contagion [of fakes] had now been removed from their archives.” (more…)

A new project aimed at British schools is bringing major art works to the classroom.  Masterpieces in Schools, as it is called, will lend a series of masterworks to schools across Great Britain, in an attempt to attract children who would not normally attend a gallery or museum exhibition.  The project began this week, when a classic Monet landscape was sent to a school in Northern England.  “We hope all the children will be left with the lasting memory of the day a Monet, Turner or Gainsborough came to their school,” says Andrew Ellis, director of the Public Catalogue Foundation. (more…)

While Olga Dogaru, the Romanian woman who claimed she burnt works by Picasso and Monet in her stove after fearing for the arrest of her son, has since retracted her story, Romanian authorities have identified at least three paintings in the ashes of the woman’s home.  Authorities found nails and tacks, as well as traces of oil paint in Dogaru’s oven, but were unable to correctly identify the paintings as the missing works.  “We found remains of burned oil paintings, but whether they are the ones that were stolen is a separate question, to be determined by prosecutors and judges.”  Says Ernest Oberlaender-Tarnoveanu, head of Romania’s National History Museum. (more…)

The newly launched Amazon Art marketplace system has opened, and close behind are a series of bizarre and sarcastic comments from users eager to weigh in on the offering of high-priced works for sale online, including a $1.45 million Monet.  Says one commenter: “I think I’m going to touch this up a bit with some water colors I have laying around. Make the colors pop more.” (more…)

Aspasia Zaimis, niece of Greek Shipping Magnate Basil Goulandris, is pursuing a lawsuit to recover a selection of paintings from her uncle’s estate, including works by Van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet.  Her current investigation has already turned up a long paper trail of documents that have raised suspicions about the ownership of the works, and has also resulted in a criminal investigation of her late aunt Elise Goulandris’s philanthropic organization.  “I am determined to find the paintings which were in the Gstaad home before my aunt’s death,” Zaimis said. “I believe with all my heart that the paintings were part of my inheritance.” (more…)

A 1932 painting of Pablo Picasso’s mistress is expected to sell for as much as $56 million at auction next month.  Femme assise pres d’une fenetre has been placed on sale by Sotheby’s auction house, and is guaranteed to sell courtesy of a third-party, “irrevocable” bid.  The 61-lot auction on February 5th will also include works by Claude Monet and Joan Miró, among other notable surrealist and impressionist painters, and is valued at $240 million.

(more…)

The former personal secretary to Imelda Marcos has been charged with concealing and selling four Impressionist works, including Claude Monet’s 1899 “Water-Lily Pond” in September 2010 for $32 million after hiding it for two decades.  (more…)

Pablo Picasso, Femme à la Fenêtre (Marie-Thérèse) courtesy Sotheby’s

Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale will commence this evening; due to the destruction from the hurricane, Sotheby’s rescheduled its Impressionist sale from November 5th to tomorrow, Thursday the 8th. Airport closures and power outages worried many that the international collecting crowd would not be able to attend. In a season that boasts over a possible billion dollars in revenue and a possible record breaking year at auction, postponement was inevitable.

Both houses are flush with important and iconic works by a plethora of leading artists such as Picasso, Monet, Kandinsky, Miro, Brancusi and Cézanne.

Wassily Kandinsky, Studie für Improvisation 8 courtesy Christie’s
(more…)

Rotterdam Kunsthal, photo Peter Dejong AP

The Kunsthal Rotterdam in the Netherlands suffered the loss of several valuable paintings in a theft around 3:00 a.m. on October 16th, among them Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, Matisse and Lucian Freud. The paintings were part of an exhibition of 150 works in the Triton Foundation’s collection as part of the museum’s 20th anniversary celebration. The burglars set off an alarm at a security agency and authorities responded within 5 minutes, but not in time to catch the suspects.

Picasso Harlequin Head, 1971 courtesy Businessweek

(more…)

Breaking: Several valuable artworks were stolen from the The Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam on October 15th or 16th, including paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Gauguin and Freud. Police said the robbery happened on Monday night or early on Tuesday morning. They are reviewing surveillance video and asking any witnesses to come forward. The museum is showing works from the Triton Foundation in a 20th anniversary celebration. (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…)

Turner Monet Twombly – Gallery View

The lives of Joseph Mallord Turner (1775-1851), Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Cy Twombly (1928-2011) almost perfectly overlap each other, pulling a thread through 200 years of art history.  Drawing on the lineage of these three artists, the Tate Gallery of Liverpool and the Moderna Museet of Stockholm have partnered to exhibit Turner Monet Twombly: Later Paintings, an exhibition that explores the stylistic conversation between the three great artists, removed from the linear timeline in which their work has traditionally been viewed.

Cy Twombly, Untitled I (1967)

(more…)

‪‬New York Botanical Garden to open new exhibition “Monet’s Garden” this Saturday, modeled after the artist’s Giverny estate by Tony Award-winning scenic designer Scott Pask

‪ (more…)

‪Chairwoman of Galeries Lafayette Ginette Heilbronn Moulin accuses the dynastic Parisian art dealing Wildenstein family of withholding information about Claude Monet’s Torrent de la Creuse (1889), missing since its confiscation by the Nazis during World War II. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York currently possesses an allegedly near-identical copy to the lost work. [AO Newslink]

(more…)

Gustav Klimt, Litzlberg am Attersee, 1914-15 (est. in excess of $25 million, realized $40.4 million) via Sothebys.com

The Impressionist and Modern art evening auction at Sotheby’s New York on Wednesday night realized $200 million for 57 of 70 lots sold. Business proceeded as usual within the auction house despite the deafening cacophony from protesters stationed outside the building’s main entrance (Sotheby’s has been feuding with their art handlers for months). Earlier today the auction house announced that one of the evening’s top lots – one of Matisse‘s bronze Nu De Dos sculptures estimated to bring $20-30 million- had been withdrawn from the sale after having been sold privately yesterday afternoon (along with the other three in the series, which also belonged to the Burnett Foundation, and which were slated to sell at auction over the next year). Excluding the Matisse, the sale carried estimates of $168-230 million. The $200 million total fell comfortably within expectations and bested Christie’s comparable sale on Tuesday evening. At the press conference Sotheby’s noted that last night’s results at Christie’s were “sobering” and that they did take the opportunity today to talk to consignors and in some cases lower reserves.

(more…)

Yves Klein all photos by Caroline Claisse for Art Observed

This year marked the 2nd iteration of the House of the Nobleman, a privately sponsored exhibition which took place at the Boswall House, 15,000sqft  mansion at 2 Cornwall Terrace, overlooking Regent’s Park and the Frieze 2011 Art Fair.  Art Observed was on site for the private viewing.  On view were works by Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, Max Ernst,  Damien Hirst, Marlene Dumas, Yves Klein, Lucio Fontana, Sigmar Polke, Christian Boltanski, Anish Kapoor, Nick Hornby, Matthew Day Jackson, Cecily Brown, Lucian Freud, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Longo, Alexander Calder, Eugenia Emets, Francesco Clemente, Salvador Dali,  Peter Doig,  Olafur Eliasson, George Condo, Takashi Murakami,  Hiroshi Sugimoto and Gerhard Richter.

Monet, Claude “ Chemin dans le brouillard”, (1879)

more images after the jump…

(more…)

Claude Monet, Nymphéas, c. 1914-1917 (est. $27.4-39.7 million), via Christies.com

If collectors failed to find anything that struck their fancy at Art Basel they’ll have more opportunities to buy during the summer lineup of sales at the three big auction houses in London over the next two weeks. On Tuesday Christie’s will inaugurate with an immense 92-lot auction of Impressionist & Modern Art, followed by Sotheby’s comparatively petit 35-lot sale on Wednesday evening. Next week Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips de Pury will hold Contemporary Art sales.

Pablo Picasso, Jeune Fille Endormie, 1935 (est. $14.5-19.3 million), via Christies.com

(more…)

Maurice de Vlaminck, Paysage de Banlieue, 1905 (est. $18-25 million, realized $22.5 million). All images via Christies.com.

The second and final Impressionist and Modern art evening sale in New York this spring was held Wednesday night at Christie’s. The auction realized $156 million, just below the low presale estimate of $162.3 million. Ten of the fifty-seven lots offered failed to find buyers, giving the sale a sell through rate of 82% by lot and 81% by value. The evening progressed much like the Sotheby’s sale last night. There was frenzied interest in a few lots, but otherwise buyers seemed unimpressed by the offerings and hence hesitant to bid. First place was shared by two works – Maurice de Vlaminck‘s Paysage de Banlieue and Monet‘s Les Peupliers both sold for $22.5 million. The Vlaminck was sold by billionaire collector Steven Cohen and just about doubled the artist’s previous auction record set in 1990 for $10.8 million.

Claude Monet, Les Peupliers, 1891 (est. $20-30 million, realized $22.5 million)

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

–>
Pablo Picasso, Femmes Lisant (Deux Personnages), 1934 (est. $25-35 million), via Sothebys.com

The New York spring sales begin this week as Sotheby’s and Christie’s hold their Impressionist & Modern evening auctions on May 3rd and 4th, respectively. Sotheby’s 59-lot sale is estimated to fetch $158.9-227.9 million, while Christie’s 55-lot sale is expected to bring in at least $160 million. Five works to hit the auction block (one at Sotheby’s and four at Christie’s) carry estimates of $20 million or more. The headlining work at Sotheby’s is a 1932 portrait by Picasso of his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter. The painting is similar to the portrait of Walter that led the February Impressionist and Modern sale at Sotheby’s London and sold for £25.4 million (about $42.4 million) against a high estimate of £18 million ($30 million). Femmes Lisant (Deux Personnages) last changed hands in 1981 and is expected to fetch between $25-35 million.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)