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

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Alberto Giacometti, Grand Buste de Diego Avec Bras, executed 1957, cast 1958 (est. £3.5–5 million, bought in), via Sothebys.com

Tuesday evening’s forty-two lot sale of Impressionist and Modern Art at Sotheby’s London brought in £68.8 million (or $111 million) for thirty-two lots sold. The auction house reports being “very pleased” with the total, which is the fourth highest ever in the department at the London location. The featured lot, Picasso’s La Lecture, exceeded its presale estimate after slow, thoughtful bidding by at least seven interested parties that increased in increments of £500,000. It sold to a telephone bidder for £25.2 million against a presale estimate of £12-18 million (estimates do not include the buyers premium, prices realized do). The real surprise, though, came when both Giacometti lots which carried the second and third highest presale estimates failed to sell. Bidding for an oil on canvas portrait of the artist’s brother ended at £2.7 million and a bronze sculpture of the same subject passed at £3.2 million.

The sale room at Sotheby’s London on Tuesday, via Art Observed

more story and images after the jump…

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Henri Matisse, Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV), conceived c. 1930 and cast 1978 (est. $25-35 million, realized $48.8 million), via Christies.com

Wednesday evening’s Impressionist & Modern auction at Christie’s in New York featured 84 lots (not including lot 27, which was withdrawn) that were expected to fetch between $198-286.6 million. The sale realized a total of $231.4 million and had a sell through rate of 80% by lot and 88% by value. Like the Sotheby’s sale  on Tuesday night, a handful of the top lots found buyers after enthusiastic bidding while the majority of lots were sold within or below presale estimates, or were bought in.

Still, the aggressive bidding that set two artists’ records was largely unexpected. Perhaps garnering the most post auction attention,  the sale of Matisse’s Nu de dos, 4 état (Back IV), an impressively sized bronze sculpture of a woman’s back, went to Larry Gagosian–on behalf of an anonymous client–for $48.8 million. Similarly, Violon et guitare, a 1913 painting by Juan Gris, generously outperformed its $18-25 million estimate, fetching $28.6 million from a European collector. Though the top buyers identities remain unknown, sources such as the New York Times have speculated the involvement of hedge fund billionaire and collector Steven A. Cohen, who was present at the event and has bought through Larry Gagosian in the past.

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The room fills at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Evening Sale in New York, via Art Observed

More after the jump…

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Amedeo Modigliani, Nu Assis Sur un Divan (La Belle Romaine), 1917 (est. $40 million, realized $68.9 million), via Sothebys.com

The fall auction season in New York kicked off on Tuesday evening with Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale. The 61-lot auction carried a presale estimate of $195-266 million and realized $227,561,000. Just four lots accounted for more than half of the evening’s earnings, while 15 lots were bought in. Amedeo Modigliani‘s Nu Assis Sur un Divan (La Belle Romaine) was the top lot, bringing in a staggering $68.9 million and setting the record for a work by the artist at auction.

Aristide Maillol, Torse de L’Action Enchainée, 1861-1944, at auction (est. $500-$700 thousand, realized 2.9 million), via Art Observed

More results and images after the jump…

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Les buveurs d’absinthe (Les Déclassés) by Jean-Francois Raffaelli quadruples its pre-sale estimate of $400-600,000 and sells for $2,994,500 at Christie’s Impressionist/Modern sale.  Photo by Art Observed.

The art market received another, enormous boost of confidence last night at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern evening sale, as Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust (1932) sold to anonymous telephone bidder for a record-breaking $106,482,500. The staggering price comes hot on the heels of Sotheby’s historic sale of Alberto Giacometti’s iconic bronze, L’Homme Qui Marche I (1961), for $104,327,00 in February this year. The Picasso helped drive the sale’s overall total to $335,548,000, making it the third biggest sale ever witnessed at Christie’s in New York.  Of the 69 lots offered, 56 sold with over 30 lots exceeding $1 million, and of those, 9 exceeded the $10 million mark. Nude, Green Leaves and Bust was part of a 27-lot single-owner sale from the collection of Mrs. Sidney F. Brody, a noted Los Angeles collector.  The Brody group was 100% sold by lot and value and realized $224,177,500 making it the biggest single-owner sale offered at Christie’s New York, surpassing the landmark sale of the Collection of Victor and Sally Ganz sale in 1997, and coming second only to the mammoth Yves Saint Laurent/Pierre Berge sale that made $443 million at Christie’s, Paris in February 2009.

More images, a detailed report and related links after the jump….
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Jeune Arabe, Kees Van Dongen (1877) sold for $13.8 million – a new record for the artist

In contrast to the slim pickings made available to buyers at Christie’s Modern and Impressionist Evening sale on November 3, last night’s sale at Sotheby’s offered many iconic works that had bidders excited and which resulted in an auction that Simon Shaw, Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department in New York described as “a shot in the arm for the art market. A real vote of confidence.” The evening’s auctioneer Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, commented that after all his time at Sotheby’s he had never seen such an active sale. And indeed it was, with a grand total of $181,760,000 over a high-end estimate of $163,600,000, this sale marked the first time since May 2006 that Sotheby’s in New York have exceeded their top estimate.

L’Homme qui Chavire, Alberto Giacometti – an instantly recognizable icon of the modern era cast in 1951. Sold for a remarkable $19,346,500.

More text, images, related links and video after the jump….

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TeÌ‚te de femme, Pablo Picasso (1943) estimated to sell for between $7,000,000 and $10,000,000 at Christie’s Modern and Impressionist evening sale tonight. via Christie’s

Christie’s Modern and Impressionist sale this evening, November 3, marks the beginning of the fall auction season in New York. Headlining tonight’s sale are works by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian and Henri Matisse. Tomorrow Sotheby’s will follow with their Modern and Impressionist evening sale which is highlighted by Alberto Giacometti’s bronze Falling Man, estimated to sell for $8 million – $12 million along with works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Giacometti’s fellow modern masters Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso. The combined total of the evening and day sales from both auction houses is estimated at as much as $607 million, down from $1.7 billion just two years ago.

ArtObserved will be on site to cover the proceedings on twitter at the show and in a review tomorrow. We are set to continue our auction season coverage next week when the Contemporary sales kick-off on Tuesday, November 10, at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips de Pury & Company.

L’Homme Qui Chavire (Falling Man), Alberto Giacometti (1951) via Sotheby’s

Related Links:
Christie’s Homepage
Sotheby’s Homepage
Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Evening Sale – Tuesday, November 3, 2009 – E-Catalogue
Christie’s Impressionist/Modern Day Sale – Wednesday, November 4, 2009 – E-Catalogue
Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale – Wednesday, November 4, 2009- E-Catalogue
Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale -Thursday, November 5, 2009 – E-Catalogue
On The Block: Traditional Offerings, Bargain Prices [NYTimes]
New House, Taschen Risking Low Prices for Art at Fall Auctions [Bloomberg]
New York Sales Preview [ArtInfo]
Up For Auction [NYTimes]
The Art World Goes Local [WallStreetJournal]
Art World Watching Sales Starting Next Week for Hints of Market Recovery [Financial Post]
As Art Auctions Shrink, Big Houses Look to the Future [Reuters]
The Art Market: Distress Sales, Iron Curtain Art and France’s Turner Prize [Financial Times]

Head of a Muse, Raphael via Guardian UK

-Offered for the first time at public auction as part of Christie’s Old Masters sale, Raphael’s drawing “Head of a Muse”- a study for a figure in one of his Vatican frescoes, if it achieves its estimate £12-16million, will break the auction record for an old master drawing currently held by Michelangelo’s and Leonardo da Vinci’s works [Guardian UK]

-As art collectors become more cautious with their purchases, dealers at Frieze and FIAC fairs put works on reserve, among them $40 million Mondrian allegedly put on hold for Bernard Arnault [Bloomberg]

-Ms. Temkin, the chief curator of painting and sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, introduces unexpected changes, unframing certain paintings and subjecting the almost sacralized permanent collection to frequent renewal [The New York Times]

“Your Mercury Ocean” Skateboard by Olafur Eliasson via aarting

-Another collaboration between Mekanism and Olafur Eliasson results in a 13-ply deck 3d patterned skateboard with a mirror coating [aarting]
-In related, Olafur Eliasson commissions by the mayor of Copenhagen to design a bridge for the Danish capital; the artist shares his plans for a transparent bridge in a close vicinity to the water [The Art Newspaper]

– The survey carried out by the Art Fund, the UK’s independent art charity, shows that despite the substantial drop in public funding and investment income, a figure that proves to grow in the context of economic fall is the number of visits to museums [Art Knowledge News]

-In the midst of economic uncertainty, gallery Matthew Marks, which represents artists such as Jasper Johns, and Peter Fischli and David Weiss, plans on expansion with a new space on the West Coast [The New York Times]

To stay apprised of most of the relevant art news for this past week… (more…)

Kirsten Dunst on the set of a production by Takashi Murakami in collaboration with McG via aarting

Tate Modern’s “Pop Life: Art in a Material World,” features a video that is a collaboration between McG – famous Hollywood director, and Murakami – Japan’s king of pop art: starring actress Kirsten Dunst on the streets of Akihabara in Tokyo for “Turning Japanese” by rock band The Vapors [The Wall Street Journal]
A 1984 work by Chinese artist Li Keran sold for $940,000, the most for a print at a Hong Kong auction, where bidding led by mainland buyers has taken many prices several times above estimates [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s Asia sales in Hong Kong revealed that demand for Chinese paintings, while firm, is mixed; as the market is still vulnerable, less pricey, quality pieces were the ones to realize numbers higher than their estimates [Reuters]
Works including those by Renoir, Pollock, Degas and Rembrandt stolen from the home of a retired Harvard Medical School professor and collector, and his business partner; only authentic pieces were taken, leaving behind impeccable reproductions [Boston Globe via Art Market Monitor] in related Uncooperative and unable to produce evidence that the stolen art existed, Angelo Amadio and Dr. Ralph Kennaugh, become suspects of the theft to which allegedly they are victims [ArtDaily]

Tracey Emin via Guardian UK

Discouraged by British government’s top rate tax, Tracey Emin threatens to abandon England for France where she claims the politicians understand the importance of supporting culture and art [Guardian UK] in related At the London’s Frieze Art Fair, in the booth of New York’s Lehmann Maupin Gallery, Tracey Emin, known for her confessional artwork, is offering to make customized artworks based on answers to fifteen personal questions [Artinfo]
Fanjul paintings nationalized by Cuba in an exhibit in Museo del Prado in Madrid involve legal consequences as the Museum is being investigated by the US department of state for illegal trafficking of a work of art owned by US citizen confiscated by Cuban government [The Art Newspaper]
Turner Prize exhibit at Tate Britain in London this time startles the viewers with the lack of now expected blood, outrage and other shock factors [Bloomberg]
The Bloomberg administration makes an announcement of its plan to give nonprofit cultural groups access to gallery and theater space in city owned properties and help artists develop business plans [Crain’s Business]

Donald Judd concrete constructions in Marfa Texas via Hip-Ster-Krit

6 of 15 concrete constructions built by Donald Judd in Marfa Texas required repair and conservation work, October 10th the works will once again be open to the public [Artinfo]
A look at the Chinese Gao brothers who are shocking their country with brave, politically challenging art works, such as a life-size sculpture of Mao whose body is only reunited with his head on ‘special occasions’ [The New York Times]
When most artists’ prices are decreasing in a recession, a few go up: Italian Maurizio Cattelan is one of those who thrive in the tough economic times, an analysis of his work reveals some truths on the variables of the art market [The Economist]

Damien Hirst posing in front of his work via ARTblog +

A portrait of Damien Hirst built through an interview: his influences, unusual artistic paths (such as painting) and mediums to come, and a subjective depiction of the artist’s personality [Times Online] in related Hirst tells BBC that he will not be producing large scale installations and will rather concentrate solely on painting by applying oil to the canvas with his hands, something he has been secretly doing these recent years [BBC] and in related the FT reports that Hirst lays off much of his staff, closes two studios and is actually making paintings himself; while the galleries give no comments on the unsold works worth millions [Financial Times]
As art fairs struggle to retain exhibitors, a new modern and contemporary fair in Abu Dhabi signs up forty-eight names, including PaceWildenstein, Gagosian, Acquavella and White Cube [Lindsay Pollock] related 50 paintings from the New York Guggenheim Museum to be shown in Abu Dhabi [Arts Abu Dhabi]

‘Fuego Flores’ by Jean Michel Basquiat via Auction Publicity

Sotheby’s October Contemporary Art Auction, estimated to realize in excess of £9 million, will include works by leading artists, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Anish Kapoor, Andy Warhol, Chris Ofili, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Antony Gormley and Yan Pei-Ming [Auction Publicity]
Following in the footsteps of Anselm Kiefer and Toni Morrison, Umberto Eco has been named the next guest curator at the Louvre; the show “Vertige de la Liste” (Vertigo of Lists) will revolve around his chosen theme “the list” [Artinfo] in related news, talks are underway to open a McDonald’s restaurant and a McCafé at the Louvre next month [Telegraph]
An art dealer from Stockholm, Sweden has been accused of faking works by heavyweight modernists including Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, Edvard Munch, and Egon Schiele [Artnet]

Child of lonely – performance by Terence Koh October 6 at Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Photo Olivier Zahm via purple DIARY

Terence Koh prepared his first solo show at the Parisian gallery Thaddaeus Ropac, which takes a form of an imaginary opera in eight acts, the first act taking place October 6, 2009 [The Art Newspaper]
The four artists shortlisted for Turner Prize 2009 are: Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright; the winner is to be announced December 7th [Turner Prize 2009]
Jerry Saltz writes about new galleries emerging despite the economic crises, provides a list of new galleries to see and comments on the effects of the recession on the female artists [New York mag]

The current state of the building to house Sperone Westwater and the computer rendering of it via Lindsay Pollock

A concrete foundation is rising at the site of the future Sperone Westwater gallery designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster on the Bowery; the 10 story building will rise only one block away from New Museum [Lindsay Pollock]
As opposed to expanding outside their home in LA, Tim Blum and Jeff Poe open a new 21,000 square foot space conveniently located in front of their existing gallery on South La Cienga Boulevard, Los Angeles [Los Angeles Times]

Jacket designed by JR via The World’s Best Ever

A jacket from JR’s Face2Face Project comes in a limited edition of only 100 [The World’s Best Ever] in related A video interview with JR in Paris about his project Women are Heroes, which allows the viewers to call a number and hear an interview with one of the chosen women for the project [Vernissage TV]
An interview with Dasha Zhukova that notes her easy acceptance in the art world [Guardian UK]
28 as opposed to 40 exhibitors had pulled out of the Frieze Art Fair, yet despite the equally disappointing numbers, many lesser known, but in no way inferior galleries, will get a shot at the famous art fair [Telegraph]

Miranda July via Vice

Miranda July creates a series of photographs to imitate and bring attention to the extras in iconic movies [Vice]
An Italian professor, Dr Seracini, has been working on technology that can enable the search for the largest painting Leonardo da Vinci ever painted – The Battle of Anghiari, a work he believes to be hidden underneath the frescoes in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio [The New York Times]
MoMA received an unexpected gift this month – an estate, estimated to be worth more than $10 million, belonging to the late Michael H. Dunn, a bachelor from Derby, Vermont [The New Yorker]

van Gogh’s “Ernte in der Provence” (1888), at Kunstmuseum Basel.

The Kunstmuseum Basel is currently showing works by the master painter Vincent van Gogh.  Seventy paintings, both better- and lesser-known, are featured in this first large-scale showing of exclusively landscape works by the artist.  The van Gogh paintings will be accompanied by a biographical video on the artist as well as forty landscape pieces by his contemporaries.  The intended result gives patrons a look at van Gogh’s contribution to the evolution of technique and concept in landscape work. The show closes on September 27.

Related links:
Kunstmuseum Basel
Switzerland’s art blockbuster of the year: Van Gogh landscapes [GenevaLunch]

Vernissage has video of the exhibition.

More images and story after the jump…

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The show is comprised of works by 63 artists, with some pieces showing publicly for the first time. The sweeping comprehensiveness of the exhibition allows for a juxtaposition of artists rarely seen. Paintings by Claude Monet accompany those by Cy Twombly and Paul Signac. Cubist Georges Braque brings the cartoons of Jean Dubufett into sharper relief. Included are Paul Cézanne and Abstract Expressionists Mark Rothko and Sam Francis, in an exhibition that shows even the pop art of Andy Warhol and the Surrealist paintings of Salvador Dalí.

Ferdinand Hodler, “le Grammont,” at Fondation l’Hermitage. Image courtesy of the museum.

Yves Klein, “ANT 20,” at Fondation l’Hermitage. Image courtesy of the museum.

Initially founded in 1984 with the Bugnion Family collection, Fondation l’Hermitage now boasts over 600 works, shown in rotation along with its temporary exhibitions. The Fondation is also home to a collection of 12th-19th century Chinese porcelain, donated by the Vergottis Foundation and on permanent display in its underground space.

René Magritte, “La Ruse Symétrique,” at Fondation l’Hermitage. Image courtesy of the museum.

Paul Klee, “Felsenlandschaft,” at Fondation l’Hermitage. Image courtesy of the museum.

Edgar Degas, “Danseuses (Danseuses au repos),” at Fondation l’Hermitage. Image courtesy of the museum.

– R. Fogel

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]

Dans la prairie (1876) by Claude Monet; Sold for  £11,241,250 ($16,104,942), against estimates of around  £15 million. Image via Artnet.

“It was a great sale and brought back a lot of confidence to the market.” Leon Benrimon, in remarks to ArtInfo.

Christie’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art, held February 4th, has been hailed by some as a confidence-building event which demonstrated that there is some vitality left in the art market, while others give credit for the auctions ostensible success to high quality pieces (often being auctioned for the first time in decades), along with low estimates and low expectations. The auction realized a total of £63.4 million or $91.2 million, well within its range of £58.8 million to £86 million. In the course of the evening, 39 of 47 lots were sold, with 4 lots sold for over £5 million, 16 for over £1 million, and 25 for over $1 million.  According to Christie’s, 54% of the works were bought by European bidders, 26%  from the U.S., 18% from the U.K. and 2 percent from Asia.

Dans la prairie, by Claude Monet, was the highest priced lot of the night despite falling below its expected range.  The painting, which was exhibited for the first time at 1877’s seminal Impressionist Exhibition, sold for £11.2 million, or $16.1 million–while the range for the painting was unpublished, it is thought to be somewhere in the £15 million range. Dans la prairie‘s subject is Monet’s wife, Camille, reading in a meadow in Argenteuil, a few kilometers north of Paris. It was bought in a single telephone bid made by Anika Guntrum, a Paris-based Christie’s specialist, on behalf of an anonymous buyer.

Monet oil tests art market [GuardianUK]
Monet Painting of Wife Sells for 11.2 Million Pounds [Bloomberg]
Monet painting sells for £11.2 million, £4 million below estimate [Telegraph UK]
Monet, Modigliani, Low Estimates Boost Christie’s London Sale [Bloomberg]
Impressionist and Modern sale nets £63.42 million at Christie’s [IHT]
Christie’s “Brings Back Confidence” [ArtInfo]
Claude Monet’s Dans la Prairie Sells for $16,164,918 at Christie’s Auction of Impressionist and Modern Art [ArtDaily]

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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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Whitney Expansion plans via Culturegrrl

Whitney hits milestone for expansion approval, but will it be funded? [The New York Sun]
Video of a Jeff Koons-guided tour through his Versailles installation [VernissageTV]
Art and wine, a solid investment in financial turmoil? [The Wealth Report/WSJ]
Large and quiet, a new contemporary art space in Bologna [Times UK]
A monochromatic art book for babies features Hirst and Murakami [Guardian]
$730,000 Renoir, stolen from a Milanese family, is recovered [New York Times]
In related news: Lawyer sentenced who hid $30 million in stolen art, including a Cezanne, for 30 years [The Art Newspaper]