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1877’s seminal Impressionist Exhibition, sold for £11.2 million, or $16.1 million–while the range for the painting was unpublished, it is thought to be somewhere in the £15 million range.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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Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans (1879-1881) by Edgar Degas, sold for £13,257,250, ($18,993,194) above the high end of its range (£12,000,000 / $18,129,626). Image via Sotheby’s.

Following mixed results at last week’s Old Masters auctions, the art market was looking closely at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale for further clues on how the rest of the year might unfold.  The auction generated £32,564,300, selling 22 of 29 lots or 75.9% of what was offered.  Several records were set, and 40% of the lots exceeded the high end of expectations.  While there were some very notable successes, 67.7% of lots were sold by value, with the final result well below the pre-sale estimate range of £40,620,000-£55,680,000

The star of the night was indisputably the Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans, a sculpture by Edgar Degas previously owned by Sir John Madejski, a British sports entrepreneur and philanthropist,  news of its sale previously covered by Art Observed here. The sculpture was sold to an unnamed Asian collector for £13.25 million or almost $19 million. The final price was above the £12 million high end of its estimate range, setting a record for a Degas sculpture and ultimately becoming the top price of the night. Petite Danseuse, one of a series of 28 bronze and fabric sculptures made several years after the artist’s death in 1917, made a tidy profit for Madejski, who bought it for £5 million for it in 2004. “Petite danseuse de quatorze ans is the most important sculpture by Edgar Degas and it is undoubtedly one of the most iconic sculptures of the Impressionist period,” commented Helena Newman, Vice Chairman, Impressionist & Modern Art, Sotheby’s Worldwide. “The recordbreaking price achieved for this exceptional sculpture tonight is a testament to the strength of the market for rare works of exceptional quality.”

Another high value lot that sold above its expectations was Joan Miro’s Femmes et Oiseaux dans la Nuit, which sold for £2 million ($3 million). Bought by David Nahmad on behalf an anonymous telephone bidder, the painting sold for two times the high end of its range.

Auction results: Sotheby’s
Auction results: Artnet
Auction Record Price For Edgar Degas Sculpture Headlines Sotheby’s Sale Of Impressionist Art [ArtDaily]
Degas Sculpture Makes Record in First Art-Market Test of 2009 [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s Sale Shows Reassuring Signs of Market Life [ArtInfo]

Previously on ArtObserved:
DEGAS’S ‘LITTLE DANCER’ STEPS OUT INTO THE MARKET [Jan 12]

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Temple of Jupiter Panellenius Restored, by J.M.W Turner, via Sotheby’s; Sold for $12.9 million.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s recent New York Old Master results were weaker than usual although there was some success amidst slow sales. The roster for the three days of New York sales (28 January at Christie’s and 29th and 30th January at Sotheby’s evening sales), included over 500 prestigious works. Such an opening of the 2009 auction season contained artworks of very fine quality at highly priced estimates. Even despite current economic challenges the two auctioneers offered a number of exceptionally refined artworks. These included a set of works by Francisco de Zurbaran consisting of twelve paintings (the twelve sibyls) priced between $2 and $3 million at Sotheby’s. Christie’s offered a still-life by Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin entitled “Still-Life with a copper pot” estimated between $1.2 to $1.3 million, quite an optimistic pricing since nothing by the artist has sold above the million dollar mark since 1992.

The marquee success came at Sotheby’s. A stunning work by Joseph Mallord Turner entitled “The Temple of Jupiter Panellenius” sold for $12.9 million, a price that is the second highest price ever realized for a work by Turner at auction. The painting won the bid from an anonymous buyer on the telephone and was sold by Richard Feigen, a Manhattan dealer who bought the painting at Christie’s London in 1982 for $1.1 million. The painting was featured in the traveling Turner retrospective that closed in September at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Catalogue: Sotheby’s Old Masters Painting including European Works of Art
Turner and a Few Others Succeed at Slow Sales [NY Times]
Art Market Insight: New York Auctions Open with Old Masters [Art Market Insight]
The Temple of Jupiter Panellenius by JMW Turner sells for $12.9 Million at Sotheby’s New York [ArtDaily]

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“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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“Untitled, boxer” (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, sold by Metallica band member Lars Ulrich for $13.5 million via Artnet

CHRISTIE’S POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART, New York, Wednesday, November 12th

Total Lots Offered: 75
Total Lots Sold: 51
Total Sales Value: $113.62 million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $227 million

Christie’s New York sale of contemporary art, held on the evening of Nov. 12, 2008, was dominated by American buyers and totaled $98,480,000 ($113,627,500 with premium) or about half of the low value of its estimate of $227,150,000 to $321,350,000. 51 of 75 lots sold, or 68%, with nearly a third failing to sell. Two lots sold for over $10 million, and 32 lots sold for over 1 million dollars. Buyers were 60% American, 18% European and Russian, 0% Asian and 24% “other.” Notable attendees were tennis legend John McEnroe and billionaire Eli Broad.

Like Sotheby’s evening sale a day before, Christie’s was also damaged by its guarantees of 39 lots when 12 were brought in with a combined low estimate of $48 million, (typically a price near where an auction house will guarantee). The total guaranteed low estimate was $90 million. Overall, 24 of the 75 lots failed to find buyers which indicates a buy-in rate of 32% by lot and 55% by value. The total for this sale does not compare well to Christie’s fall contemporary sale in 2007 which totaled $325 million. Christie’s reportedly reduced their reserves and as such 52% of the lots sold below the low estimate.

Several new auction records were set, including those by Paul McCarthy and Robert Irwin, however, prices were generally below pre-sale low estimates. Some positives came from the sale including a $15 million Richter and a $13.5 million Basquiat as well as new auction records for Joseph Cornell and Yayoi Kusama. The headliner lot Francis Bacon’s Study for Self-Portrait was unsold against a low estimate $40 million or more, but no bid approached even $30 million. Many other major lots went unsold, including five sequential lots including three Warhols and a Richter valued at up to $10.0 million to $15 million.

Credit crunch hits the art market [Guardian]
Mixed Results for Contemporary Art Sale at Christie’s [NY Times]
Christie’s New York Auction Sells 68% of Contemporary Artworks [Bloomberg]
Lehman’s Fuld and Wife Sell Drawings Below Estimate [Bloomberg]
Francis Bacon portrait pulled from sale after failing to attract bids [Telegraph UK]
Art market in shock as Christie’s calls halt to Francis Bacon sale [TimesUK]
Art Market Watch – $113.6 million at Christie’s Contemporary [ArtNet]
Crappy Art Market Fails to Take Revenge on Richard Fuld [NYMag]
No Bailout at Christie’s [Artinfo]
The art of avoiding the credit crunch [GuardianUK]
Credit crunch hits the art market [GuardianUK]

more with pictures after the jump…

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Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale, New York, Tuesday, November 11th
Total Lots Offered: 63
Total Lots Sold: 43 (68.2%)
Total Sales Value: $125.1 million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $202.4 million

On the heels of its Impressionist and Modern Art sale that brought in $223 million, well below its low estimate of $339 million, with only 45 of 70 lots sold as previously covered by Art Observed here, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York, held on Tuesday, November 11th, brought in $125 million against a $202 million estimate. The sale was 68.2% sold by lot, with 43 of 63 works finding buyers, marking the lowest selling rate for a multiple-owner evening sale of contemporary art held at Sotheby’s since November 1994. A third of the lots failed to sell, and most of the works that did sell went for less than their presale low estimate. The top lot of the sale was Yves Klein’s Archisponge (RE 11), seen below, which brought $21,362,500. Artist records were set tonight for Philip Guston Beggar’s Joys, which achieved $10,162,500; John Currin, Nice ‘N Easy (see above), which realized $5,458,500 (see above) and Richard Serra, 12-4-8, which fetched $1,650,000.

A Dreary Night for Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s [NYTimes]
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Sale defies worst fears [Reuters]
Sotheby’s New York Evening Sale of Contemporary Art Brings $125,131,500 [ArtDaily]
$125 million at Sotheby’s Contemporary [ArtNet]
The art market: Contemporary art gets hammered [FinancialTimes]
Bare Market [ArtForum]
Eli Broad Goes Shopping as Sotheby’s Art Auction Falls Short [Bloomberg]
Currin Nudes Set $5.46 Million Record at Spotty Sotheby’s Sale [Bloomberg]

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“Livre, pipe et verres” (1915) by Juan Gris, Christie’s, via Artnet

CHRISTIE’S IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART, New York, Thursday November 6th

Total Lots Offered: 82
Total Lots Sold: 46
Total Sales Value: $146.7 million
Total Sales Pre-Auction Estimate: $240.7 million

This is the first of five articles that will summarize in parts the auction results following AO’s last covered Wednesday November 5th Christies Auction covered by AO here. Following a day where the Dow Jones industrial average dropped over 400 points, overall, Christie’s Impressionist and Modern art auction, the second evening sale of the week, was perhaps successful versus others in the week. Though overall sales were poor, the six guaranteed works sold. In total, 44% of the lots failed to sell, or rather, of the 82 pieces offered 36 works were brought in (37% by value). Auctioneer Christopher Burge quoted to Bloomberg after the sale: “Obviously, prices have changed, we’d be foolish not to recognize that.”

The auction totaled $146.715 million against a pre-sale estimate of $240.7 million to $337.2 million. Marquee works from Juan Gris, Pablo Picasso, and Wassily Kandinsky brought high prices but works by Claude Monet and Henri Matisse met little to no interest. New world auction records were set for Cubist master Juan Gris, Henri Laurens, American artist Alice Neel and for Seurat and Magritte for works on paper. 27 of the 46 works that did sell earned in excess of $1 million. 61% of buyers were Americans, 26% Europeans and 11% (other) with 2% going to Middle Eastern buyers.

Gris Sets Record in Slow Christie’s Auction [New York Times]
World Record For Juan Gris at Christie’s New York – “20.8 Million For Livre, pipe et verre” [Art Daily]
Christie’s Impressionist Sale Falls Short; 44% Fails to Sell [Bloomberg]
Some Gloom, Some Records at Up-And-Down Night at Christie’s [ArtInfo

more detail and pictures after the jump…

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