Sotheby’s is laying off staff as a result of its current operational overhaul, following the conclusion of its fierce battle with investor Daniel Loeb.  “As part of a long-range planning process begun earlier this year, Sotheby’s has identified areas for growth and additional investment,” the company said in a statement last week.  “To capture these opportunities in an ever-evolving business, the company has decided to reallocate staff and resources.” (more…)

A 30-inch statue representing the god Sekhemka broke the world record for highest auction price of an Egyptian artwork last Thursday at Christie’s London. The statue, sold by the Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, was estimated to sell for $7 to $11 million, but sold for over double its estimate, going to an anonymous bidder for $27 million. The museum has drawn criticism over the decision to sell the statue to fund a future expansion. “No other items from the museum’s collection will be sold off. “Sekhemka was an exceptional case,” said David Mackintosh of the Northampton Borough Council.

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Sotheby’s has announced a partnership with online auction giant eBay, with the aim of offering easy access to streaming coverage of the auction house’s sales worldwide, and to broaden the company’s reach beyond its traditional buyer pool.   “Even if we only reach point 1 percent of eBay users, that’s huge for us,” says Sotheby’s COO Bruno Vinciguerra. “The point is to make our sales more accessible to the broadest possible audience around the world, all the while remaining totally committed to our high end.” (more…)

The New York Times has published another survey on the contemporary auction market, focusing on the gradual concentration of collectors at the highest tiers of art collecting towards blue-chip artists and trusted names, making competition for these works all the more fierce, and the prices that much higher.  “The sleepy days of collecting are over,” says Amy Cappellazzo of the New York-based Partners agency. “The wealthiest of the wealthy now view art as an alternative currency. It’s become a very big business.” (more…)

Tracey Emin, My Bed, via Christie’s

The sales have ended on Christie’s Contemporary Evening Auction in London, following a lengthy 75-lot sale that brought in a final sales tally of $170,537,894.  The evening was marked by moderates sales on most lots, often falling within sales estimates, with a few surprises scattered throughout the evening’s offerings. (more…)

Sotheby’s has announced that it will be auctioning off the estate of collectors Paul and Bunny Mellon, including a number of impressive artworks by Mark Rothko and Richard Diebenkorn from the couple’s extensive collection.  Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Gerald B. Lambert Foundation. (more…)

Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer, via Sotheby’s

The sales have closed at Sotheby’s and another week of Contemporary Art Sales are underway in London.  The evening’s sales performed well above estimate, bringing in a final sales tally of $159 million for 51 of the 59 available lots. (more…)

Francis Bacon, Study for Head of Lucian Freud, at Christie’s

Following the Impressionist and Modern sales in London last week, the British arms of the major auction houses will open their doors once again for a series of Contemporary sales this week, bringing the spring art season to a close with one last set of high-profile sales evenings.

Peter Doig, Country-Rock (Wing-Mirror) via Sotheby’s  (more…)

Kurt Schwitters, Ja – Was? – Bild (1920), via Christie’s

The Impressionist and Modern Evening Sales concluded Tuesday evening, capping a pair of sales that saw impressive prices on a number of works without pushing any major new records for artists at auction.  (more…)

Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1906) via Sotheby’s

Following hot on the heels of the events of Art Basel just last week, the London outposts for Christie’s and Sotheby’s will open their doors for a pair of highly touted Impressionst and Modern Art Evening sales, beginning two final weeks of major art auctions before the art world moves into the summer lull.

Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Grey (1927) via Sotheby’s

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The Wall Street Journal notes the growing trends for bidding at major auctions to move towards phone and online bids, leaving auction rooms looking much less filled out, even at some of the biggest sales of the year.  “People are busy, they’re working. They don’t want the expense of flying here, waiting four or five hours for their lot to show up,” says Paul Minshull, COO of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions. “They can sit at home in their underpants and bid by phone.” (more…)

Writer Paul Levy is in The Telegraph this week, writing on the unique experience of seeing his own portrait put up for auction later this month at Christie’s in London.  Levy was the subject of two portraits painted by artist Howard Hodgkin, one of which led to a bizarre encounter with Charles Saatchi, the original purchaser of one of the works.  “I greeted an old friend who was then secretary of the RA,” Levy writes.  “He was talking to someone vaguely familiar, who turned to me and said: ‘You don’t recognise me. But you’re the first thing I see every morning.’ That is how I learnt that my portrait hung in Charles Saatchi’s bedroom.” (more…)

Following the harsh dispute between investor Daniel Loeb and Sotheby’s, the election of Loeb’s team seems to have signaled a truce between his Third Point company and the embattled auction house.  Loeb and his fellow newly elected board members have announced that they stand behind current management at Sotheby’s, particularly CEO William Ruprecht, whose removal Loeb had called for several times earlier this year.  “As of today we see ourselves not as the Third Point nominees but as Sotheby’s directors, and we expect to work collaboratively with our fellow board members to enhance long-term value on behalf of all shareholders,” Loeb said in a statement. (more…)

The New York Times writes on the state of the art market, noting the risks inherent in a market that relies partially on taste and the opinions of art advisors to determine market value and success.  “Art is an asset, not an asset class,” said Luke Dugdale, a private client wealth management director for the Royal Bank of Canada.  “If it were an asset class, the F.C.A. would regulate it, and that would kill the art world. It’s a market in which everyone can be an adviser.”  (more…)

A Francis Bacon portrait of Lucian Freud, formerly owned by renowned children’s writer Roald Dahl is set to hit the auction block this month at Christie’s in London, estimated to sell for up to £12m at auction.  “Both were enigmatic outsiders who were hard to pin down and liked to work in small, claustrophobic spaces,” says Christie’s Francis Outred.  “Both also aroused controversy and fascination in their public and private lives.” (more…)

Mark Flood, Available Nasdaq Symbol (Installation View), via Art Observed

Few artists are prepared to plumb the depths and egoistic state of the art market, image culture and corporate personhood the way Mark Flood has for the past decades.  Time and again, the artist’s occasionally crass, bold-faced techniques and assemblages of mass-media signifiers toys with the spectacle of consumption, mocking both advertisements and political symbolism as bound up in a state of image-consumption.  It’s this dichotomy, writ large against the backdrop of the art market that defines his current show of work at Zach Feuer in New York. (more…)

Investor Daniel Loeb has officially been acknowledged as one of Sotheby’s newest board members, alongside two of his own candidates, expanding the auction house’s board to 15 members.  The appointment was part of a May 5th agreement between Sotheby’s and Loeb, and brings in jewelry designer Olivier Reza and Harry J. Wilson to help lead the company.   (more…)

The Wall Street Journal notes an increased focus by novelists on the high-priced art market, setting artists and the auction market as the backdrop to their works.  “Art has become much more mainstream, maybe even more than reading,” Robin Desser, editorial director at Alfred A. Knopf, says. “You can’t get into the Degenerate Art show” at the Neue Galerie in New York.” (more…)

Charles Saatchi will offer Tracey Emin’s iconic My Bed piece for sale this July at Christie’s in London.  The work, which Saatchi bought for £150,000 in 2000, is estimated to sell between £800,000 and £1.2m, a price which Emin  is “philosophical” about.  “It’s still my bed. I love it,” the artist says. (more…)

Damien Hirst has donated the gilded skeleton of a woolly mammoth, secured inside a steel and glass case, for auction in benefit of non-profit amfAR’s 21st Cinema Against AIDS gala.  “I wanted to play with these ideas of legend, history and science by gilding the skeleton and placing it within a monolithic gold tank,” Hirst said. “It’s such an absolute expression of mortality, but I’ve decorated it to the point where it’s become something else, I’ve pitched everything I can against death to create something more hopeful.” (more…)

Mark Rothko, Untitled (Red, Blue, Orange) (1955) which sold for $50,000,000 at Phillips, via Art Observed

The Phillips Contemporary Evening Sale has concluded, wrapping up what has been a whirlwind week of contemporary art sales with a briskly-paced, 49-lot sale that achieved moderately strong results, while twelve works were either withdrawn or went unsold. (more…)

Jeff Koons, Popeye (2009-2011), via Sotheby’s

The Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Sale wrapped this evening, with a number of impressive sales that did little to match the fireworks of Christie’s record-setting outing last night, but still managed to bring forth a number of impressive and noteworthy sales, as well as several new world records for artists at auction.  The auction capped a final sales tally of  $364,379,000 over 81 lots, with 12 of those works remaining unsold. (more…)

Andy Warhol sells at Christie’s, via Art Observed

The results are in on an auction that exceeded any and all expectations tonight at Christie’s, and a new world auction record has been set for auctions overall.  Despite early calls that the auction would be marked by excessive guarantors and limited betting, all expectations were broken.  Christie’s surged past the previous high it set late last year, arriving at a final sales record of $744 million for the 68 lot auction, with only four works going unsold, bringing down a number of world auction records with it on the way.  The sale was also defined by an impressively deep level of wealth over the highest priced works.  63 of the lots managed to sell for over $1 million, and 4 surged past the $50 million mark, eliciting astonishment by many on hand.

Barnett Newman, Black Fire I (1961) which sold for a record $84.165 million, via Christie’s

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Andy Warhol sells at Christie’s, via Art Observed

The contemporary art auctions this week were set off on a bounding start last night, as Christie’s opened its new auction event “If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday” to thunderous results, capping a 35 lot auction that sold all but one work, and achieved a final sales tally of $134 million, as well as a number of world auction records for the artists on sale.

Martin Kippenberger, Untitled (1988), via Christie’s (more…)