ArtNet has published its annual list of the Top 10 Highest Selling Artists for 2013, with Andy Warhol once again the top of the list, with a yearly sales tally of $427.1 million, aided considerably by the record sale for the artist’s Silver Car Crash last year for $105 million.  Warhol was followed closely by Pablo Picasso at $422 million.  Also notable is the presence of three Chinese artists in the top ten: Zhang Daqian, Qi Bashi, and Zao Wou-Ki, respectively.   (more…)

Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Sale in London next month will be lead by a 1994 piece by Gerhard Richter, valued at $49 million.  Wand (Wall) sat for many years in the artist’s personal collection, during which time it was exhibited in a number of major exhibitions.  “As its title suggests, Wand (Wall) presents a compelling wall of colour with horizontal bands of cadmium red, blue and magenta that deliberately echo the chromatic intensity of a Mark Rothko,” Sotheby’s notes in its statement. (more…)

Christie’s London art auction next month will see the sale of another iconic Francis Bacon painting, a portrait of the painter’s lover George Dyer, which is estimated to sell for $49 million.  “These sellers understand margins, and the uplift can be colossal,” says dealer Alan Hobart. “The auction houses have the buyers at the top end of the market. It’s globalized money. Bacon is now an auction commodity.” (more…)

The Wall Street Journal reports that two sources close to the record-setting sale of a Francis Bacon triptych last year at Christie’s have said that the work was purchased by Elaine Pascal Wynn, the billionaire ex-wife of casino mogul Steve Wynn.  While her motives are unclear, sources state that she purchased the work through dealer Bill Acquavella, who placed the $127 million bid by phone. (more…)

Sotheby’s London will host the second half of sales from the Krugier Collection this February, following a sale at Christie’s late last year where several of the top lots failed to sell.  The sale next month is noted to include a number of more personal works, and carries of total estimate of $39 million, somewhat more than a third of the $113.7m that Christie’s realized. (more…)

Christie’s offerings for its February 4th, 5th and 7th auctions in London are already indicating a strong sale, with works by Picasso and Magritte leading an offering that is anticipated to earn nearly $380 million.  Picasso’s Femme au costume turc dans un fauteuil leads the auction, and has not been on sale in over 50 years, valued at £15-£20 million.  “This stellar sale presents international collectors and institutions with rare opportunities to acquire exceptional works with illustrious provenance by key impressionist and modern masters,” Jay Vincze, Christie’s International Director and head of its Impressionist and Modern Art Department, said in a statement. (more…)

A Virginia court has ruled that a Renoir purchased at a flea market for $7 must be returned to the museum it was stolen from in 1951.  Paysadge Bords de Seine, stolen from Baltimore Museum of Art, was discovered by teacher Marcia “Martha” Fuqua, and was valued at $22,000.  “The museum has put forth an extensive amount of documentary evidence that the painting was stolen,” Brinkema said, citing a 1951 police report and museum records. (more…)

Former Auction House head Simon de Pury has reportedly signed a book deal with St. Martin’s Press after leaving Phillips auction house last year.  The book will be “a look inside the auction world in his voice,” says executive editor Jennifer Weis. “Stories, history, the highlights, the problems, everything.” (more…)

A minimalist portrait of Disney icon Mickey Mouse, done by Damien Hirst, is up for sale next month at Christie’s in London to benefit the Kids Company charity.  Created using Hirst’s signature “dot” technique, the portrait plays on a long history of pop art appropriation of the character.  “Mickey Mouse represents happiness and the joy of being a kid and I have reduced his shape down to the basic elements of a few simple spots. I hope people love it, because it is still instantly recognizable – Mickey Mouse is such a universal and powerful icon.”  Hirst says. (more…)

A recent Forbes India interview with Christie’s Steven Murphy, following its successful first auction in Mumbai, has indicated the company’s approach to the growing international market.  “The fundamental fact is that the combination of the surge in interest in art, combined with the new connectivity available online, has opened the door to a vast population of new collectors globally. This surge in new buyers, which is continuing, far outstrips any modulation in sales that macro-economic trends would affect.” (more…)

The New York Times has published an interview with Christie’s auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen, discussing the continued growth of the contemporary market, the atmosphere of the auction, and some of the tricks in working a room.  “Someone might have collected 40 or 50 good paintings, and when the one work that he wants more than anything else comes up for auction, the auctioneer has to be very sensitive to that,” he says. (more…)

A number of deals and arrangements made this month have signaled that the centuries-old artistic bastion of Paris may have begun its rise to the highest levels of the international art market.  A classic Modigliani has sold for over €6.5 million, the highest price paid for a painting in France this year, and comes alongside news of a record €44 million tally for sales in France by Sotheby’s in 2013, while Christie’s showed similar success and a €56 million sales total for the year. (more…)

The Financial Times looks at the enormous final sale prices achieved this year at auction, and questions where the art market is headed in the future. Deep pockets and an increasingly deep market pool have led to growing sales, and a number of art fairs springing up to meet the demand. “In sheer defiance of other global economic trends, or perhaps because of such trends, there is an unprecedented flow of money into the art market. For some, this could represent a flight of capital from other conceivably more unstable harbours to comfortably park one’s wealth,” says dealer Edward Tyler Nahem.  (more…)

Sotheby’s is currently searching for a new headquarters in New York City, but any move or purchase still hinges on the auction house’s ability to sell its current location at 1334 York Avenue on the Upper East Side, and for which it is still accepting bids. “We continue to explore options as we determine what’s best for Sotheby’s now and in the future, but no decisions have been made,” says Andrew Gully, Sotheby’s worldwide director of communications. (more…)

A U.S. contestant has won an online raffle for a $1.26 million piece by Pablo Picasso, walking away with the work after buying a ticket for the price of $137.  The 1914 piece was auctioned off to benefit the efforts to save the ancient city of Tyre, and was won by Pennsylvania resident Jeffrey Gonano.  “I’m still in shock. I’ve never won anything like this before. Obviously,” he said. (more…)

Amy Cappellazzo, Christie’s Chairman of Postwar and Contemporary Art Development, has announced that she will be leaving the company this February to work as a private dealer.  Cappellazzo joined the auction house in 2001, and is frequently touted as the reason Christie’s has experienced such profound success in the past years, but has decided to focus on more private sales and transactions.  “When I think about private sales,” she said in 2012, “I think about matchmaking—it’s literally about arranging love.”  (more…)

A Dallas collector is suing Sotheby’s auction house over the disclosure of what was supposed to be the private sale of a Mark Rothko.  Marguerite Hoffman, widow of soft-drinks bottling magnate Robert K. Hoffman, filed a lawsuit against the auction house when the work was resold several years later, and used her name heavily in the work’s marketing materials.   (more…)

Christie’s is preparing for its first sale in India next week, pulling heavily from the collection of the late Mumbai-based curator Kekoo Gandhy and his wife, Khorshed Gandhy.  The works include a number of high-profile Indian artists, including Ram Kumar and Syed Haider Raza. (more…)

A coalition of the largest creditors in Detroit’s current bankruptcy has made the initial movements in court to push Detroit to sell works from the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.  The motion formally brings the dispute into court, which has been hinted at for several months.  “We recognize that this is a very sensitive issue,” says Derek Donnelly, managing director of Financial Guaranty Insurance Co.. “Whatever process we undertake here, we would hope would create a win-win situation — that ultimately there will be a viable DIA that will survive this process and possibly even thrive. But at the same time there needs to be a construct that addresses the fact that the DIA, or art, is not an essential asset and especially not one that is essential to the delivery of services in the city.” (more…)

Sotheby’s first auction in mainland China closed today with an impressive final sales tally of over $37 million.  The final results included a record-setting $14,725,457 final price for Zao Wou-Ki’s 1958 canvas, Abstraction.   (more…)

Leon Black, the head of Apollo Global Management LLC, has been named in the top 10 of Art & Auction magazine’s list of the 10 most powerful art world participants for the first time this year.  Black, who purchased Edvard Munch’s The Scream for a record setting $120 million in 2010, joined a list headed by Jeff Koons, whose balloon dog auction this month places him as the highest-selling living artist.  Other inclusions include dealers Larry Gagosian and David Zwirner. (more…)

The recent Sotheby’s auction of jewels designed by sculptor Alexander Calder broke all estimates at auction last week, selling for the total of $8 million, far beyond the works’ estimated $1.5 million price tag.  “This is a major development in the market for artists’ jewellery,” says specialist dealer Louisa Guinness. (more…)

After 20 years on the podium for Sotheby’s, Chief of Contemporary Art and auctioneer Tobias Meyer  has announced that he will be leaving his position in order to pursue work as a private dealer.  Mr. Meyer has been on the stand for some of the auction house’s most significant sales, including the record sale of Andy Warhol’s Car Crash painting earlier this month. “Contemporary art has become a little too much like ‘American Idol,'” he told said. “We’re an overvisualized culture, and young artists can find themselves with a real career only six months after starting to paint.”
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The Independent reports on the history of artist Jeff Koons, noting his time as a Wall Street commodities trader, and the artist’s immense market popularity, underscored this week by the sale of his Balloon Dog sculpture for $58 million.  The article notes the rising of wealth of the “new asset class,” and the appeal of Koons’ sculptures to collectors with a ” large deficit of social and cultural capital.” (more…)