Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

The spring auctions in New York, which form the bellwether of the art market, get under way tonight with the Impressionist and modern art sale at Christie’s.  Over the next two weeks, Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips de Pury & Co are offering up to $1.2 billion of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art – twice as much as they sold last May. During the Impressionist and modern evening sales in May 2009 only three works carried price tags of $10 million or more – this month 10 works by Edvard Munch, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso and others are priced as high. Another six works are expected to fetch at least $5 million, up from four a year ago.  Judging by these optimistic pre-sale estimates, the auction houses clearly hope that things will play out as they did three months ago in London when Sotheby’s set the record for any work of art ever sold at auction with the $104 million sale of Alberto Giacometti’s L’Homme qui marche I to Lily Safra, wife of the late Lebanese banker Edmond Safra.  Now a Pablo Picasso nude bears the largest pre-sale estimate in history ($70m to $90m) and an anonymous third-guarantor who has agreed to bid at least $70 million (that’s more than the auction house got last fall for its entire evening sale of Impressionist and modern art). Christie’s are set to dominate the fortnight because of two art-stocked estates. Tonight, paintings and sculptures owned by the late Los Angeles collector Frances Brody are expected to fetch as much as $194 million.  98 lots from the estate of the bestselling author and filmmaker, Michael Crichton, are estimated to sell for as much as $75 million and form the backbone of their Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale on Tuesday, May 11.

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Relief éponge or (RE 47 II),  Yves Klein Estimate: £5 – £7 million. Price Realized: £5,865,250. Image via Christie’s

Last night, Christie’s evening sale of post-war and Contemporary art in London totaled £39,149,500, exceeding the pre-sale estimate of £26,290,000 to £38,260,000. More than half of the lots offered sold above estimate, and in selling 9 works over  £1 million (16 over $1 million), the auction house easily surpassed the equivalent figure for all three of their auctions of Post-War and Contemporary art in London last year.  The evenings auction confirmed that not only has confidence returned to the art market but also that there is a real hunger from international collectors in this market – Europeans dominated the bidding, eventually accounting for 41% of the sales, 22% of works sold to Americans, 31 percent went to Britain. Four percent went to Asia. Particularly strong prices were realized for classic European artists including Yves Klein as well as Joana Vasconcelos and Alighiero Boetti, both of whose work established world record prices.The strong results at our international auctions during the second half of last year encouraged vendors who were previously resistant to consign works of art, and the increased supply of quality works fed a strong demand and led to competitive bidding.

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Self-Portrait with a Black Eye, Lucian Freud. Estimate: Image via Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s auction house will kick off this week’s major round of contemporary sales in New York with an 80 lot sale that is expected to realize in excess of £32 million on Wednesday, February 10. Christie’s expect to fetch at least £26,290,000 from 52 lots at their evening sale on Thursday, February 11. In November, Sotheby’s Postwar and Contemporary Sale in New York marked a major turning point in art market history when Andy Warhol’s 200 One Dollar Bills, sold for $43,762,500 over an estimate of $8-12million. The coming week could therefore be seen as an important one in establishing price-levels in a still relatively undetermined contemporary art market – the area most heavily effected by the global recession.  The many heavyweight pieces on offer this week undoubtedly reflect a confidence in sellers resulting from November’s impressive sale – the sales are spearheaded by important and rare works by Peter Doig, Yves Klein, Lucian Freud, Gerhard Richter, Chris Ofili, Neo Rauch and Martin Kippenberger. Contemporary week also falls in the wake of the incredible $104.3 million sale of Giacometti’s “L’homme qui marche I” (The Striding Man I) at Sotheby’s that set a new world record by becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction. This week overall, Sotheby’s and Christie’s expect to bring in at least $365.3 million combined, $144.6 million in 2009, up from $332.5 million in February 2008.

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L’Homme qui marche I, Alberto Giacometti. Estimate: £8-12 million Price Realized: $104,327,006 via Sotheby’s

Tonight, Alberto Giacometti’s L’homme qui marche I fetched $104,327,006 at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale in London – making it the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction. The bronze sculpture exceeded the previous record of $104.1 million that was set at Sotheby’s in May 2004 by Pablo Picasso’s Garçon à la Pipe.  10 bidders, mostly on telephone, fought a fast and furious battle over a period of eight minutes – the eventual winner was an anonymous client on the telephone with Philip Hook, Senior European Director of Impressionist & Modern Art at the auction house. Sotheby’s had expected the sculpture to bring-in between $19.2 million and $28.8 million. The work was being sold by Dresdner Bank in Germany, which acquired it in 1980.

The sale is still in progress – more details will follow shortly.

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Tête de femme (Jacqueline), Pablo Picasso. Estimate $4,845,000 – $6,460,000 Price Realized:$12,887,348. Image via Christie’s

Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale and the auction of Art of the Surreal took place last night in London and fetched $122,167,093, over a pre-sale estimate of $87 – $124million.  The sale illustrated a buoyant market in reflection of last year’s equivalent sale that raised $101 million as buyers and sellers held back in the financial crisis. Another observation is the continuing appetite for important works of art – most specifically large, colorful works fresh to the market from long-established private collections. Competitive bidding for 4 works by important artists Picasso, Kees van Dongen and Natalia Gontcharova pushed prices over £5 million – in total 21 lots realize over £1 million, compared to 26 at both last year’s major London sales combined. Despite recent musings on buyers in China’s ascendant economy who are displaying a new appetite for 20th Century Art, Thomas Seydoux, Christie’s international head of Impressionist and modern art, was most surprised by the amount of bidding from Russian and former Eastern Bloc buyers who dominated the action on the telephone – only 2% of lots were sold to Asian buyers in relation to 25% UK, 48% Europe and 25% Americas.

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Kirche in Cassone (Church in Cassone), Gustav Klimt via Sotheby’s

Masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Gustav Klimt and Henri Matisse that have been unseen for decades will go under the hammer this week at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in London at the first major European auctions of 2010. The appearance of many top-quality, ‘lost’ works marks a distinct change in the attitude of sellers who have been encouraged to put their prized works on the market by the recent success of Impressionist and Modern Art sales – most notable is Sotheby’s November Impressionist and Modern sale in New York that exceeded all expectations when it realized $182m over a high-end estimate of $163m. The sales kick-off with Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale on February 2 that will offer 86 lots with a total pre-sale value of £56,505,000 to £80,805,000. The sale is led by works by Kees van Dongen, Natalia Goncharova, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Sotheby’s evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art on Wednesday, February 3 is smaller with only 39 lots but the target of £102million is considerably higher. This high estimate is excelled by three works from Gustave Klimt, Alberto Giacometti and Paul Cézanne that are individually estimated to realize more than £10 million – the auction house sold three works for that price across all categories all last year.

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Diana and Callisto, Gaetano Gandolfi. Estimate: $800,000 – $1,200,000. Price Realized: $4,114,500

After the success of London’s ‘Old Master Week’ that took place in December 2009, expectations were high for the Old Master auctions that took place this week at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in New York. While perhaps not as rousing as the sales in London, the Old Master auctions in New York marked the first opportunity to verify suspicions that buyers were returning to the art market with confidence. Christie’s two days of sales included the two-part auction of Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings & Watercolors on Wednesday and a special private collection sale, A Cabinet of Curiosities: Selections from the Peter Tillou Collections on Thursday, achieved a combined total of $40,858,500. While these auctions were successful, the auction that led the week was Thursday’s sale of Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture at Sotheby’s, which brought $61,599,250 – twelve lots sold for more than $1 million, and almost 60% of the works sold brought prices above the high estimate.

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La Belle Ferronni̬re, Follower of Leonardo da Vinci Рprobably before 1750

Dubbed as “an historic event for the art market,” Christie’s Old Master & 19th Century Art sale in London in December realized £68,380,250 – the highest ever total for an Old Masters auction. Following this ground- breaking success, expectations are high as Christie’s kick-off ‘Old Master Week’ in New York today, January 27, with their two-part sale of Old Master & 19th Century Paintings, Drawings, and Watercolors. This sale will present over 320 works from Lucas Cranach the Elder, Jan Brueghel II, Thomas Gainsborough, Gaetano Gandolfi, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, and Samuel Palmer, among others. Total sales are expected to achieve in excess of $48 million. Sotheby’s “Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture” auction will take place on Thursday, January 28 and is dominated by a Rembrandt portrait of a young woman from 1632 estimated at $8m-$12m, along with the controversial painting linked to Leonardo da Vinci – ‘La Belle Ferronnière.’

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The Hirshhorn Museum with proposed “bubble” in Washington, D.C. via Washington City Paper

A high-tech, futuristic design for a meeting hall in the Hirshhorn Museum at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., is making headlines this week across the art community. The proposed “bubble” would constitute dimensions of 145 feet and swell out like a balloon from the primary structure, inflating during the months of May and October and collapsing for the duration of the year. Advocating for the design, Hirshhorn Museum Director Richard Koshalek insists that it will not detract from the museum’s most valuable possession: its art [Washington Post].

Fernando Botero via Art Daily

Fernando Botero criticizes the art awarded by the $50K prize bearing his name, and the administrators of the prize decide to cancel it as a result [ArtDaily]

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Tacita Dean’s Christmas tree, ‘Weihnachtsbaum‘ at Tate Britain via Zimbio

The Tate has been embracing the Christmas spirit this week with a series of headlining seasonal happenings.  The Tate Christmas Tree 2009, “Weihnachtsbaum” designed by Tacita Dean, shocked critics by actually appearing “Christmassy”[Bloomberg]  This weekend, Tate Modern’s vast Turbine Hall was taken over by Rob Pruitt‘s festive ‘Flea Market’ – originally held at Gavin Brown’s Passerby gallery in New York in the late 1990s, this event was programmed to coincide with the Tate Modern exhibition Pop Life: Art in a Material World, in which Pruitt also appears [POP Magazine]

Italian police have seized works of art belonging to Carlisto Tanzi – founder of the Italian firm Parmalat who collapsed in a massive fraud scandal in 2003. The 19 paintings and drawings, included works by Picasso, Monet and Van Gogh, and is estimated to be worth more than 100million euros [BBC News]

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Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon that will appear in New York’s Madison Square Park in March 2010 via ArtInfo

Antony Gormley has announced plans to install 31 nude sculptures cast from his own body in and around Madison Square Park in Manhattan’s Flatiron District beginning March 26 [NY Times]

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Self-Portrait, Sir Anthony van Dyck at Sotheby’s, London

As supply diminishes and demand increases for Old Master works, this week’s sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s in London may be remembered as significant in the recent history of the art market. Collectors seized the opportunity to purchase rare and significant works from the giants of European art history and pushed prices so high that numerous existing records were smashed. The auction of Old Masters and 19th Century Art at Christie’s on Tuesday, December 8, realized £68,380,250 – the highest ever total for an Old Masters auction. 2 of the top 5 prices ever paid for an Old Master work at auction were also witnessed at Christie’s in addition to new artist records for Raphael, Rembrandt and Domenichino. At Sotheby’s sale, a rare self-portrait of Anthony van Dyck that sold for £8,329,250, above the pre-sale estimate £2-3 million, helped bring the total within estimate at £15,098,250. Strong prices, record-breaking prices were also seen for works by the Dutch artist Cesar Boetius van Everdingen and the prominent British masters, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer and Samuel Scott.

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Kehinde Wiley’s portait of Michael Jackson entitled Equestrian Portrait of King Phillip II at Deitch Projects

It is rumored that in years gone by determined collectors were dressing as janitors in order to sneak into Art Basel Miami Beach prior to its official opening in order to snatch the most coveted pieces before their rivals. While this kind of vigor has not returned to the fair since the economic crash stalled the art market in 2008, the mood at today’s VIP preview seemed to be reflect the the vote of confidence that was delivered to the American art market when active bidding returned to the floor of the Post-war and Contemporary Auctions in New York last month.

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The Royal College of Art Secret Postcard fundraiser via The Guardian

-The Royal College of Art’s Secret 2009 event has 2,500 postcards for sale for £40, made by artists including Anish Kapoor, Grayson Perry and Yoko Ono.  Though buyers don’t know who the artist is until after they buy. [Times UK]

-Penelope Curtis has been appointed director of Tate Britain, the first woman to hold a directorship at Tate. [Guardian]

-Tracey Emin opens a new exhibition in New York, that, while popular, comes nowhere near the levels of sales or attendance she normal receives in Britain. [NY Times]

An artist’s rendering of Olafur Eliasson’s ‘Cirkelbroen’ bridge to be built in Copenhagen via Artinfo

-Olafur Eliasson has designed a bridge to be completed by 2012 in Copenhagen’s harbor. Called ‘Brikelbroen,’ the bridge is comprised of five circles that take pedestrians on a winding path rather than straight across. [Artinfo]

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Polaroid Wall, Dash Snow (2005) all images via Phillips de Pury

This week we have been reporting on the Post-War and Contemporary evening sales in New York and last night Art Observed was on site at the final auction of the week – a smaller, more boutique event at Phillips de Pury in the meatpacking district of the city overlooking the celebrated Highline railway and Hudson River that was overseen by Simon de Pury himself.  Unlike the multi-million totals achieved at Sotheby’s and Christie’s Contemporary evening sales, Phillip’s modest sale brought in a grand total of $7,099,250, within the pre-sale estimate of $5.8 – $8.4million.

Ice Bucket, Jeff Koons (1986) sold under estimate $230,500

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200 One Dollar Bills, Andy Warhol

Last night’s Postwar and Contemporary Sale at Sotheby’s, New York easily outmatched their rival Christie’s sale the night before with a total of $134,438,000 and only 2 lots unsold. While 59% of works sold over their pre-sale estimates, it was Andy Warhol‘s 200 One Dollar Bills, which sold for $43,762,500 over an estimate of $8-12million, that catapulted the total sales revenue way over the initial estimate of $67-97 million.

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Violins, Violence, Silence, Bruce Nauman. Record for a neon by Nauman – $4,002,500

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Large Vase of Flowers, Jeff Koons. Sold by Benedict Tashcen to Dominique Levy for $5,682,500. All images via Christie’s

Last night Christie’s, New York brought-in a total of $74,151,500 from the sale of 39 lots at their Post War & Contemporary sale. While this figure falls within the pre-sale estimate of $64 – 88 million, and an impressive 21 lots sold for over the $1million mark, the sum is still a strong step down in comparison to that acquired from last year’s Fall Contemporary Auction at Christie’s which brought in $113.6million for a 43 lot sale.  In the end, major marquee works went unsold.  After a remarkable Impressionist and Modern auction at Sotheby’s last week, rumors were flying that the Art Market was flourishing once again – however, it now appears that the art world may have spoken too soon.

Reflection (What does your soul look like),Peter Doig

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Maurizio Cattelan’s ‘Trophy Wife,’ depicting Stephanie Seymour, currently going through a messy divorce from Peter Brant, who owns the piece

-Recent court filings in the divorce of Peter Brant and Stephanie Seymour reveal disputes over nearly 50 works by Andy Warhol, as well as works by Richard Prince, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cindy Sherman, Jeff Koons, Julian Schnabel, and a bust of Seymour made by Maurizio Cattelan [Vanity Fair]

-And in related, Udo Fritz-Hermann Brandhorst, an heir to Germany’s Henkel AG & Co. fortune, settled out of court a dispute with his former mistress over two works by Damien Hirst [Bloomberg]

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Allison Schulnik’s music video for Grizzly Bear’s ‘Ready, Able’

– Painter Allison Schulnik’s claymation music video for Grizzly Bear’s ‘Ready, Able’ via The Flog

-Tracey Emin reading her new book of poems “Those Who Suffer Love” and “Strangeland” at University Settlement as part of Performa 09 [Supreme Being]

-Also related, a round-up of Performa 09 includes a “Pasta Sauna” based on the Futurist Manifesto, Tacita Dean, William Kentridge, Merce Cunningham and more [Financial Times]

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Brill Box, Andy Warhol (1964) via Phillips de Pury

Last week ArtObserved was on site for the Modern and Impressionist auctions at Christie‘s and Sotheby‘s in New York. Tonight, November 10, ArtObserved is set to attend Christie’s for the first auction of the fall ‘Contemporary Week’ in the city. After their record-breaking sale on November 4, Sotheby’s Emmanuel Di-Donna stated that “when you have the right property…you get fireworks.” In light of this, much is to be expected this week with Phillips de Pury, Christie’s and Sotheby‘s all stating that they are offering the most important and rare works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Willem De Kooning, Ed Ruscha and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Ilona on Top (Rosa Background), Jeff Koons (1990) via Sotheby’s

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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.

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Performa 09 party via Artinfo

-To benefit Performa 09, party designer Jennifer Rubell invites 600 guests to “Creation” held at X Initiative in Chelsea in New York, where 3,600 drinking glasses, a pyramid of unshelled peanuts and 2,000 pound hillock of honey-soaked ribs were among the excess of food being served (Performa 09/ Food for Thought) [The Moment]

-In related, To mark the start of Performa 09 MoMA invited Fischerspooner to stage a show (Performance Art Enters the Museum) [Artinfo]

-In related, At Haunch of Venison in New York Marina Abramovich, Leandro Erlich, Mickalene and Rob Wynn pair with NYC pastry chefs to create performances; cakes were served by topless models (Kreemart or Cream Art Performance at Haunch of Venison) [NY Art Beat]

-Bikes used by Lance Armstrong and with frames designed by contemporary artists fetch $1.3 million at auction in Sotheby’s, among them Damien Hirst’s sold for $500,000 (Armstrong’s Tour de France Bikes Fetch $1.3 Million at Auction) [Bloomberg]

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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]

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Ron, Will Cotton via Artnet

-Eric Fischl, Chie Fueki, Hilary Harkness, Will Cotton, Francesco Clemente, Peter Halley and Barbara Kruger  are all a part of the long list of artists who have created, dedicated and portrayed Ron Warren in their works; Mary Boone’s assistant he has always played an understated yet influential role leading to a Mary Boone Gallery exhibition in his honor [The New York Times]

-The 2009 edition of the Power 100 by ArtReview is released with Hans Ulrich Obrist taking the first place and the list showcasing some changes in the influences and forces of the art world; the top ten include dealers and artists as Larry Gagosian, Francois Pinault, Eli Broad and Bruce Nauman [ArtReview]
-In related, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, the director of Serpentine Gallery, just voted to be the art world’s most powerful figure by the Power 100, gives an idea of how busy his week gets [The Independent]

-A $310 million collection of Mark Rothko paintings to be shown next spring in artist’s first Moscow solo exhibition at Dasha Zkukova’s Garage Center for Contemporary Culture [Bloomberg]

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Paris Bar, Martin Kippenberger

To celebrate Frieze Art Fair, currently underway in London’s Regent’s Park, Christie’s auction house held a series of auctions selling Post-War and Contemporary Art – the most notable of which occurred last night, October 16, and saw many record-breaking sales. The presale estimate for the evening auction was £6.8 million and in the end all but 1 of the 25 contemporary works sold, totaling £11.2 million.  It is of course relevant to note that the totals are down incredibly from last year’s estimates of  £57.8 million – £75.6 million for Christie’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London on Sunday, October 19th of last year.  That said, the leading highlights included significant works by Peter Doig, Martin Kippenberger, Damien Hirst, Gerhard Richter, Neo Rauch, Dash Snow, Pino Pascali and a rare, early rediscovered drawing by Lucian Freud. All sale totals stated in this article include buyer’s premiums and come directly from Christie’s official website or courtesy of The Baer Faxt.

Stellwerk (Signal Box), Neo Rauch

Related Links:
Christie’s Homepage
Christie’s Sells $18.3 million, Lures Buyers with Low Estimates [Bloomberg]
Sotheby’s and Christie’s Auction Within Estimates [Reuters]
Auction Reports: post-war and contemporary art [The Art Newspaper]

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