‪‬Auctioneer Tobias Meyer details the Sotheby’s sale of Edvard Munch‘s ‘The Scream’ and his typical auction day routine, “When the atmosphere gets very tense, so to speak, I strangely have the reverse mechanism that I become very calm”
‪‬Picasso’s ‘Femme assise dans un fauteuil’ to be auctioned at Sotheby’s tomorrow night for $20–30m involved in lawsuit for more than $7.5m: after paying late owner Theodore J. Forstmann $7.5m in 2009, American International Insurance Co. is suing Acquavella Gallery for physical damage to the painting
Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1895). Photo by Aubrey Roemer for Art Observed.
Today marks the beginning of a two week flurry of art sales in the New York auction houses. This week is focused entirely on Impressionist and Modern Art, with next week centered on Post War and Contemporary Art. Chances are that you have already been bombarded with the numerous and impressive highlights that both houses have to offer, as the many of the lots from both houses are iconic, impressive, and will quite possibly break world records left and right.
‪‬Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’—one of four versions—is on view now in London at Sotheby’s today for one week before heading to New York for May 2 auction, expected to fetch $80m
All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Damien Hirst‘s first official retrospective is on now at the Tate Modern in London. The retrospective spans two decades of the artist’s notoriously grand-scale artwork, featuring some 70 pieces. Often dealing with themes of life and death, Hirst’s works are known for their high prices and marketability. The show includes his spot paintings, pharmaceutical cabinets and vitrines, a diamond covered skull, as well as several large preserved animals and a room full of live butterflies.
The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991)
‪‬Sotheby’s to auction ‘Figure Writing Reflected in Mirror’ by Francis Bacon, estimated at possible $40 million at the contemporary-art evening sale in New York on May 9 [AO Newslink]
‪‬Sotheby’s auctions record-breaking $26.7 million 900-year-old calligraphy brush ceramic washing bowl, the high estimate more than doubled by eight bidders [AO Newslink]
‪‬Sotheby’s contemporary Chinese art auction sold several works above estimated prices in Hong Kong on Monday, top sale was Zhang Xiaogang’s ‘Bloodline: Big Family No. 2’ for US$6.7 million, other sales including works by Liu Wei, Wang Guangyi, Jia Aili [AO Newslink]
‪‬Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow (1961) could sell for $45 million at Sotheby’s in May, perhaps the most important Rothko brought to auction since 2007. Additional lots in the sale include work by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. [AO Newslink]
‪‬Sotheby’s CEO William F. Ruprecht, “responsible for securing a number of the company’s most high-value and successful auction and private sales consignments,†earned $7 million in 2011, up 18% from 2010, as Sotheby’s in total profited $171.4 million [AO Newslink]
‪‬Sotheby’s to sell some 50 works owned by the late Theodore J. Forstmann in New York throughout May, valued at $75 million and including pieces by Picasso, Miró, Lichtenstein, and Soutine [AO Newslink]
‪‬James Murdoch chooses to leave the board at Sotheby’s in May, opting to “focus on his core responsibilities at News Corps” [AO Newslink]
‪‬Sotheby’s to auction Andy Warhol’s ‘Double Elvis [Ferus Type]’ for estimated $30–50 million at May Contemporary sale in New York, the work will be on view in LA next week [AO Newslink]
‪‬Gerhard Richter’s auction sales reached $200 million last year, while the artist remains humble, says Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, “Richter doesn’t want to be the next king, but he has taken painting farther than just about anyone else” [AO Newslink]
Gearing up for a performance piece on the fourth floor. Â All images for Art Observed by Anna Mikaela Ekstrand.
The festive albeit politically charged atmosphere at the 2012 76th annual Whitney Biennial‘s pre-show event was practically interdependent, with the political climate not only informing the sentiments of viewers, but arguably the art itself. While protesters outside encouraged entering guests to “Occupy the Whitney,” antagonizing Sotheby’s and Deutsche Bank for withholding benefits from workers and developing financial strategies to benefit the ‘one percent,’ art indoors at the biennial also challenged artistic convention against the same political scale, with over 50 artists showing work.
‪‬Sotheby’s had its most second-most profitable year ever in 2011 at $5.8-billion, nearing its own record of $6.2 billion in 2007. They out-profited Christie’s by one tenth of a billion dollars this year, and increased from $4.8 billion in 2010. However, due to European turmoil, the most recent quarter suffered an 11.0% drop in auction-related revenue. [AO Newslink]
‪‬Whitney Biennial pranked by Occupy Wall Street Arts & Labor group with demand to end by 2014, and mock email press release and website launched this morning announcing false break with corporate sponsors Sotheby’s and Deutsche Bank [AO Newslink]
‪‬Cindy Sherman’s 8×10 inch ‘Untitled Film Still #21’ first of edition of 10, signed and inscribed “City Girl,” to be auctioned at New York Sotheby’s March 9 at estimated $150,000–$200,000, art advisor Todd Levin “expect[s] it to sell for between $600,000 and $800,000, with buyer’s premium†[AO Newslink]
‪‬Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” to be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on May 2nd by Norwegian businessman, estimated at over $80 million, the only one of four versions still held privately, with scheduled public viewings in London and NYC [AO Newslink]
‪‬Miro’s ‘Peinture’ work, estimated between £7m and £10m, goes unsold at Sotheby’s after his ‘Painting-Poem’ set a record high price for the artist (£16.8m) at Christie’s on Tuesday, both auctions in London [AO Newslink]
‪‬Graffiti artist David Choe was paid in Facebook stock options for painting the walls of the first Facebook Headquarters, now estimated to be worth more than $200 million when Facebook goes public. Although the shares were less than .25 percent of the company, the payout may be more than Damien Hirst’s record-breaking $200.7 million Sotheby’s auction in 2008. [AO Newslink]
Paul Cézanne, Card Players, Qatar, via Vanity Fair
The royal family of Qatar has just publicized its $250-$300 million purchase of Card Players by Paul Cézanne. The work is one in a series of five, but until now was the only one remaining in private collection. Previous owner, Greek shipping mogul George Embiricos, became receptive to the sale just prior to his death in 2011. Vanity Fair reports that William Acquavella and Larry Gagosian were outbid for Card Players, at comparable amounts rumored up to $220 million. Even the low estimate of $250 million, factoring in exchange rate and tax fees, marks the highest sum in history ever paid for a single work of art in either auction or private sale by double.
Paul Cézanne, Card Players, Metropolitan Museum of Art, via New York Times
As the title indicates, the series depicts two low-brow card players in Aix-en-Provence. The peasants idealize an old world culture, nostalgic even to the middle-aged artist when he painted from his family’s country estate in the 1890s. At the time, Cézanne was working alone, and his isolation reflects in the sparing surfaces and minimal compositions of the varying card scenes. Only the subtlest of changes differentiate one painting from the next: most notably, the cards themselves change as the games progress, while the faces and suggestively sluggish interactions do not.
