Sotheby’s London Sale of 19th Century European Paintings brings total of $10.5 million

LONDON.- Today’s sale of 19th Century European Paintings at Sotheby’s London brought a total of £6,988,575 / $10,501,033 / €8,172,455. Together with the results of The Orientalist Sale in London in April (£6,339,500 / $9,967,149), this brings the total for Sotheby’s London sales of 19th Century European Paintings thus far this year to £13.3 / $20.2 million. Commenting on the sale, Adrian Biddell, Head of Sotheby’s 19th Century European Paintings Department, said: “The sale illustrated how the strength of the market lies in [...]

Fine drawings and paintings featured in Swann Galleries’ Auction of American Art

NEW YORK, NY.- On Thursday, June 13, Swann Galleries will offer more than 150 unique works of art in an auction of American Art. Highlights include a run of works by Paul Cadmus, created in his early 90s and representing the culmination of his career as a master draftsman of the human form—specifically males. The Male Nude, NM series was of his longtime lover, Jon Anderson, 32 years his junior, whom he met in Nantucket in 1965—the “NM” notation stands for “Nantucket Man.” [...]

Never-before-seen on the international auction market, Matta’s “Prisoner of Light” leads Christie’s sale

NEW YORK, NY.- On May 29 and 30, Christie’s Latin American Sale will offer an outstanding selection of over 300 lots from some of the region’s most prominent modern and contemporary masters. The two-day auction includes esteemed private collections and an exceptional offering of paintings and sculpture from important Latin American artists such as Fernando Botero, Leonora Carrington, Matta, Wilfredo Lam, Alfredo Ramos Martínez, and Alfredo Volpi, among others. Never-before-seen on the international auction market, El prisionero de la luz (Prisoner of Light) [...]

Outstanding Modern and Contemporary South Asian masterpieces at Sotheby’s London

LONDON.- Hot on the heels of the landmark Amaya Collection, its first Evening Auction of Indian art, Sotheby‟s has sourced an exceptional line-up of works – many fresh to the market and with outstanding provenances – for its Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art sale in London on 11th June. In this, the centenary year of his birth, the sale will feature two magnificent works by Maqbool Fida Husain which are offered at auction for the first time – one from the collection [...]

Art Basel highlights Hong Kong’s new status as arts hub with an array of international art

HONG KONG (AFP).- The first Art Basel fair to be hosted by Hong Kong boasts a prestigious array of international art, highlighting the city’s new role as a global arts hub amid an explosion of personal wealth in mainland China. The four-day annual show is the world’s premier art fair and has until now only been held in Switzerland and the United States. On Wednesday wealthy VIPs flocked to the waterfront exhibition centre hosting the fair, which opens to the wider public [...]

International bidding drives California works to new highs

VAN NUYS, CA.- Los Angeles Modern Auctions set multiple world records for works of art and design in its May 19, 2013 auction, selling major works by California artists to American, European, and Asian buyers. The auction broke world records for a work by Vija Celmins, the highest price achieved at auction for a work on canvas by the artist, and a work by Joe Goode, which set a new world auction record for any work by the artist. LAMA achieved a [...]

Sale features Newmarket Race paintings owned by former CEO of the Ritz, the late Lord Matthews

LONDON.- Christie’s Sporting & Wildlife Art auction on 5 June 2013 will feature over 50 paintings of horses, which show a shift in the naturalistic representation of animals throughout the ages. The auction includes 113 lots with works from the 18th to the 20th centuries, ranging from £1,000 to £80,000. Among the highlights of the sale are four paintings by John Frederick Herring Senior, a successful and prolific 19th Century painter who counted Queen Victoria among his patrons. John Frederick Herring’s pair [...]

Newly discovered masterwork to lead Sotheby’s Sale of Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art

LONDON.- On 11 June 2013, Sotheby’s will present a 20th Century masterpiece by Indian artist, Vasudeo S. Gaitonde as the pre-eminent highlight of its Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art auction. Coming to the market for the first time in 50 years, Vasudeo Gaitonde’s luminous Painting No.1, of 1962, was acquired in New York during the 1960s and is believed to have previously been in the collection of the celebrated collector and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller III, one of the earliest Western patrons [...]

Masterpieces from top-selling artists headline Bonhams Hong Kong auction

HONG KONG.- Bonhams Hong Kong’s 2013 Spring Sale of Fine Chinese Paintings & Contemporary Asian Art on 25 May at the Island Shangri-la Hotel offers 149 lots. In addition to masterpieces from legendary classical and modern artists such as Wen Zhengming, Xu Beihong, Zhang Daqian and Wu Guanzhong, the sale also features a capsule collection of Contemporary Asian Art carefully curated by the newly established Contemporary Art department. This capsule collection features iconic Chinese and Southeast Asian art and is a harbinger [...]

Original gouache watercolor painting by Alexander Calder soars to $114,000 at A.B. Levy’s auction

PALM BEACH, FL.- An original gouache (opaque watercolor) painting by renowned artist Alexander Calder (Am./Fr., 1898-1976), titled Red and Blue Egg, signed in the artist’s hand and dated 1969, sold for $114,000 at a two-session auction held May 5th by A.B. Levy’s, in the firm’s main gallery located at 211 Worth Avenue. In all, over 450 quality lots were offered. The Calder piece was the superstar of the fine art category. Impressive at 29 inches by 42 inches, the work on paper [...]

Major Torres-García discovery highlights Sotheby’s Latin American art sale in New York

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s spring sale of Latin American Art in New York on 28 and 29 May 2013 will showcase a range of Latin American painting and sculpture from the continents’ most important artists. This season the auction has a particularly strong selection of 19th-century landscape paintings and 20th-century Surrealism. The sale follows the success of both Latin American Art auctions in 2012 including the record setting May sale. The pre-sale exhibition opens on 25 May. A highlight of the sale [...]

Netherlandish masterpieces highlight Christie’s Sale of Old Master Paintings in New York

NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s Old Master Paintings sale in New York on June 5 will present works from private collections and institutions, many of which are fresh to the market. With more than 100 works by great French, Italian, Flemish, Dutch and British masters of the 15th through the 19th centuries, the sale includes exceptional works by Gerrit van Honthorst, Pieter Brueghel II, and Jacques-Louis David among others. The sale will be led by Gerrit van Honthorst’s The Duet (estimate: $2,000,000-3,000,000), a [...]

Posthumous picture of Gustav Klimt’s beloved little sister for sale at London Art Week

LONDON.- A drawing by Gustav Klimt is to be sold at London Art Week in June. Art historians believe that the drawing of a young girl, referred to as ‘Annerl’, is of Klimt’s little sister, Anna, who had died 10 years previously. The drawing is believed to have been drawn after a photograph and is the main drawing used for the motif of the young girl in “Dance” in the ceiling painting of the auditorium of the Municipal Theatre in Karlsbad [...]

Russia propels Old Masters at Auction of Fine Art from the 15th to the 19th Century in Munich

MUNICH.- With the result of more than € 2,9 million in the auction Old Masters & Art of the 19th Century with the Collection Harry Beyer, the figures could have hardly been better. Last year’s result for the same period was topped by more than € 2 million. A total of 80% of all lots were sold, realizing an average increase of 265% per sold object. The auction’s most expensive work was the “Porträt einer eleganten Dame mit Fächer” by Konstantin [...]

Sotheby’s London to offer an exquisitely assembled single owner collection: The Analytical Eye

LONDON.- Sotheby’s London announced the Single Owner sale of the Branco Weiss Collection to be offered as a stand-alone auction preceding the Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale on Wednesday 19th June 2013. A collector who turned science and business into an art form, Branco Weiss was a renowned entrepreneur who established several international high-tech companies that were among the pioneers of the computer industry. Assembled over the course of 25 years (from 1975 – 2000) Weiss’s art collection exquisitely exemplifies how [...]