The Christie's Paris sale of Impressionist and Modern paintings that belonged to French fashion designer Jeanne Lanvin came in far below estimate on Monday. The Washington Post reports that the sale raised euro7.67 million ($9.67 million) at the sale which included works by Pablo Picasso and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Christie's had originally valued the collection at euro20 million ($25.2 million). The top seller was Renoir's "Woman with a Parasol Sitting in the Garden," which went for euro1.16 million ($1.46 million) and has a top estimate of euro1.8 million ($2.27 million). A total of 23 of the 31 lots were sold. Another painting by Renoir, "The Tapestry in the Park (Presumed Portrait of Camille Monet)" went unsold as did works by Edgar Degas, Eugene Boudin and Camille Pissarro.Lanvin, died in 1946 at the age of 79, but was once of France's most influential designers of the 1920s and '30s and created the classic fragrance "Arpege." The paintings hung in her Paris apartment and a portion of the proceeds from the sale will go toward two arts charities run by the Polignac dynasty, the aristocratic family which Lanvin's daughter Marie-Blanche married into.

The Lanvin fashion label remains one of France's oldest fashion houses under the creative direction of Israeli-American designer Alber Elbaz. Recently Stella McCartney hired Frederick Lukoff, the business development director of Lanvin, to lead the British fashion brand, part of the Gucci Group. Lanvin has recently been it talks with potential investors to raise funds to expand.

The Art Miami show has had its first casualty, a sad tale that anyone who has ever opened a package and found shards where art should be can identify with. The Palm Beach Post captures the reactions of artist Carole Feuerman on discovering that her resin sculpture "Survival of Serena" arrived in Miami in broken pieces. It is unknown how the sculpture was damaged but the plywood crate protecting it was too thin. The piece had been displayed in China at the National Museum of China in Beijing during the Olympics and then in Italy and was to serve as the welcome piece at Art Miami this week. The sculpture was valued at $350,000 but Feuerman says insurance will only pay $9,100. Art Miami officials decided to display the sculpture and crate in their shattered form. Feuerman is understandably distraught over the loss but says she will try to make another Serena.

In the wake of MOCA's public outcry for help, Eli Broad has stepped up to offer $30 million to the museum. Earlier this month, Deidre Woollard reported that Broad (above with his wife Edythe) might have been planning a contemporary art museum of his own in Beverly Hills, after an acquisition spree that included pieces by Jeff Koons, Ed Ruscha and Robert Rauschenberg.

Perhaps he's refocused his efforts towards saving a contemporary art museum instead. I wrote recently about art critic Christopher's Knight's open letter to MOCA's board, ordering it to raise $25 million pronto. Looks like Broad got the memo -- though in his statement of intent in the LA Times, he urges his fellow philanthropists to take part.

"This is not a one-philanthropist town," he writes, though in the contemporary art world, the Broad name is growing awfully familiar.

RxArt held its big bash/silent auction at the Milk Gallery in Chelsea earlier this week, drawing a crowd that took its time bidding but ended up supporting the non-profit group to the tune of $350,000. RxArt installs art exhibits in children's hospitals to relieve stress and create inspiring environments.

Founded in 2000 by well-known gallerist Diane Brown (at right with board member Cynthia Rowley), the non-profit tries to de-institutionalize hospital spaces with original art, usually colorful exhibits by artists like William Wegman and Frank Stella that stretch across every wall and ceiling possible.

The group produces coloring books for patients drawn from every installation, so kids can focus on emotional healing while docs aim to do the rest.

So maybe now we know why billionaire art collector Eli Broad was so busy at the contemporary art shows in New York last week. Bloomberg reports that Broad is interested in building a public museum in Beverly Hills, California. The news comes after a year in which he got his own building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art but then decided not to give his collection to the museum. Broad's new museum would display works from his charitable foundation and personal collection and would hopefully open in about three years. It would be located near the corner of Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards and unseat a Starbucks. The foundation already has a headquarters and private museum in Santa Monica.

Broad's foundation is heavily contemporary with photographs by Cindy Sherman, paintings by Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol's 1986 silkscreen of the Statue of Liberty, Damien Hirst's 1994 lamb in formaldehyde, and Charles Ray's 1973 collection of 16 Kodachrome self-portraits called ``All My Clothes.'' Last week he picked up Ed Ruscha's 1969 mustard-hued ``Desire'' for $2.4 million, Donald Judd aluminum and Plexiglas sculpture for $1.1 million, a small Robert Rauschenberg painting for $2.6 million, and a Jeff Koons sculpture for $2.2 million.

Another day, another day of art auction misery, the third in a long week for art sellers. At the Phillips de Pury & Co.'s New York auction the sales were far below event the low estimate of $23 million, coming in at $9.6 million with two-fifths of the lots not selling. Even usual hot sellers like Damien Hirst whose `Beautiful Artemis Thor Neptune Odin Delusional Sapphic Inspirational Hypnosis Painting,'' was part of a series that appeared in September 2007 during a runway show of his collection for Levi Strauss & Co. at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea couldn't find a buyer at $1.8 million.

So what artists are still alluring? The star of the Phillips de Pury auction was Donald Judd's 1977 vertical progression of 10 blue, stainless steel stacks, shown at right, which sold for $3.2 million, lower than presale estimate range of $4 million to $6 million but still a good showing in this market (and a Judd sculpture also sold earlier this week to Eli Broad). While the works may have been of a lower tier than comparable Christie's and Sotheby's auctions, the risk was also smaller. Bloomberg reports that Phillips de Pury guaranteed just one work in the auction, a glowing neon text by Kendell Geers, which had a low estimate of $60,000 and sold for $56,250.

This week's dismal art auction returns continued with the sale at Christie's New York on Wednesday night in which close to one third of the 75 lots found no buyers. The savvy shoppers were out in hordes though, Bloomberg reports that tennis star and collector John McEnroe, Salma Hayek and the ever art-hungry Eli Broad were in the room checking out the lots. The sale brought in $113.6 million which was around half its presale low estimate. Francis Bacon has been quite the hot seller of late, fueled to some extent by the buying habits of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. But last night a self-portrait by Francis Bacon that Christie's had estimated would sell for about $40 million couldn't find a new home.

And that collection of 16 drawings sold by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard S. Fuld Jr. and his wife, Kathy, brought in $13.5 million a bit below the low estimate of $15 million for the collection. More than half, a full 52 percent of the lots sold below the low estimate and Christie's guaranteed the sale of 39 lots, 12 of which didn't sell, which had a combined low estimate of $48 million. This means Christie's is on the hook for those works.

But every evening has its bright spots, Gerhard Richter's 1989 eight-foot-tall ``Abstraktes Bild (710),'' painted with a squeegee sold for $14.9 million. And you can't keep a good Basquiat down, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich sold a 1982 Jean-Michel Basquiat painting ``Untitled (Boxer)'' for $13.5 million, above the $12 million estimate.

Here's a sign the art market might really be in trouble, famed collector Eli Broad was one of the eager buyers at the contemporary art sale at Sotheby's last night in New York City. He's quoted in Bloomberg as calling it "a half-price sale." Perhaps he was also delighting in being right, he'd been predicting a slowdown for a while now. Broad, along with permatan and permafabulous fashion designer Valentino were two collectors hoping to get good deals on great art. It certainly worked for Broad, he picked up Ed Ruscha's 1969 ``Desire'' for $2.4 million, 40 percent under the $4 million low estimate. He also scooped up several other pieces including a Donald Judd sculpture, a Robert Rauschenberg and a Jeff Koons sculpture, some of which were for his Broad Art Foundation. That's one smart billionaire. Valentino's no slouch himself, he nabbed a couple of Warhols.

The auction was the latest in a dismal chain. The 43 lots that sold in the 63-lot auction rang up $125.1 million, not even within spitting distance of the low estimate of $202.4 million. Even worse, of those 20 unsold lots, several were guaranteed which means Sotheby's is left holding the bag on some pricey art that no one is feeling like buying right now. The top lot for the night was supposed to be Roy Lichtenstein's 1963 ``Half Face With Collar" which had a $15 to $20 million estimate. No buyer.

Still, there are always bright spots.John Currin's voluptuous ladies are selling well lately. His 1999 ``Nice `N Easy" sold for a record $5.46 million, pretty sweet considering his previous auction record of $847,500 was set at Christie's International four years ago with a painting of two men making pasta. Currin may just want to stick with painting his nubile nymphs.

Tonight we get to see how much money Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard S. Fuld Jr.'s will make off his drawings at Christie's.

Along with millions of other children I loved Winnie the Pooh as a kid (my favorites were Piglet and Eyeore) and now a collection of the most loved iconic illustrations are going up for auction. Sotheby's will be exhibiting highlights of the auction in New York from December 3-6 and then in London from December 12th until the auction on the 17th. The drawing shown here, called 'Winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest all by himself under the name of Sanders', goes with the first Winnie-the-Pooh chapter (when Pooh makes his first appearance) and is valued at £60,000-£80,000.

In the last few years Rothko paintings have reached some amazing numbers. In May 2007 one sold for $72.8 million and last May another, Rothko's No. 15 sold for $50.4 million. Those days are gone. Mark Rothko's No 43 (Mauve) was estimated to bring $20-$30 million at Christie's earlier this week. In fact it didn't even get a single bid at $10 million. As the always insightful Felix Salmon points out, this is especially interesting because it goes against the prevailing wisdom that the top of the market would be last to fall. In fact at this particular sale it was the second-tier works which sold while other more high profile pieces got no bids at all. Several articles on the auction used two "b" words in quick succession, "bleak" and "bargains." Perhaps we are really hitting a buyer's market for art once again.

The Smithsonian Associates has announced their latest commission, a limited-edition lithograph from April Gornik titled "Blue Moonlight." The Art Collectors Program offers Smithsonian members and non-members the chance to purchase Smithsonian-commissioned contemporary fine art prints and posters by acclaimed American artists. The limited-edition prints are numbered and signed and come with a Certificate of Authenticity from the Smithsonian. The collection also includes Studio Editions of glass art by Dale Chihuly.

Blue Moonlight is a quiet landscape with double reflection of the moon. Gornik is a prominent landscape painter whose paintings and prints are in major private and museum collections, including the National Gallery of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Museum of American Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The seven-color lithograph is a signed and numbered edition of 100, printed on Rives BFK paper and sold unframed. The price is $1200 for nonmembers and $950 for Smithsonian Associate Members.

[via Art Daily]

As we head into fall auction season in New York, the first results aren't too promising. The Sotheby's auction of Impressionist and modern art on Monday delivered some disappointing results. The official estimate before the sale was $338 million to $475 million but the total was just $224 million and over half of that came from just three paintings, Kazimir Malevich's "Suprematist Composition," which sold for $60 million, Degas' "Danseuse au repos" that brought in $37 million and Edvard Munch's "Vampire" (shown above) which we mentioned earlier this month. It was expected to bring in $35 million but sold for $38.16 million.

These were bright spots in a mostly grim evening in which a full one-third of the lots went unsold. Sotheby's has said they were satisfied with the result since they had been expecting a correction due to the economy. Sellers have been advised to lower their reserve prices and not to expect high prices. In a sale in which pieces from van Gogh, Cezanne, Matisse, Monet and Modigliani went unsold it's hard to predict just what the market will want.

Two masterpiece paintings of Venice by artist Canaletto will soon find themselves up for sale as Christie's has announced they'll be part of the Important Old Master and British Pictures auction scheduled for December 2nd. The paintings are believed to have been commissioned back in 1738 and have been passed down through family generations ever since, so this is the first time in their centuries of existence that they'll be up for sale.

Canaletto is one of the most celebrated artists of the 18th century, with his works involving Venice being especially popular. The paintings will be on display at Christie's of London from Nov 29th thru Dec 2nd.

New items from France have been added to Horchow's very exclusive Estate Collection.

For the uninitiated, The Estate Collection is a smattering of one-of-a-kind collectibles from all over the world. The beautiful item you see at right is an iron scale from France, circa 1900. It just sold for $850.

There are still more beautiful new French items available, including candlesticks, serving bowls, and more. See the gallery below for items still available at time of post, and be sure to snap up anything you like right away; you're not likely to find items from The Estate Collection ever again.

So far art has been one part of the luxury market that has remained strong but that may be set to change. The NY Times reports form London's Frieze Art Fair that art is still selling but not nearly at the level it has in recent years. The crowds are smaller and buyers are spending more time looking and less time buying. While the fair still bustled along and sales were made, the overall atmosphere is one of cautiousness as collectors were more carefully considering their investments. The dealers have also been offering discounts and payment plans to try and sweeten the deal for potential buyers. This is a sharp turn from the last few years when the art market was so intense that those who wanted to buy had to decide quickly or risk missing out.

The style of what is selling is also shifting a little. Dealers are selling paintings and sculptures rather than bigger installations and are banking on names that are more likely to attract collectors. Because both buyers and dealers are uncertain of what lies ahead in these tumultuous times, the act of collecting has taken on new weight.