Phillips de Pury

If you've watched "The Colbert Report" you may have seen this work of art. "Portrait 5, Stephen(s)" is the latest in a series of portraits of the host. The work was been altered by several different artists including Frank Stella, Shepard Fairey and Andres Serrano in a segment on the show in December that featured author, actor and art collector Steve Martin. Fairey added an Obey symbol to the image and Serrano scribbled on devil horns and a Hitler mustache.

What was once a skit is now going to have the ultimate financial test of a work of art, a turn on the auction block. It will be sold March 8 by auction house Phillips de Pury & Company. Proceds will benefit DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit which raises money for school projects for children. The auction will be taped and air in a future episode of the program. The work is being offered without an estimate.

While the market for some blue-chip contemporary art stars has rebounded from the recession, for others it remains a rocky ride. Take Richard Prince, the master of appropriation who gained widespread fame outside the art world for a collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2007. His naughty nurse series - basically pulp fiction book covers he scanned and painted over - were a flop when they first debuted in 2002, but soon became hot commodities in the boom years before the economy went belly up. In 2008, Sotheby's in London set a record with the sale of Prince's 2002 Overseas Nurse for an eye-popping $8.5 million.

At Christie's' upcoming Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London on Feb. 16, however, another 2002 work, The Taming of Nurse Conway, is only expected to fetch $1.4 million to $1.9 million. It would appear the auction house's experts aren't confident of achieving a result comparable to that of Phillips de Pury, who knocked down 2004's Nurse in Hollywood #4 for an impressive $6.5 milllion back in May – which might have been a one-off considering his 2002 Millionaire Nurse (above) only brought in $2.8 million at Sotheby's in London in June. Of course that was before the Euro really went down the tubes. No doubt Prince's prices will recover when the currency of so many collectors does.

It's looking like the week of Warhol. This week's contemporary art auctions in New York City started off with a bang on Monday night as Phillips de Pury & Company inaugurated its Park Avenue salesroom in grand style. The NY Times reports that the auction house was trying out a new program called "Carte Blanche" in which someone outside the auction house curates a sale. The first auction was done by Philippe Ségalot, a private dealer who once ran Christie's postwar and contemporary art department in New York. The 33 lots orchestrated by Ségalot brought in a total of $117 million, above its high estimate of $104.8 million. Over half of that went to Andy Warhol's "Men in Her Life," shown above, a 1962 painting featuring Elizabeth Taylor. The $63.3 million price easily topped the $50 million high end estimate and was the second highest ever paid for a Warhol (the first was the $71.7 million paid at Christie's in 2007 for "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)." But Andy Warhol's work wasn't through dazzling New York yet.

Famed fashion photographer Mario Testino is selling a series of life-size Kate Moss portraits at an exhibition held at Phillips de Pury & Co' s London branch, including a number of unseen images of the supermodel. "Kate represents the ultimate kind of woman - an icon of our times," Testino tells Vogue UK. The collection, entitled Kate Who, features 18 iconic shots of the Brit beauty, each enlarged to life-size proportions. Although the auction house refused to comment on prices, Phillips previously sold a Testino photo of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger for a record $75,000, and the Moss snaps could easily fetch as much of not more. The images will be on view and sale through 16 at Phillips and thereafter at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

We already covered one auction of CNET founder Halsey Minor's prodigious art collection but he has far more to unload. The first sale with auction house Phillips de Pury brought in $21,049,050. Now Phillips de Pury has announced the highlights from its June 9th New York Design auction which will offer additional works from The Halsey Minor Collection. On May 13, Marc Newson's prototype Lockheed Lounge went for nearly $2.1 million, now the lucky buyer could buy a matching piece, Newson's Pod of Drawers, 1987. The piece, estimated to sell for $300,000-400,000 features riveted aluminum panels on a bombé style chest. Other pieces include several elegant works from architect and decorator Paul Dupré-Lafon. A drop-front writing cabinet, veneered with Macassar ebony and finished in Hermès leather, ca. 1940, is estimated at $100,000-150,000.

It's been a busy few weeks for Minor. As ArtInfo reports, a Manhattan federal judge ruled that Minor owes Sotheby's $6.6 million for paintings that he won at auction and never paid for but a San Francisco jury found that Christie's owes Minor a little more than $8.5 million for delaying the return of Richard Prince paintings that he had consigned to the auction house in 2008. When Minor handed the paintings to Christie's he owed the auction house $12 million for other works he had won at auction. The auction house held onto the paintings, perhaps hoping to use them as leverage. After the art market plummeted, Minor sued Christie's saying the auction house prevented him from getting the maximum profit for his holdings.

CNET founder Halsey Minor is a little closer to paying off some of his debts this week. A sale of his 22 artworks sold for $21,049,050 at Phillips de Pury & Company. Pieces include "Nurse in Hollywood #4" by Richard Prince (sold for $6.5 million) and an aluminum couch by Marc Newson( $2.1 million). The sales will go a long way toward paying off a $21.6 million judgment won by ML Private Finance, a Bank of America affiliate, on a delinquent loan owed by Minor. Bloomberg News reports that fashion designer Marc Jacobs, art dealer Larry Gagosian and jeweler Laurence Graff were in attendance at the auction.

Minor isn't quite out of the financial woods yet. Last month Sotheby's won a $6.6 million judgment against Minor after they sued for breach of contract ($4.4 million to the auction house plus another $2.2 million in interest and related fees). Minor has asserted that the auction house had failed to disclose an ownership interest in one work and he had not gotten a fair deal. He plans to appeal the the judgment. He is also battling Christie's saying that the auction house mishandled a consignment involving art by Prince. Christie's has also sued Minor over default on payments for $13 million worth of art bought at auction.

When you buy a lot of art you also have a lot of bills, especially if you don't bother to pay up. The case of Halsey Minor, the CNET founder and major art spender is fascinating. Some of Minor's most prized pieces from his collection of contemporary art will be sold by Phillips de Pury in New York in May and June of this year.

As Bloomberg reports, the sale is the fallout from a judgement last year on a case brought by ML Private Finance (part of Merryl Lynch). Minor had borrowed $25 million from ML Private Finance in 2007 putting his art up as collateral. Last year ML Private Finance was awarded $21.6 million and the court recently appointed Phillips to sell the art. Phillips has promised to pay ML Finance within 24 hours of receiving payment. The prime collection includes Marc Newson's Lockheed Lounge, shown above, which could fetch $1 million to $1.5 million and one of Richard Prince's nurse paintings, "Nurse in Hollywood#4" which is estimated at between $5 and $7 million.

Art auction house Phillips de Pury has learned that sex sells. Pushing erotic-themed contemporary works, the house brought in $2.1 million at a London sale on Saturday night at a sale called simply "SEX." Of the 271 lots that went under the gavel, including art, design and photography, 69 percent sold. Unfortunately, the auction's revenue only hit 78 percent of the presale estimate: competition wasn't exactly stiff for the hottest works on the block.

The highlight of the evening was a painting by UK pop artist Allen Jones. His 1966 "Soft Tread" featured a pair of legs in stockings and adorned with stiletto heels. The sultry effort aroused at least six bids and enough action to thrust the selling price to 361,250 pounds. With a presale estimate of 60,000 pounds to 80,000 pounds, the action surely justified the art world's equivalent to a post-coital cigarette.

Apparently the erotic and sex-themed art market is hardening ... and it's turning on billionaires. A piece by Otto Mueller featuring two nude female bathers fetched 2.1 million pounds at Christie's last month, three times the high estimate.

The action was small at only $9.6 million, but big names were featured at the Phillips de Pury art auction on Friday night. Donald Judd and Jean-Michel Baquiat went under the gavel and home with collectors for the third auction in a row. This follows solid results at Christie's and Sotheby's, marking a distinct turn in the fortunes of the art market.

Phillips de Pury didn't match Sotheby's and Christie's in terms of above-estimate totals and older works, but that really is the norm. So, I wouldn't view the fact that it only hit the middle of its presale estimate pessimistically. Given what was sold earlier in the week at the larger houses, the Phillips sale does nothing but confirm the direction of the art market.

Established artists did continue to rise aove the fray, with Judd's 1987 sculpture, "Untitled (87-29 Studer)," selling for £735,650. Basquiat's "Cash Crop" landscape and collage "Untitled" were the second best sellers behind Judd's work at £713,520 each. All beat their low-end estimates of £600,000.

There was a concern that Phillips would struggle to attract buyers, particularly because the auction was focused on living artists. While the challenge may not have been evident from the fact that 86 percent of the lots sold, it was confirmed by the tendency of them to move at the low end of the presale range.

The London art auctions are upon us, and a year has made a hell of a difference. The auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury are expected to fetch at least $104 million, which would be an increase of 68 percent over the same season in 2009. If the houses can pull this off, the art market will probably breathe a collective sigh of relief after more than a year of downright awful results.

At this point last year, the art market was in miserable shape. It was already in trouble, as the recession had begun to crystallize over the summer of 2008, a process which was hardened by the financial market meltdown in September. By the end of the year, prices had plummeted, and the practice of guaranteed minimum pricing had generally been abandoned.

By the end of 2009, signs of a recovery began to emerge, though few were willing to commit to it. A few pieces, such as Andy Warhol's "200 One Dollar Bills" turned in strong performances, but nothing was solid enough to call a trend. Nonetheless, hopes are high for the next round of sales, which will include museum-caliber paintings by Peter Doig and Yves Klein. Shown at right is Andy Warhol's Dollar Sign estimated at $1,950,000 - $2,925,000 at Christie's London Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on February 11.

What does 2010 have in store for the art market? Well, it's starting to look like this is the year the market will finally (begin to) recover, though there could be some trepidation at points. Better pieces are coming under the gavel, and serious collectors are interested in artists with real track records. As things loosen up, emerging artists and those just past that stage (think Ben Krell for the former and Nelson Diaz for the latter) will start to see better conditions, as the logjam in the auction houses, once broken, should ease the pressure on galleries and also lead to some progress in private sales. Basically, the return of liquidity to the art market will be better for everyone.

Almost everyone.

This year, some artists won't enjoy as much of the recovery (if it happens ... just to hedge our bets) as others. Their prices were run up too quickly, making the subsequent fall severe. These artists, auction darlings who don't have the history or potency of a Lucian Freud or even a Richard Prince. Yet, they shot out of the emerging artist category years ago. In 2010, these artists, including Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons, will occupy something of a purgatory, as the art market resets values through upward bidding, now that the decks have been washed clean.

I'm still not sold that the art market is recovering (it could be, but it's too soon to tell). But, if it is, the upside is going to the galleries and collectors -- the artists aren't getting squat. November was generally kind to Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury, leading to hundreds of millions of dollars in art sales. So, to get their own piece of the art market pie that may or not be forming, artists are starting to go directly to the buyers.

Artist Ryan McGinness hosted a sale of pieces by several artists, with the person who did the work taking home all the spoils. The presale estimate of $47,000 to $57,000 made sense, as the final tally came to $51,300, pretty much in the middle. McGinness himself was present at the event ... via a video connection from Amsterdam.

The traditional auction model trends to benefit collectors rather than artists, as it creates a secondary market for artwork. It's really no different from the stock market. An IPO, if successful, will be the starting point, with the price going up later, to the advantage of all subsequent owners.

The Phillips de Pury auction on Thursday night raked in what once would have come from a single painting. Despite parading out pieces by Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Richard Prince, the sale was good for a mere $7 million, with individual lots moving for prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thirty-nine went under the gavel, and eight didn't sell.

The Chelsea auction house lacks the savvy, knowledge and reach of Sotheby's and Christie's, so it had to lean on British art collector Charles Saatchi, who has agreed to complete most of his transactions through Phillips de Pury. In trade, subsidies from the auction house help keep access to Saatchi's gallery free.

Roughly a dozen of the lots came from Saatchi, while the others are said to have been rejected by Sotheby's and Christie's. In general, the pieces were "pretty skimpy," according to Manhattan art dealer Edward Tyler Nahem, who observes that the auction house "did pretty well with what they had."

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama was the top seller, with her painting "Infinity Nets (T.W.A.)" busting past its high-end presale estimate of $400,000 and settling at $842,500 (including fees). Kusama's performance follows a well-hyped exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery this year.

The news out of Hong Kong has been solid so far, even if it continues the trend of meeting or beating lowered expectations. After a year of abuse, I think art collectors, gallerists and the artists themselves are eager for any good news they can claim. September was rough, according to ArtPrice, "with no room for over-bidding or risk-taking." There was only one contemporary artist, Andy Warhol, who has met expectations, so far.

But, there's room for hope: Jitish Kallah.

Kallah's only 35 years old. Born in Bombay, his work has been described by ArtPrice as "crisis-immune." The market for contemporary Indian art has been in a hard way, with the Christie's South Asian Modern & Contemporary auction last month bringing in only $5.1 million in sales – where the presale estimate was $5.6 million. Yet, Kallah's work set a new record, with "Dawn Chorus – 7" going for $320,000 and beating its high-end estimate by a factor of three.

Meanwhile, Warhol continues to deliver. A piece from his "Flower" series in 1964 went for $895,000 at Christie's in late September and a "Cambell's Soup Can (Tomato Soup)" fetched $310,000 a day later at Sotheby's.

So, we have fear and hope in October. This week, both Sotheby's and Christie's will hold auctions in the photography segment, with Phillips de Pury following next week. And, there are London sales coinciding with the Frieze Art Fair.

Let's see if art collectors are ready to dress their walls again.

At today's Phillips de Pury & Co. auction, Now: Art of the 21st century, handbag designer (and possibly former artist) Damien Hirst is back on the scene with a major auction house. A year ago, he divested his collection of his own work, ostensibly sensing that the market for him was about to crash (which, in fact, it did). Phillips de Pury isn't making any big bets today with Hirst, though. For now, it has two lithographs of Hirst's famous(ly expensive) skull up for sale. For the Love of God, Laugh; The Diamond Skull is listed at £10,000 - £15,000.

Peter Fuss, on the other hand, seems to have nailed it. His piece, For the Laugh of God,, shown above, is also up for grabs. It's a knockoff skull, listed for a little more than half the price of the lithos (£6,000 - £8,000), but the title conveys the spirit. Created when Hirst was peddling the original skull for the princely sum of £50 million ($100 million at the time), For the Laugh of God was originally offered for £100, as a way to help Britain reclaim this "treasure."

The blog "Modelator," which covers Polish art, observed in June 2007, "Our British friends, we are coming to rescue you! Like the cheap Polish labour well known to you, Polish artist Peter Fuss wishes to relieve the British nation from such a great expense." This was in response to Guardian journalist Jonathan Jones, who declared, "We must buy the diamond skull for Britain."

While Hirst's skull cost a fortune even in materials, For the Laugh of God consists of close to 9,900 pieces of glass made to look like diamonds and entailed an investment of £250 and 18 hours. Now, it's up for more than 40 times that amount, while Hirst is reduced to selling posters.