Sothebys

Sotheby's To Auction Off Russian Space Capsule

Filed under: Auctions

We're assuming it will end up in a museum but if not, someone's going to need a lot of space to show off this auction lot. Sotheby's New York is selling off the Vostok 3KA-2 Space Capsule on April 12 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of man's first flight into outer space. On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin rocketed out of the Earth's atmosphere aboard the small, spherical Vostok 3KA-3 Space Capsule (later renamed Vostok 1). Two weeks before that, this capsule, the Vostok 3KA-2 carrying a life-sized mannequin and a dog, Zvezdochka, was sent into low Earth orbit, and reentered on its first pass over the Russia 115 minutes later paving the way for Gagarin's historic mission. The capsule is estimated at $2-$10 million and is currently on public display in Sotheby's York Avenue galleries.

Five Vostok-type capsules were launched in 1960-61. Two were destroyed but one, carrying the dogs Belka and Strelka, demonstrated that living creatures could return safely from orbit. Vostok 3KA-2 went into space on March 25, 1961. After completing an orbit around the earth the mannequin was ejected from the landing as planned and the dog landed safely. The life-size cosmonaut mannequin, nicknamed Ivan Ivanovich, has been on exhibition at the Smithsonian National Art & Space Museum since 1997.

Tags: russian space capsule, sothebys, space capsule, vostok

Queen Juliana's Precious Possessions Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Charity

The estate of a queen goes up for auction next month. On March 14-17, Sotheby's Amsterdam will offer 1540 lots from the property from the Estate of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands with all proceeds going to charity. The total amount will be divided into two parts. One part will be donated to The Red Cross because of Queen Juliana's involvement in its work. The other section will be divided into four equal parts chosen by her heirs: The Princess Beatrix Fund chosen by Queen Beatrix, the Natuurcollege chosen by Princess Irene, the Red Cross chosen by Princess Margriet and the Princess Christina Concours was chosen by Princess Christina.

Tags: netherlands, queen beatrix, queen juliana, red cross, sothebys

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Did Abramovich Just Bag a Bacon for $37 Million at Sotheby's?

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art, Wealth

Last month when we wrote about an important Francis Bacon triptych being auctioned off at Sotheby's, we predicted it would blast past its $14 million high estimate. And indeed on Thursday Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud (above) sold for a whopping $37 million, or more than two and a half times the top quote, at the auction house's Looking Closely sale of 20th century artworks in London. In our original post we also put forward Bacon-loving oligarch Roman Abramovich as the likely buyer, since he's in the midst of decorating his new $230 million mega-mansion in London; while Thursday's purchaser was anonymous, we bet the Freud triptych will be hanging on Abramovich's wall before long. The Thursday sale, from works said to have belonged to the low-profile Geneva collector George Kostalitz who died last year, also saw a new auction record for any surrealist work of art – Salvador Dali's Portrait de Paul Eluard, which sold for $21.6 million.

Tags: art, auctions, contemporary art, Francis Bacon, London, Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaires, Salvador Dali, Sothebys, wealth

Picasso's La Lecture Sells Above Estimate

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

A portrait of Picasso's mistress reading led the sales results Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening sale on Tuesday night in London. Pablo Picasso's iconic 1932 painting of Marie-Thérèse Walter, La Lecture was hammered down at £25,241,250 ($40,711,612) more than double the low estimate of £12 – 18 million. The bidding ended after a spirited battle among at least seven bidders, both on the phone and in the salesroom. It sold to an anonymous buyer bidding over the telephone. The sale brought in a total £68,834,400 falling neatly within the pre-sale estimate of £55,630,000 - 79,250,000. The sale was 84.5% sold by value and the average lot value for the works was £2.15 million/ $3.5 million.

Last year another painting from the same year also featuring Picasso's beloved mistress Marie-Therese Walter, Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust, sold for $106.5 million at Christies setting a record for Picasso and for any artwork sold at auction. La Lecture was acquired by the present owner in 1996.Picasso first saw young Marie-Thérèse on the streets of Paris in 1927, when she was just seventeen years old. Because of her age and the status of his marriage to Olga Khokhlova the relationship was kept quiet for several years. This painting was part of a colorful explosion of works painted in January 1932 in anticipation of the major retrospective that he was planning. The famous Le Reve which is currently owned by Steve Wynn is also from this highly fertile time period.

Helena Newman, Chairman, Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Europe reported that buyers came from 11 countries, with bidding from Asia, Russia, the US and Europe. Other highlights includes a sculpture by Marino Marini which sold for £4,185,250 and Henry Moore's important large-scale Reclining Connected Forms which brought in £2,057,250. A new auction record was achieved for a work on paper by Surrealist artist René Magritte with the sale of Le Maître d'École for £2,505,250. The gouache on paper depicting Magritte's iconic bowler-hatted man sold for over double the pre-sale estimate of £800,000 – 1.2 million and double the previous record for a work on paper. A record price in sterling was also reached for Giorgio Morandi's Natura Morta, which sold for £1,385,250 against an estimate of £800,000- £1.2 million.

Tags: art, auctions, marie-therese walter, pablo picasso, picasso, sothebys

Harry Winston Diamond Ring Tops Sotheby's Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions

harry winston diamond ring at sotheby's new york

The icy sparkler shown above was the top lot at Sotheby's Important Jewels auction in New York earlier this week. The auction brought in $8,897,278 tipping it toward the high range of the pre-sale estimate of $6.8 million to $9.4 million. The ring above, a 15.98-carat platinum and emerald-cut diamond (I color, VS1 clarity) ring from Harry Winston, sold for $662,500, beating its pre-sale estimate of $300,000-400,000. Other highlights included a 3.52-carat platinum and round diamond ring, which sold for $290,500 and a Harry Winston 5.7-carat platinum and emerald-cut diamond ring, which sold for $242,500.

"We are delighted with the success of today's sale, which demonstrated the continued strength of the market for jewelry," said Gary Schuler, Senior Vice President and Head of Sotheby's Jewelry department in New York. "We saw bidding from a truly international audience, with many clients embracing participation through our online BidNow program, adding an exciting new element to our salesroom."

[via Diamonds.net]

Tags: diamonds, harry winston, sothebys

Will Richard Prince's Naughty Nurse Paintings Nosedive?

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

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.

Tags: art, auctions, Christies, contemporary art, Louis Vuitton, Phillips de Pury, Richard Prince, Sothebys

Rare Toy Collection On Display At Sotheby's

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

A selection from a collection of tens of thousands of European and American toys and trains is on display at Sotheby's York Avenue headquarters in New York through January and February. The exhibition takes up an entire floor of Sotheby's York Avenue headquarters but is just a fraction of the entire collection which is available for private sale through Sotheby's as a single lot.

"The Jerni Collection is a passionate homage to the Golden Age of toy making, but on a scale that is breathtaking. Tens of thousands of miniature works of art-trains, stations, villages, carousels, Ferris wheels-conjure up a privileged childhood world of beauty, magic and sheer happiness," said David Redden, Sotheby's Vice Chairman.

The more 35,000 objects in The Jerni Collection were assembled piece-by-piece over a 50 year period by a single dedicated collector who is one of the world's leading authorities on model trains and toys. The pieces date from roughly 1850–1940, and form an encyclopedic collection of toys and trains from every major European and American manufacturer operating during this period. "I put it together piece-by-piece, and my quest for the highest quality trains and toys took me to thousands of toy fairs and shows. The collection has been my abiding passion but it is now time for everyone to enjoy and appreciate these wonderful objects. I hope they bring as much joy to others as they have brought to me," stated Jerry Greene, owner of this remarkable collection. Some estimate that the collection should bring in around $10 million but others state that the value is far greater, perhaps as much as $40 or $50 million.

Tags: antique trains, jerni collection, rare toys, sothebys

1932 Picasso Portrait of Young Mistress Going Up for Auction

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

A 1932 nude portrait by Picasso of his young lover and muse Marie-Therese Walter went on display this week at Sotheby's in Paris and will be auctioned off next month with an expected sale price of $19-$29 million. "La Lecture" or "Reading" was painted during Picasso's "lovestruck" period and depicts Marie-Therese sleeping in an armchair with her head back and an open book on her lap. "In the early 1930s he was very lyrically in love and reflected that in these gorgeous colors, and lovely compositions," said Philip Hook, Director of the Impressionist and Modern Picture Department at Sotheby's in London. "This period is just about the most desirable of all Picasso's (periods), certainly in market terms."

The painting will be the premier offering at next month's Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London.

Source

Tags: art, pablo picasso, picasso, sothebys

Cleveland Art Museum To Auction European Paintings

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio is the latest to deaccession some older art. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the museum will be selling off 32 works as part of the auction of "Important Old Master Paintings" at Sotheby's in New York starting on January 27. As with many other deaccessioning efforts, this one is selling off many works that haven't been exhibited in recent years. There may even be some deals to be had, 21 lots from the museum have a low-end estimate of under $10,000. To some collectors, works that have been in a museum can have more value because of provenance. Most of the works to be sold were given as gifts. Earnings from the sale will be used to buy more paintings for the collection.

In 1949 the museum bought the pair of paintings shown above which depict Roman hero Horatius Cocles defending the Tiber. They were believed were by the important 18th century Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo but experts later confirmed that they were done by a follower of Tiepolo. The painting are being sold as one lot with an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.

Tags: art auctions, cleveland museum of art, deaccessioned art, old masters, sothebys

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$14 Million Francis Bacon Stars in Sotheby's Sale

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

A triptych portrait of artist Lucian Freud by Francis Bacon is the starring attraction at Sotheby's' Looking Closely sale of 20th century works in London on February 10. Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud (above) is estimated at up to $14 million. However, now that Bacon enthusiast Roman Abramovich has a new $230 million mega-mansion to decorate, we bet it could go much higher. Other top lots in the sale, said to have belonged to the low-profile Geneva collector George Kostalitz, who died last year, include works by Freud himself, Salvador Dali and Marc Chagall. "The works were bought between the 1960s and the 1990s," Helena Newman, Sotheby's European chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, tells Bloomberg. "It's a personal collection of pieces that can be lived with on a domestic scale." The total high estimate for the works on offer is $85 million.

Tags: art, auction, contemporary art, Francis Bacon, London, Lucian Freud, Roman Abramovich, Salvador Dali, Sothebys

Chateau Lafite Rothschild: Exquisite Wine from Bordeaux

by Carrie Coolidge (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wine

It's safe to say that Halloween isn't celebrated in Asia with quite the same vigor as it is in the U.S. But this year, the last week of October brought some scary wine prices to Hong Kong: a lot of three bottles of 1869 Chateau Lafite Rothschild went for $698,076, or $232,692 per bottle---setting a new world record for the most expensive bottle of wine sold at auction.

"I happened to have one, from a different source, a few weeks before the auction and it was fabulous," says Jamie Ritchie, CEO and President of Americas and Asia for Sotheby's Wine. "We served it blind and the nearest guess on the age was 1959. What really made these bottles rare is the fact that they came directly from Chateau Lafite's cellars and were the oldest wines in the auction---you cannot get better provenance than that."

That provenance has been a part of Chateau Lafite for hundreds of years, part of the reason it's the winner of the Luxist Editors' Choice award for best in wine. Lafite's current incarnation dates back to 1868, when Baron James de Rothschild---a patriarch of the famous European banking family of the same name---purchased the Lafite estate, which had already been producing wine for at least a century.

Tags: awards-main, best wine, bordeaux, bordeaux wine, chateau lafite, chateau lafite rothschild, Chateau Lafite-Rothschild, Jamie Ritchie, luxist-awards, sothebys, winners-wine, winners-wines

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Basketball Rules, Custer's Flag and the Emancipation Proclamation Cross The Block At Sotheby's

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

This week at Sotheby's wrapped up with a sale that included three remarkable treasures. Sotheby's Vice Chairman David Redden presided over the salesroom as the Kennedy-Lincoln Emancipation Proclamation, Custer's Last Flag: The Culbertson Guidon from the Battle of the Little Bighorn and James Naismith's Founding Rules of Basketball came across the auction block in chronological order. Shown above former Harlem Globetrotters basketball player Curly Neal spins a ball on his finger tip before the bidding for the Naismith Rules, the original rules for basketball, framed at right, at Sotheby's in New York on Friday.

Robert F. Kennedy's copy of the Emancipation Proclamation, signed by Abraham Lincoln, set a new auction record for any presidential document when it sold for $3,778,500, more than double its pre-sale high estimate. The winning bid was cast by an anonymous telephone bidder who wishes to remain anonymous. The Emancipation Proclamation is one of only twenty-five copies of the document known to survive, of which eighteen are in institutional collections. Robert F. Kennedy bought the document in 1964.

Two bidders competed for Custer's Last Flag: The Culbertson Guidon from the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which sold to an American collector. The flag was consigned by the Detroit Institute of Art, where it had not been on view since 1928. It was estimated that it could bring in $5 million but it sold for $2,210,500 at auction. The proceeds, which can only be used to purchase art, will go towards acquiring Native American works. The swallow-tail flag was hidden under the body of a dead trooper and discovered three days after George Custer's famed Battle of the Little Bighorn by Sergeant Ferdinand Culbertson, who was assigned to a burial party. It is the only flag flown by Custer's battalion known not to have been captured by Indian combatants after the Battle. The museum had bought the flag for just $54.

Tags: basketball, culbertson guidon, custers last stand, Emancipation Proclamation, george custer, James Naismith, robert f kennedy community schools, sothebys

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New Record Set For Most Expensive Piece Of English Furniture

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

A piece of furniture believed to be crafted by Thomas Chippendale and dating to circa 1770 has set a new record for any piece of English furniture sold at auction. The Harrington Commode was sold by Sotheby's London on December 7 bringing in £3,793,250 ($5,980,438), over three times its estimate. The price trumped the previous record set in June 2008 over at Christie's for a George II Parcel-Gilt Padouk Cabinet-on- Stand also attributed to Thomas Chippendale, which sold for £2,729,250 ($5,324,763).

The battle over the Harrington Commode took about 15 minutes. Commenting on the sale, Henry House, Head of English Furniture at Sotheby's and the auctioneer for the sale, commented: "This remarkable commode which is outstandingly beautiful in both form and condition, was keenly contested by five bidders, the final price demonstrating true demand in the market for items of real quality, and one which I feel is justly deserved for an item that has been an honour to sell."

The Harrington Commode was previously at Elvaston Castle, Derbyshire and was sold by order of the Trustees of the 10th Earl of Harrington's Will Trust as part of the Important Furniture, Ceramics, Clocks, Silver & Vertu sale. The sale made a total of £6,216,750 against a pre-sale estimate of £2,874,000 - £4,403,000.

Tags: english furniture, most expensive, most expensive furniture, sothebys, thomas chippendale

New Record Set For George Stubbs Art

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Another big night for Sotheby's. The Evening Sale of Old Master & British Paintings at Sotheby's in London saw a new auction record set for British artist George Stubbs. His Brood Mares and Foals, a large 39 ¼ by 74 ¼ inch painting sold for £10.1 million ($15.9 million) setting a new record for the artist at auction. The previous record was for his Portrait of The Royal Tiger which sold in 1995 for £3,191,500 ($5,079,579). This was the first time the painting had ever appeared on the open market. It passed from Colonel George Lane Parker (1724-1791) of Woodbury, Cambridgeshire, second son of George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield, of Shirburn Castle, Oxfordshire down through the generations to the most recent owner.

The sale brought in a total of £23,577,600 ($37,054,556) setting six new auction record prices for works by: George Stubbs, Luis de Morales, Goswijn Van Der Weyden, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, Lorenzo Pasinelli and Emanuel de Witte.

George Stubbs is famous for his horse paintings. The painting shows Stubbs' handiwork with both horses and landscapes. It was likely commissioned by Colonel George Lane Parker. Stubbs produced the distinctive group of compositions of mares and foals exclusively for his most important patrons during the 1760s.

Tags: art, auction, equestrian art, george stubbs, sothebys

Roman Marble Bust Sells Far Above Estimate

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

A marble bust portrait of the deified Antinous stunned the crowds at Sotheby's New York selling for far above the estimate. The marble portrait bust of the Deified Antinous, Roman Imperial, Reign of Hadrian, Circa A.D. 130-138 sold for $23.8 million, way above the high estimate of $3 million. The sculpture is the only known representation of Antinous to be identified by an inscription aside from his coin. Antinous was a member of the emperor Hadrian's entourage and after his death Hadrian grieved heavily, founding cities and temples in his honor and decreeing his deification. Part of the lure of this particular lot has to be the emotion it represents, the grief of the most powerful man in the world, the emperor of Rome who could do everything but bring back the dead.

The winning bidder for the bust was a European collector, who started bidding at $6.5 million and beat out three existing bidders as well as another who jumped in at $11.2 million. It took more than eleven minutes for the lot to sell and the crowd broke into applause when the hammer finally fell.

The total sale of The Collection of the Late Clarence Day brought in $ 36,769,250, four times the high estimates. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the charitable foundation established by Mr. Day. A green porphyry figure of an Egyptian Royal Sphinx, Roman Imperial, Circa 1st Century A.D, sold for $5,234,500 after a contest between five bidders, handily beating the high estimate of $1.2 million. The piece is a direct Roman emulation, or replica, of a specific ancient Egyptian sphinx of the New Kingdom that was excavated in the 1850s.

Clarence Day was a devoted philanthropist. His foundation has benefitted many groups including the Mayo Clinic Foundation, St. Mary's School, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, The Early Childhood Institute at Mississippi State University, Boy Scouts, and Rhodes College. In 1989 he donated 60 pieces of Greek, Roman, Iranian, Egyptian, Etruscan and Byzantine antiquities to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

Tags: antinous, antiquities, hadrian, marble bust, sothebys