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.

As my colleague, J.P.S. mentioned when talking about an upcoming Christie's contemporary art auction, the economy may be sluggish but we don't think the art market is headed for a crash quite yet. Proof of that could be sen yesterday when Christie's auctioned off "Le Pont du chemin de fer a Argenteuil" a painting of a bridge by Impressionist Claude Monet. The painting brought in $41.181 million, setting a new record for the popular French artist and besting the estimate of $35 million to $40 million. The previous record for a Monet painting, $36.5 million for his 1904 "Nympheas," was set just last year. No word on who the buyer and seller are.

[Thanks, Rob!]

Most of us picture art thieves as slinky sleuth types who sneak in under cover of night and quietly disable the alarm system, but apparently that's not what works best in Switzerland. This past Sunday 3 masked men dressed all in black burst into a private museum in Zurich in the middle of the day and took 4 paintings valued at £85 million by simply ripping them off the walls and running. They were in and out of the building and flying down the road in a beater of a white car in less than 3 minutes! Amazing. Sad, and outrageously embarrassing for Switzerland, but amazing.

The truly sad part is that they made off with some major and historic pieces of art: Cézanne's The Boy in a Red Vest, Degas's Viscount Lepic and his Daughters, Monet's Poppies Near Vetheuil, and Van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Branches. What a tragedy! I hope they get caught before the art is lost underground forever.

Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening sale went off beautifully last night to a better result than they had anticipated. The star piece of the auction, a portrait of Picasso's mistress titled Dora Maar au chat, sold for $95.2 million, almost double the guaranteed price of $50 million set by the auction house. It is one of the most expensive paintings ever to be sold at auction, second only to another Picasso, Garcon a la pipe, which sold at a Sotheby's auction in 2004 for $104 million. Another record setting piece was Matisse's Nu couché vu de dos, which was bought for just under $18.5 million, the highest price paid for a Matisse to date. A total of 27 of the 55 offered lots sold for over $1 million. The sales for the auction totaled $207.6 million.

 

Sotheby's New York Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale will be taking place this coming week on Wednesday, May 3rd. To tempt more sellers, Sotheby's has fixed the prices of more of the pieces up for auction, guaranteeing sellers at total of $253.8 million. The star piece of the auction, with a minimum price tag of $50 million, is Pablo Picasso's "Dora Maar au Chat," which is offered for sale by a relative of a Chicago businessman.

Other pieces include "Nu couché vu de dos" by Henri Matisse, "La Danse Grecque" by Edgar Degas and "Arlequine au Baton," also by Picasso, all of which have estimated sale prices over $6 million.