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Met lobby signage warning of a 2 hour wait for McQueen show on Sunday

Alexander McQueen’s brilliant posthumous retrospective at the Met continues to draw the crowds. On Sunday, in an effort to beat the heat, I visited the museum and found a two-hour wait to see McQueen’s show. Luckily I had already seen the exhibit in May soon after it opened, and there was plenty else to see. With a touch of line schadenfreude, we took these pics.

The Met recently recently reported that 500,000 visitors have seen the show.

Edward Dolman via Businessworld

Edward J. Dolman, a 27-year Christie’s veteran, has quit the auction business to become executive director of the Qatar Museums Authority.

He will be working for the emir’s daughter, chairperson H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, according to a statement from Christie’s.

Dolman was named Christie’s chairman in 2010 after a decade as CEO. At the time, Christie’s named a new CEO, Steven Murphy. Dolman rose through company ranks, after starting at the London-based auction house in the European furniture department.

Christie’s is a privately held company owned by French magnate Francois Pinault.

Roman marble head of Apollo sold for $902,500 at Christie's on June 9, 2011

By Eric Russ, Art Market Views contributor

Christie’s June 9 antiquities sale failed to match the success of Sotheby’s sale a day earlier. The event included 202 lots, a third of which failed to sell, including many of the highest estimated lots. The sale tallied $10.4 million, towards the lower end of the projected $9 million to $14 million range.

The bright spots included a few Roman works. A Roman bronze head of Hercules, circa 1^st century A.D., exceeded a $50,000 high estimate and sold to a phone bidder for $140,500.  Next followed a Roman marble head of a handsome Apollo, circa late 1^st-early 2^nd Century A.D., which sold for an $902,500, triple the high estimate.

Next  up was a Roman marble head of Venus, circa 1^st-2^nd century A.D., sold to a man in a light red button-down shirt, standing at the back of the room where dealers tend to hover, for $422,500, more than double the high estimate.

The top price was paid for a headless Roman marble statue of Isis, circa 1^st-2^nd Century A.D. which went for $962,500, above the $800,000 high estimate.  She stands, right leg forward,…

Roman mythological marble sarcophagus panel sold for $1.9 million at Sotheby's on June 8, 2011

By Eric Russ, Art Market Views contributor

A marble sarcophagus depicting the rape of Persephone, dating from around 190 A.D. surpassed a $600,000 high estimate at Sotheby’s last week, selling for $1.9 million. The elaborate coffin, emblazoned with a toga-clad procession, was the top lot in a robust $11.3 million sale held June 8. Ninety percent of lots found buyers.

Also popular: a first century 13-inch tall marble head of a pensive, wizened Greek poet, likely Hesiod, estimated to sell for up to $500,000.  Three phone bidders vied for the bearded bust, and all were outbid by a man standing in the back of the salesroom who landed the work for $1.7 million.

The same unidentified buyer’s shopping spree included an Attic red-figured cup depicting a man holding a staff, attributed to the Brygos painter, circa 470 B.C, which made $50,000, topping a $7,000 presale estimate. He also snagged an Attic red-figured column krater with three men and a horse, circa 450 B.C., paying $116,500, more than twice the high estimate.

Both works were among a large collection of Green pottery being sold by New York artists Sideo Fromboluti and…

“Delacroix” by Jeffrey Isaac

Saatchi Online began with a simple mission – to democratize the art market and make art accessible and affordable to everyone around the world.

In 2006 Saatchi Online was launched to give artists a platform from which to show their work to an international audience. For the first time, aspiring and established artists were able to display their work to a global art community outside the confines of a traditional gallery setting.

Today, Saatchi Online has developed into a powerful platform where artists showcase their work to an international audience and connect directly with collectors in a vibrant social marketplace.

With over 1 million pieces of original art, Saatchi Online offers collectors beautiful prints on canvas, fine art paper, and gallery photo paper.

With prices starting as low as $17, Saatchi Online makes it possible for new collectors to start their collection by ordering directly from tomorrow’s stars.

“Fraulein” by Susannah Martin

Saatchi Online For Artists

Saatchi Online also provides the opportunity for artists to earn additional income by offering prints for sale in addition to original artworks.  Saatchi Online handles…

Matta's 1956 "Regard du germe" sold at Christie's on May 26, 2011 for $710,500

By Eric Russ, Art Market Views Contributor

Christie’s May 26 Latin American auction pulled in $16.6 million sale last week, led by a tropical 1932 painting by Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias which fetched more than three times the high estimate, selling for $1 million.

The evening started strong with 11 Mexican lots, including established art historical figures such as Rufino Tamayo, Diego Rivera and Jose Clemente Orozco.

Covarrubias’ wryly titled Offering of Fruits for the Temple, was estimated to sell for more than $200,000 and sold for $1 million to an unnamed Asian buyer. (Asians were active at Sotheby’s the night before, mainly for works by Botero). The painting features a bevy of serene and sensual Balinese women, toting bananas, and other fruit.

Two abstract contemporary artists ranked among the evening’s best sellers. Brazilian artist Adriana Varejao’s 1997 Paisagem II, sold for $542,500, over a $300,000 high estimate, continuing the week’s fervor for Brazilian works of art. Venezuelan artist Jesus Rafael Soto’s dizzying Rond et carre jaune, comprised of yolk-yellow painted wood and metal rods with nylon string, sold for $494,500, above a $220,000 estimate—a record for a sculpture by…

Wifredo Lam's 1945 "Les Oiseux Voiles" sold for $1M at Sotheby's, May 25, 2011

By Eric Russ, Art Market Views Contributor

Sotheby’s Latin American auction totaled $21.7 million on Wednesday night, nearly twice the $12.2 million sold a year ago. It was highest tally achieved for an evening Latin sale at Sotheby’s, according to the house.  (A day sale on Thursday raised the tally to $26.9 million).

On a night when Colombian artist Fernando Botero garnered much of the presale buzz with a separate single-artist sale—the house’s first since 1992—the Brazilians performed with gusto.

The evening consisted of three consecutive sales: modern works from a private collection, the Botero-thon, and a standard “various owner” sale.

“The Botero sale was a bit of a risk,” said Sotheby’s Carmen Melian, head of the Latin department, during the post-sale press conference. While the artist can usually be counted on to perform as predictably as Warhol, nearly a quarter of lots failed to sell.  The sale totaled $7.5 million, with Asian private collectors snagging the three priciest lots, including  a 1992 bronze Man on a Horse, for $1.2 million, an auction record for a Botero bronze.

Bidding gained momentum during the various owner sale. Brazilian sculptor Cildo Meireles’…

Artist registration is open now for the third annual ArtPrize. Part arts festival, part social experiment, part civic project, the event overtakes downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, bringing visitors in the hundreds of thousands.

Designed to be a simple yet transformative experience for both artist and audience, ArtPrize is a platform on which artists can experiment, collaborate, and explore new ideas. Artists have direct access to hundreds of thousands of art lovers, ranging from novice to expert.

Why design an event like this? ArtPrize is founded on the idea that art is important. Contemporary art is too often marginalized, and those who don’t collect often feel they have no meaningful connection to the dialog art generates. ArtPrize sets artists and the public on a collision course. The result is 19 days of chaos, fervent debate, and a lot of fun. Both artists and the public walk away changed.

ArtPrize is unlike any other public art event: the winner is decided by public vote, and any location in the city can host a piece of art. The work is not centrally curated, each of the nearly 200 venues—from art museums…

Link to story here on AiA website.

Christie’s auctioneer Christopher Burge usually rules the saleroom with an iron gavel. But last night, amid a rousing $301.7 million contemporary art sale, he lost control. For nearly 16 minutes, the auction was hijacked by a pair of dueling collectors, competing for a blue 1963–64 Warhol Self-Portrait, tagged at $20 million to $30 million. Tossing protocol to the wind, the contestants—an anonymous European collector on the phone and a client of private dealer Philippe Ségalot, also on the phone-bid in unorthodox, mind-numbing $100,000 increments, rather than the typical $1 million chunks, as the price tag climbed north of $20 million.

This was the longest bidding battle in recent memory, and Burge’s indulgence suggests Ségalot may have been bidding on behalf one of his most powerful clients, Christie’s owner, François Pinault. In the end, Ségalot bailed and the shooting match terminated as his opponent bid a final $38.4 million for a four-panel portrait that epitomizes Warholian cool.

The sale’s strong result, with 62 of 65 lots finding buyers, was a sharp reversal from a rocky Tuesday night at Sotheby’s. The rival house…