Bloomberg News – Collector Sues as Rothko Goes on Block Tonight for $25 Million
Photo: via Bloomberg News
Link to Bloomberg News story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
May 12 (Bloomberg) — Marguerite Hoffman, a prominent Dallas art collector, filed suit this week against Mexican financier David Martinez for failing to keep her 2007 sale of a star Mark Rothko painting a secret. The suit stems from the painting’s public sale tonight at Sotheby’s, estimated to fetch as much as $25 million.
Three years ago, after her 59-year-old husband’s death, Hoffman sold the painting to an undisclosed buyer, with the proviso that the details of the sale remain a secret, according to her lawsuit, filed in a Dallas, Texas, district court.
Hoffman sold the Rothko in April 2007, just as the painting came off the walls at the Dallas Museum of Art where it had hung in an exhibition titled “Fast Forward: Contemporary Collections for the Dallas Museum of Art,” featuring promised gifts to the museum. Hoffman is a trustee at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Marguerite and her late husband Robert Hoffman were among three Dallas couples who in 2005 announced a pledge to donate their art collections to the Dallas Museum…
Bloomberg News – Crichton’s $29 Million Jasper Johns Flag Boosts Christie’s Sale
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Link to Blooomberg News story here.
By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff
May 12 (Bloomberg) — A Jasper Johns painting of the American flag from the estate of author Michael Crichton sold for a record $28.6 million last night in New York at Christie’s International’s biggest contemporary art auction in two years.
The $231.9 million total beat the pre-auction high estimate of $207.4 million, with just five of the 79 lots failing to sell. The Johns flag was the top item, one of 31 from Crichton’s estate that fetched a total of $93.3 million.
Collectors said the buoyant sale reflected confidence in the economy, concern about impending inflation and the caliber of the art. American bidders dominated the evening, accounting for 72 percent of the sales, according to Christie’s.
“People are feeling good,” billionaire collector Eli Broad said, pointing out that gold reached a record $1,234.50 an ounce in New York yesterday. “People don’t want to hold currencies.”
Gold has climbed 12 percent in 2010, while the euro has dropped 12 percent against the dollar on concern about mounting European debt. Last week, Christie’s and rival…
Bloomberg News – Mel Gibson, Wife Put $15 Million Parrish Works on Auction Block
Maxfield Parrish "Sing a Song of Sixpence." Photo: via Bloomberg
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By Lindsay Pollock
May 7 (Bloomberg) — Mel Gibson and his wife, Robyn, who filed for divorce last year, are selling a $15 million Maxfield Parrish collection at Christie’s International on May 20 in New York, according to two people familiar with the situation. Christie’s declined to identify the seller.
The works are identified in the auction catalog as “property from a private American collection.”
The priciest painting is expected to be Parrish’s famous neo-classical “Daybreak” (1922), rendered in luminous glazes, including the artist’s signature cobalt blue.
The painting depicts an encounter between a young girl and a reclining toga-clad maiden, framed by columns and a heroic mountain landscape. The work is estimated at a recession- friendly $4 million to $7 million.
Robyn Gibson acquired the painting at Christie’s in New York in May 2006 for $7.6 million, setting a record price for Parrish at auction. The painting previously fetched a record $4.3 million at Sotheby’s in 1996, selling to billionaire James Jannard, founder of the Oakley Inc. sunglasses company.
“’Daybreak’ is an idealized view,” said Judy Goffman Cutler,…
Bloomberg News – Asians Buoy Sotheby’s $196 Million New York Impressionist Sale
Sotheby's Simon Shaw and Emmanuel Di Donna hang Modigliani
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By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff
May 6 (Bloomberg) — Asian buyers won four of the top ten lots last night in New York, as Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art tally tripled to $195.7 million from a year ago.
The evening’s highest price, $28.6 million, was for a floral 1919 Matisse, “Bouquet de fleurs pour le Quatorze Juillet.” A day earlier, rival auction house Christie’s International took a record $106.5 million for a Picasso in an Impressionist and modern sale that totaled $335.5 million.
“Wealthy investors can see the rebound is real,” said John Rogers Jr., chief executive of Chicago-based Ariel Investments, which held 3.2 million Sotheby’s shares at year-end. “This is a confidence game. They’re more confident,” he said after watching last night’s auction with his 20-year-old daughter, Victoria, an art-history major at Yale University.
The Impressionist evening auctions keep the market on track for a predicted $1.2 billion of spring art sales in New York over two weeks and provide momentum for next week’s contemporary art bidding. Sotheby’s shares have more than quadrupled since their…
Bloomberg News – Picasso Nude Fetches Record $106.5 Million in N.Y. as Dow Drops
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Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff
May 5 (Bloomberg) — Pablo Picasso’s 1932 lilac-hued oil painting of his young mistress, Marie-Therese Walter, sold for a record $106.5 million in New York last night, hours after the U.S. stock market had its biggest drop since February.
“Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” featuring the artist’s profile hovering over a reclining Walter and against a blue backdrop with philodendron leaves, is the most paid for an artwork at auction. It went to an unidentified phone buyer who beat seven rivals after a nine-minute bidding war. The price exceeds host Christie’s International’s own presale estimate of between $70 million to $90 million for the painting.
“Masterpieces are recession proof,” said New York dealer Guy Bennett, in an interview.
Picasso’s paintings of Walter are some of his most-coveted because of their size and expressiveness, among other qualities.
Other works from the same series belong to the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, casino mogul Steve Wynn and SAC Capital Advisors LP founder Steven A. Cohen. The record price for this painting is a…
Bloomberg News – Picasso $90 Million Nude Leads Six Top Lots in Spring Auctions
Pablo Picasso "Nude, Green Leaves and Bust" 1932, est. upon request. Image: via Bloomberg News
Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
May 3 (Bloomberg) — There are signs of renewed confidence in the art market, to judge from the girth of the latest round of auction catalogs.
The two weeks of spring sales by Christie’s International, Sotheby’s and Phillips de Pury combine for an estimated tally of as much as $1.2 billion. Sellers opting to cash out include Michael Ovitz, fashion designer Tom Ford and Seattle real-estate developer Richard Hedreen. The auction series starts tomorrow night at Christie’s, which could dominate the season because of two art-stocked estates.
The late best-selling author Michael Crichton has a collection estimated at $74.3 million, while paintings and sculptures owned by the late Los Angeles collector Frances Brody — including a knockout Picasso expected to fetch $90 million — are estimated at as much as $194 million.
Phillips de Pury, the Chelsea-based purveyor of contemporary art and design, has the dubious distinction of selling a portion of CNET Networks Inc. founder Halsey Minor’s collection. Proceeds, projected to tally as much as $29.7 million, will go toward a $21.6…
Bloomberg News: Michael Crichton’s Art Collection Estimated at $75 Million
Link to Bloomberg News story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
April 2 (Bloomberg) — A red, white and blue 1960-1966 Jasper Johns painting “Flag,” which once hung in Michael Crichton’s bedroom in Los Angeles, is estimated to fetch up to $15 million at Christie’s in New York on May 11.
The 98 lots from the estate of the bestselling author and filmmaker are estimated to sell for as much as $75 million.
Crichton, who wrote such jumbo thrillers as “Jurassic Park” died in 2008 at 66.
Along with works by David Hockney and Jeff Koons, the Johns picture is on view at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters for a public exhibition that opens today. It runs April 2-3 and April 5-13 and is free.
“I can’t think of any other writer who has had this focus, and who acquired over a 40-year career with such unerring instincts,” said Brett Gorvy, Deputy Chairman of Christie’s Americas.
The flag pictures are adored by capitalist princes. Steven A. Cohen, chairman and chief executive officer of SAC Capital Advisors LP recently acquired a larger Johns flag on the private market for around…
Bloomberg News: Sotheby's To Sell Tom Ford's Warhol, Plus Red Rothko
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By Lindsay Pollock
March 19 (Bloomberg) — Fashion designer Tom Ford is selling a 9-foot-square, purple-hued “Self Portrait” by Andy Warhol at Sotheby’s New York in May.
The 1986 painting, featuring the artist in his signature spiky “fright wig,” is estimated to sell for $10 million to $15 million. Ford acquired the acrylic and silkscreen ink work in 1998 from the estate of the artist, according to Sotheby’s.
“It’s pretty amazing, with great color,” said Vincent Fremont, exclusive agent for sales of paintings, sculpture and drawings at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
The artist is believed to have created five versions of the 9-foot canvas, the largest of any of his self-portraits, according to Sotheby’s. The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh owns versions in blue and yellow. The Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth in Texas owns a green one and a U.S. private collector owns a red version, says Sotheby’s.
Warhol experimented with self-portraits since the 1950s.
“You can take the smallest version of the self-portrait and it still holds the wall,” said Fremont.“It…
Bloomberg News: New York Art Dealer Goldberg to Quit, Sell $10 Million of Art
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By Lindsay Pollock
March 4 (Bloomberg) — New York art dealer Bernard Goldberg, 77, reckoned the time had come for a graceful and reasonably lucrative exit from the business.
After 12 years of dealing in high-end American art, Goldberg will close his Madison Avenue gallery and sell its entire inventory of 175 artworks and furnishings at New York auctions hosted by Christie’s International this year. The sale is estimated to fetch as much as $10 million.
Goldberg says his latest move is prompted by his age, not art-market volatility.
“Right now, I feel the art market is getting better and better,” said Goldberg in an interview last week in his Fifth Avenue apartment. “This is a good time to sell.”
With the art market still shaky, Goldberg won’t be scoring the sort of coup he did in 1998, when he pulled out of the property market to cash in on high prices. He says he sold his five Manhattan boutique hotels to Credit Suisse First Boston for $139 million.
Christie’s and rival Sotheby’s, which together control more than…
Fowler’s $7,000 Geometrics Pump Collectors at N.Y. Armory Show
Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock and Katya Kazakina
March 4 (Bloomberg) — Wealthy and determined art collectors stormed David Kordansky’s booth yesterday afternoon during the opening hours of New York’s Armory Show.
The slender Los Angeles dealer held off a stampede of would-be buyers at the art fair, at one point calling out, politely but firmly, “Just let me get a handle on what has sold!”
The objects of desire: colorful geometric paintings by artist Will Fowler, tagged at $6,800-$7,000 a piece. Kordansky moved 13 of them in under two hours.
“I am super happy,” Kordansky said.
MoMA trustee David Teiger said he had snagged three of them.
Other relatively wallet-friendly offerings included $4,000 Polaroid photos by Philip-Lorca diCorcia at David Zwirner’s stand. The gallery sold 30 of 100 on display in the opening hours. At a higher price point, Paul Kasmin Gallery sold three paintings, priced around $85,000, by James Nares. The large canvases featured abstracted brushstrokes and hovered somewhere between painting and photography in sensibility.
The 12th annual Armory Show brings together 289 international dealers through March 7 on Manhattan’s West Side piers, hoping…
