Sotheby’s ‘Divine Comedy’: Laughing All the Way to the Bank?
Rodin sculpture center stage at Sotheby's "Divine Comedy" exhibit, © Photo: Mackie Healy
By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor
A month before Philippe Segalot’s “curated” auction at Phillips de Pury, Sotheby’s has mounted their own curated, retail-style selling exhibition. Cue the roiling debate on the colliding worlds of private and public sales.
Divine Comedy, a nod to Dante’s epic poem, has taken over the 10th floor at the auction house’s York Avenue headquarters until Oct. 19. Sotheby’s says around three quarters of the works on view are for sale.
The show, the pet project of former Guggenheim director and Sotheby’s chairwoman Lisa Dennison, highlights humor through themes from Dante’s one hundred cantos. Galleries are reserved for poem chapters including Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise.
Though most of the works are contemporary, there are a few older examples from the likes of William Bouguereau, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Rodin. One of the show’s high points–and perhaps inspiration– is Frans Francken the Younger’s painting Mankind’s Eternal Dilemma – the Choice between Vice and Virtue, (1635) depicting the overarching theme of Divine Comedy – the choice between good and evil. Minerva, goddess of wisdom, occupies the center of the painting, surrounded…
Lehman and Neuberger Berman Corporate Art Sell-Off at Sotheby’s
Julie Mehretu's "Untitled 1" sold for $1 million at Sotheby's Lehman Neuberger Berman auction
By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor
The sale of corporate art from Neuberger Berman and Lehman Brothers tallied $12.3 million today at Sotheby’s, exceeding the $12 million presale high estimate. Seventeen auction records were achieved.
Julie Mehretu’s layered, abstract Untitled 1 (2001) was the sale’s top lot, selling for $1 million to an unnamed private collector bidding by phone. The work was estimated to sell for $600,000 – $800,000, outstripping the $21,726 Neuberger had paid in 2001. The large-scale ink and acrylic canvas also set a new auction record for Mehretu, surpassing the previous high – $394,038 for Untitled (Dervish), 2005 at Sotheby’s London in June 2009.
Eighty-three percent of the 142 lots found buyers. The majority of the bidding was done over the phone, with intermittent paddle-waving from dealers and Wall Street types, unbuttoning their weekday trading suits for Saturday casual ensembles of golf shirts and running shorts.
There was even some institutional bidding.The Museum Art Center Buenos Aires (MACBA), snatched up works by Robert Longo, Callum Innes, and Karin Davie, spending $212,000.
With a preponderance of phone bidding, the salesroom mood was sluggish,…
Seattle Museum Taps Sotheby’s to Promote Picasso Show
Sotheby's Charles Moffett on left, Seattle Art Museum curator Chiyo Ishikawa on right, in video still from "Conversations with Sotheby's"
Sotheby’s has launched a new video series, Conversations with Sotheby’s, and the debut interview features a seven-minute chat between Sotheby’s vice chairman Charles Moffett and Chiyo Ishikawa, curator of European painting and sculpture at the seriously cash-strapped Seattle Art Museum. (Read here about museum’s recent money woes).
Ishikawa and Moffett, who was director of the Phillips Collection prior to his auction gig, discuss Seattle’s upcoming Picasso loan show, drawn from the Picasso Museum in Paris. Click here to watch the video.
Coming on the heels of Sotheby’s announcement of a retail-style selling exhibition organized by Sotheby’s chairwoman Lisa Dennison — another former museum official — this further blurs the once inviolate borders between the commercial and non-profit sectors of the art world.
One wonders where all this is headed. Are these scenarios any more or less squeamish because they involve former museum officials transplanted to the auction realm?
Imperial Jade, Ink Paintings and Song Dynasty Vase Lure Buyers at Sotheby’s Chinese Sale
A Song Dynasty 'Ge' Octagonal Vase sold for $1.8 million at Sotheby's. Image via Sotheby's
By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor
Chinese zillionaires, dealers and a few well-off Americans ignored estimates yesterday at Sotheby’s New York Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art sale, paying out-sized prices for the rarest material on offer. The sale tallied $15.2 million.
Choosy bidders sifted through porcelain, Imperial jades, furniture and paintings, snatching up a discriminating 61% of lots, leaving 92 of the 233 total lots unsold.
The highlight was a pear shaped 8-inch tall ‘Ge’ Octagonal Vase (Ba Fanghu) which fetched nearly $1.8 million, more than double the $600,000 pre-sale high estimate. The creamy white glaze is riven with dramatic craquelure. The vase sold to an anonymous American collector.
Jade vessels were also in demand, with three ranking among the top ten lots. An impressive early Qing jade vase, depicting knotted tree branches and a pair of cranes, failed to sell, however. The eight inch high, pale green stone was projected to go for $650,000 – $750,000.
The Top Ten lots:
1. A ‘Ge’ Octagonal Vase (Ba Fanghu) $1,762, 500 Est. $400,000 – $600,000
2. “Landscape with Boats” by Yao Shou $1,082,500 …
Picasso ‘Mother and Child’: Sotheby’s or Christie’s?
Himan Brown, via New York Times
The auction houses are battling over a 1921 Pablo Picasso painting of a Mother and Child, from the estate of Himan Brown, according to dealer sources.
The canvas, featuring a classically infused female garbed in a white dress, is expected to be tagged around $10 million -$15 million and will be among highlights of the upcoming November round of Impressionist and modern New York auctions.
A serene, chestnut-haired mother cradles the baby in her lap, seated in a white armchair.
Brown, who died in June at the age of 99, created radio dramas including Dick Tracy, according to a New York Times obit found here. Brown rose up from humble beginnings in Brownsville, Brooklyn, the son of tailors from Odessa. The obit says Brown’s eight-room Central Park West apartment contained paintings by Renoir, Degas and Picasso.
Michael Danoff, Neuberger Berman Curator, Stars in Sotheby’s Video
Lisa Dennison and Michael Danoff discuss Neo Rauch painting at Sotheby's
Michael Danoff, curator of the esteemed and ill-fated Neuberger Berman corporate art collection, and Sotheby’s Lisa Dennison preview highlights from upcoming Sept. 25 sale of corporate art.
Despite the grim circumstances behind the collection’s dissolution, their banter is light. They remark on Mark Grotjahn’s vanishing points and Julie Mehretu’s skills. This is “not slacker art,” Danoff says of Mehretu.
Click here to watch the 6 min video.
Touring the Neuberger Booty at Sotheby’s on a Summer Afternoon
Damien Hirst's 1993 "We've Got Style (The Vessel Collection - Blue/Green)" est. $800,000 - $1.2 M on view at Sotheby's. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock
By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor
A ramble around Sotheby’s sixth floor exhibition space on a sleepy August afternoon showed no signs of the cataclysmic economic upheaval which forced works by John Currin, Julie Mehretu and Yoshitomo Nara — all formerly part of the Neuberger Berman collection — onto the auction block.
The once prosperous investment bank Lehman Brothers acquired money management company Neuberger Berman in 2003. Bonus: a stellar art collection worth more than $10 million. The collection has been on view at Sotheby’s York Avenue headquarters over the summer.
The Sept. 25 auction includes 147 contemporary artworks, with sale proceeds going to Lehman creditors.
Highlights include John Baldessari’s Stares (with Lamps), a black and white collage of austere headshots and white silhouettes framed by floor lamps illuminated in blue and yellow. Tagged $350,000 – $450,000, the piece was acquired at Sotheby’s in 1991 for $29,700 (nice return!) With the opening of the Baldessari retrospective this month in Los Angeles and in October at the Met, the piece is money in the bank.
A middle-aged woman with a sassy stance and deadpan expression stars in John…
Sotheby’s Institute Offers Course for Aspiring Art Moguls
Top of Art Deco Lexington Avenue building where Sotheby's Institute of Art offers classes.
By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor
For just $600, aspiring art funders, flippers and investors can learn the ropes at Sotheby’s Institute this fall.
Art & Finance: Where Two Worlds Meet, a Six Week Course to Demystify Fine Art as an Investment, takes place Tuesday evenings from 6:30-8:00pm, Nov. 2-Dec. 7 at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in Midtown. Tuition for the six classes is $600.
While investing in art is in vogue, understanding the relationship between fine art and finance isn’t easy. Students will examine how the fine art market compares to the financial market, and ultimately gain an understanding of how art is an asset that can be measured in a portfolio similar to a stock or bond.
The course is taught by Noah Kupferman, who hones his finance chops as a VP and Private Client Manager at US Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management. He began his career at Sotheby’s as a Chinese Paintings and Calligraphy specialist. Kupferman has taught courses evaluating fine art and finance at New York University, Columbia Business School and the Sotheby’s Institute.
Disclaimer: I am currently writing…
Sotheby’s Seeks Yurt Habitating Wildlife Art Enthusiasts
Photo: via Sotheby's
The latest installment of Sotheby’s campaign, “Your Life is Global. Sothebys.com is mobile,” promotes their newfangled mobile absentee bidding technology with an ad featuring a man tapping on his laptop, amid the evening glow of a luxurious thatched hut in the remote wilds of somewhere.
There is what appears to be a painting of a cheetah hanging on the wall, suggesting our collector may have a yen for wildlife art. Thank heavens he has wireless in the African plains or where ever he may be so he may transmit an absentee bid.
“Can’t make the sale?” asks the ad. “Not to worry.”
Sotheby’s Launches New Russian Sale in New York, Week of Big-Ticket Impressionst and Modern Auctions
Screen shot from Sotheby's Russian promotional video. Jo Vickery in center.
Sotheby’s is introducing new sale, Important Russian Art, slated for Thursday Nov. 4 in New York. The auction is timed to coincide with the high-profile week of Impressionist and Modern art auctions. The house currently holds a Russian sale in New York in April and sales in London in June and November.
Sotheby’s has been aggressively chasing Russian business. They have held specialized Russian sales since 2000 when sales tallied $6 million. In 2008, sales peaked at $242 million. The house has sold $50 million so far in 2010.
Here’s a video (with handy Russian subtitles) featuring Sotheby’s senior vice president Sonya Bekkerman and senior director Jo Vickery discussing the recent sales and the market. Click here to watch.
