2 April 2016
Christie’s Evening Sale of Post-War & Contemporary Art on May 10, is lead by Mark Rothko’s important 1957 canvas, No. 17. It carries an estimate: $30-40million. With its vibrant, verdant hues, No. 17 is emblematic of the experiential nature of Rothko’s art—a manifestation of what one critic called the “immediate radiance” of the paintings from this period of the artist’s career. One of the […]
26 March 2016
Art Basel show Hong Kong attracted over 70,000 visitors, among them directors, curators, trustees and patrons from over 100 leading international museums and institutions. The show, which closed today, Saturday, March 26, 2016, featured a new floorplan, spotlighting strong performances by galleries from Asia and the West. Confirming Art Basel’s standing as the leading international art […]
21 March 2016
TEFAF Maastricht, once again welcomed around 75,000 visitors, illustrating the consistent annual pull of the 270 international dealers to public institutions, private collectors, art lovers and connoisseurs. Overall, sales happened throughout the duration of the fair, with dealers in all sections reporting sales to private and public buyers across price points. Of note again was […]
18 March 2016
Sotheby’s London is to auction a complete portfolio consisting of 18 hand coloured lithographs of shoe designs by Andy Warhol – À la recherche du shoe perdu – together with Shoe and Leg, produced circa 1955. During a seven-year period, from 1953 to 1959, Warhol self-published a series of portfolios, books and individual prints. These were all offset lithographs, some […]
10 March 2016
The release of the TEFAF Art Market Report 2016, is always an important event in the art calendar. The document which is compiled each year by Dublin-based research company Arts Economics, founded by cultural economist Clare McAndrew, is regarded as the most reliable source by the industry. The report is released simultaneously with the opening of the TEFAF Maastricht art […]
9 March 2016
A brand new organisation has been formed in London which is committed to enabling and supporting best practice in the posthumous preservation and development of artists’ estates, founded by Dr Loretta Würtenberger and Daniel Tümpel. The Institute, which is the first of its kind in Europe, has been established in response to a need for a centralised […]
8 March 2016
Exhilarating, eclectic and exhausting, New York hosted seven art fairs from March 3-6. Ranging from blue chip venues like AADA to intimate bohemian spaces like the tiny and international Salon Zurcher fair, it’s a time when art lovers, collectors and the curious flock to a diverse artistic panorama. The lynchpin is the two cavernous spaces […]
2 March 2016
As TEFAF Maastricht reported in 2015, the global art market generated a staggering annual sales of €51 Billion (£36b). Now Shares.com has launched an innovative platform to present a fresh way to invest in Fine Art, Antiques and Collectables, through crowdfunding. It is the latest brainchild of Business Development Director, Ibrahim Sal who co-founded the platform as an alternative to auction […]
11 February 2016
Sotheby’s has reported buoyant sales at their latest Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London. Highlights included, Lucian Freud’s Pregnant Girl sold for £16,053,000 / $23,214,243, far exceeding the pre-sale estimate of £7-10m. Pursued by no fewer than six bidders, the starkly intimate depicts the artist’s 17-year-old lover, Bernadine Coverley, asleep and pregnant with their child Bella. Coverley was just sixteen when she […]
4 February 2016
Sotheby’s and Christie’s have both held their winter Impressionist and Modern sales this week reaffirming that the art market is still buoyant. Yesterday’s sale at Sotheby’s was topped by Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme, a 1935 portrait of his greatest muse Marie-Thérèse Walter that sold for £18.9 million / $27.1 million. Helena Newman, Global Co-Head of Sotheby’s Impressionist […]
4 February 2016
TEFAF fairs, considered to be the leading art and antiques fairs in the world, will launch an unprecedented showcase in New York for high end art dealers from around the world. New York is already a saturated market with the tried and tested Armory Week along with newcomers the Frieze Art Fair. Presented annually in […]
2 February 2016
Art Basel has announced its gallery list for the 47th edition of the show in Basel, Switzerland, taking place from June 16 to June 19, 2016. This year, 287 leading international galleries will present works ranging from the early 20th century to the most contemporary artists of today. The Basel show, whose Lead Partner is […]
27 January 2016
Christie’s International has reported a five percent fall in their annual sales with prospects of economic uncertainty slowing down demand in the emerging markets such as China and India. After five years of sustained growth, the worlds leading auction house has recorded sales of £4.8 billion ($7.4 billion, 6.8 billion euros) in 2015, down from £5.1 billion in […]
22 January 2016
Sotheby’s London has announced their latest Impressionist, Modern & Surrealist Art Evening Sales to be held on 3rd February. Works by the most commercially sought-after artists including Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Paul Delvaux and René Magritte, to name but a few, the 54 lots in the evening sales are estimated to fetch a combined […]
19 January 2016
Sotheby’s London will be offering a painting that not only marks a pivotal moment in the career of Lucian Freud, but that also shines a spotlight on a fascinating but little-known moment in the artist’s life. While much has been written about many of Freud’s amorous liaisons, barely anything is known about his intense, and ultimately transformative, relationship with Bernadine Coverley. The […]
17 January 2016
Gerhard Richter’s Abstrakte Bild a painting remaining in private hands from 1990 and previously held in the private collection of the artist, will lead Sotheby’s London Contemporary Art Evening auction on 10 February. Painted in 1990, Abstraktes Bild (725-4) was hidden away from the public eye, until 1996 when it was unveiled at an exhibition of his personal paintings at the Carre d’Art in […]
16 January 2016
Two Portraits by the English artist Lucian Freud’s depicting his daughters will be united in Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction on Thursday 11 February in London, King Street. Head of Esther (1982-83, estimate: £2,500,000 – 3,500,000) and Head of Ib (1983-84, estimate: £2,500,000 – 3,500,000) contribute to the strong core of British artists offered at auction this February, alongside […]
12 January 2016
An extraordinary group of Pablo Picasso’s multi-faceted œuvre from the collection of the artist’s Granddaughter, Marina Picasso will go under the hammer in early February. It will offer an intimate glimpse into Picasso’s private world. The scope of the selection presented is truly remarkable, spanning every decade of the artist’s career and covering an eclectic variety of subjects and media. Picasso’s command over […]
12 January 2016
After only a matter of months, Sotheby’s has announced that it has acquired, for around £50m dollars, the art advisory firm Art Agency, Partners (AAP), managed by former head of Contemporary Art at Christies, Amy Cappellazzo and Allan Schwartzman, and Adam Chinn. With this acquisition, Sotheby’s, takes a decisive step toward implementing the strategy outlined by President and Chief […]
26 December 2015
The sale of a £25m/$37.1 m painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat at Christie’s, New York, on 13 May this year has led to a commercial statement to be filed in New York. The Field Next to the Other Road created in (1981), was consigned by the dealer Tony Shafrazi to Christie’s auctioneers for their Post-War and Contemporary evening sale The winning bidder […]
16 December 2015
Christie’s has recorded the highest total sales figures for an auction in India. Their third sale totalled INR 97,69,90,000 / $14.7million, well above the pre-sale high estimate of INR 75,06,30,000 becoming the highest total for any auction held in India. 95% of the lots sold, in line with the results of the previous annual auctions. Strong bidding […]
9 December 2015
Pulse one of the leading satellite fairs which takes place each year during Art Basel Miami Beach week closed its eleventh edition with a marathon of sales, consistent crowds and engaging programming. This has been an exciting Miami Art Week and the PULSE Contemporary Art Fair cemented its position as a “must-see” event on the jam-packed art calendar. Closing […]
7 December 2015
It has been another fabulous year for Art Basel Miami Beach with strong sales and a record number of visitors to the Miami Convention Centre event, as well as Untitled, Art Miami, NADA and Pulse. The fairs which opened early in the week saw the opening party held outside the Bass Museum despite some rather unusual turns of […]
18 November 2015
Christieʼs last week achieved over a billion dollars in sales from a single week of auctions. This followed the success of their May sale season. Major records were set as collectors from nearly 50 countries bid for rare works by Amedeo Modigliani, Roy Lichtenstein and Lucio Fontana, setting new auction record prices for these 20th century masters. Distinguished provenances continue […]
14 November 2015
In 1952, the world famous artist Henry Moore was invited to provide a design as part of a Christmas fundraising project for a new charity. The artist’s contribution, Madonna and Child, was used on mail labels during the festive period to raise awareness for the National Fund for Research into Poliomyelitis & Other Crippling Diseases […]
12 November 2015
A canvas by the American Abstractionist Cy Twombly has set a $70.5 million auction record for the artist. The “blackboard” painting, Untitled (New York City), 1968, was the highpoint of the Contemporary evening sale at Sotheby’s, which also saw records smashed for artists such as Mike Kelley. The sale total totalled $254–$313.7 million with 44 of 54 works, 82%, finding buyers. The sales […]
10 November 2015
Christie’s has achieved several record prices for artists at their auction in New York last night. The highest prices were for Amedeo Modigliani and Roy Lichtenstein, with the hammer falling at $170.4 million and $95.37 million. Modigliani’s “Nu Couche” created in 1917-18 was the star lot on the evening. It was the first time the painting has ever been […]
8 November 2015
A record price has been achieved for a blue period Picasso at Sotheby’s in New York. La Gommeuse, painted in Paris in 1901, sold for $67.5m (£45m) at Sotheby’s, as the highlight of their Impressionist & Modern sale. The painting which depicts a cabaret artist, had a second painting on the reverse of the canvas showing an erotic image […]
5 November 2015
Sotheby’s New York started off the Autumn auction season yesterday in style by selling $377 of art once owned by billionaire and former Sotheby’s owner Alfred Taubman There were eye watering bids from the usual suspects in America, Asia and Europe. The 77 lots included bluechip works by Picasso, Degas, Monet and Modigliani. The Taubman collection was […]
18 October 2015
As an art adviser and avid collector, I keep my ears perked for rumblings of what’s trending and ‘what’s new’ in the market. With that in mind, I attended a panel discussion last week in NY at Christies on the subject of Contemporary Indian Art. The event was co sponsored by Barron’s Penta magazine editor Richard […]
16 October 2015
The ‘Frieze Week’ auctions at Phillips totalled £38,522,675 / $58,694,880 / €51,305,365 selling 99% by value and 86% by lot. “We are very pleased with tonight’s results,” said Peter Sumner, Head of the Contemporary Art, London of the Contemporary Art Evening Sale. “We sold 100% of our lots to a broad array of buyers. The […]