798 District Blog

Christie’s, the world’s leading art business, announced that tonight’s sale of International Modern and Contemporary Art in Dubai made $14,043,000 / AED 51,565,896, more than doubling the pre-sale estimate of $6.7 million and confirming Christie’s market leadership in the region. The auction was 94% sold by value and 84% sold by lot. The buyer breakdown by lot was 60% from the Middle East, 28% from Europe, 10% from the Americas and 2% from Asia. The sale concludes a record year for Christie’s in contemporary Middle Eastern art, with an increase of 117 percent over 2009.

Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Middle East and Europe, said: “A packed saleroom, a team of 20 Christie’s staff manning the telephones and internet bidding from around the world, helped to make tonight’s auction both successful and hugely memorable. The sale achieved $7.3 million over our pre-sale expectations and saw record numbers of clients registering to bid, with nearly 200 registrants from 23 countries. The 30 works from the Dr. Mohammed Said Farsi collection were again 100% sold and saw a huge increase in international interest in Egyptian art. We were delighted to see Mahmoud Said’s Whirling Dervishes sell for a world record $2,546,500 making it the most expensive Middle Eastern painting ever sold. Following the trend of the Frieze art sales in London two weeks ago, tonight’s auction here in Dubai had a tremendous spring in its step.”

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Christie’s 500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe, including Oriental Carpets achieved $14 million from October 21 to 22, selling over 450 treasures from the 16th to the 19th centuries. This spectacular sale was the top-grossing 500 Years sale to date held in New York, with the top lot of the sale, the Messer Chippendale Bookcase achieving $1.7 million. 500 Years: Decorative Arts Europe is a new sale concept unique to Christie’s that brings together all styles and movements of European Decorative Arts as well as Oriental carpets in a richly varied sale that offers collectors an incredibly diverse range of works of art to choose from.

Will Strafford, International Specialist of European Furniture, said: “This was truly an international sale with 31 countries participating, and we demonstrated yet again the achievement of 500 Years as an innovative response to the market and the buying patterns of our clients. This sale saw extraordinary demand for both important furniture and exceptional works of art from private collections. The discovery of the Nile Napoleonic clock caused great excitement amongst collectors, and we are thrilled that it realized $722,500, far exceeding the estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.”

Melissa Gagen, International Specialist of English Furniture, said: “The exceptional selection of English furniture, among the best to come to market in New York for years, caught the attention of the world’s top collectors. Bidding was spirited among both private and trade buyers in search of iconic 18th century examples. The cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale reigned as his bookcase soared into the million dollar range, making nearly 3 times its price when last sold from the legendary Messer Collection at Christie’s in 1991. It is the second most expensive bookcase by this maker sold at auction both at Christie’s. The depth of the market for truly exceptional examples of English furniture was demonstrated by the fact that four bidders were actively pursuing the bookcase above the $800,000 level. Two pairs of chairs by Chippendale and a fantastical chinoiserie mirror attributed to John Linnell and formerly at Ditchley Park also exceeded their pre-sale estimates.”

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This Autumn is the Season for Andy Warhol, thanks to an extraordinary selection of his key works.Christie’s New York leads this group with the sale of Andy Warhol’s hand-painted masterpiece, Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), 1962 (estimate upon request). An icon of Pop Art, it is one of the largest examples of Warhol’s most famous and beloved image of a Campbell’s Soup Can — a subject matter that helped shape the course of art history in the 1960s.

At 72 x 52 inches, Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable) is the first in a series of very rare large scale Campbell’s Soup Cans. Of the 11 large scale Campbell’s Soup Can paintings, eight now reside in museums, foundations or are promised to museums, such as The Menil Collection in Houston, The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh and The Kunsthalle in Zurich. The present lot is the most important example to come on the market in over a decade.

Warhol’s soup cans challenge the traditional boundaries of art and life as well as art and business. Warhol believed anything could be touched by art: from the mundane, such as the humble Campbell’s soup can and Brillo boxes, to ubiquitous public figures and celebrities such as Jacqueline Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. The Campbell’s Soup can is the ultimate everyman consumer product. It is completely accessible and recognizable, making it a key icon of Pop Art. In this work, Warhol’s eponymous static soup can has been pierced by a can opener against a seamless background.

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Christie’s Hong Kong will hold its Fall sales of Fine Chinese Modern Paintings and Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy on 30 November at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre. These sales will showcase over 350 rare and exceptional works from the Chinese masters, valued in excess of HK$260 million (US$34 million).

Chinese calligraphy and paintings are among the most culturally rich and meaningful art forms and encapsulate the history of Chinese culture. The Fine Chinese Classical Paintings and Calligraphy sale will feature important works by artists spanning both Ming and Qing Dynasty (15th-19th Century), including Ming Dynasty calligraphers and painters such as Wang Duo, Ni Yuanlu, Huang Daozhou and Lan Ying, as well as important Qing artists such as BaDa ShanRen, Hua Yan and Yuan Jiang. The Fine Chinese Modern Paintings sale will present a body of magnificent works by renowned 19th and 20th Century masters such as Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Fu Baoshi, Zhang Daqian, and Lin Fengmian. Showcasing a wide range of works by artists of different styles and schools, these sales cater to the variety of diverse palettes of today’s discerning collectors.

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Panic is spreading through the art world following the discovery of forgeries among major 20th-century paintings sold in recent years by leading auctioneers and dealers worldwide, including Christie’s in London.

More than 30 paintings, thought to be by artists including Max Ernst, Raoul Dufy and Fernand Léger, have been unmasked as forgeries, the Observer has learned. The fakes have duped leading figures in the art world into parting with at least £30m.

Four of the paintings have gone through Christie’s, including forgeries of Ernst’s La Horde, estimated at £3.5m and eventually sold to the Würth Collection, and André Derain’s Bateaux à Collioure, sold for £2m. Six paintings were sold by the leading German auctioneer, Lempertz, one for £2.8m. The forger’s strategy appears to have been to create compositions that would relate to the titles of documented works whose whereabouts are not currently known.

Dealers and collectors who have recently acquired works by the artists involved “are shaking over this scandal”, one insider said. “They are in a panic over whether their paintings are also forgeries. Everyone’s taking a second look.” The panic is so acute that collectors are even seeking refunds on unquestionably genuine works.

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LONDON.- Christie’s will host an exciting series of public exhibitions, events and auctions from today until 18 October in London coinciding with the Frieze Art Fair. The leading highlights of the public exhibition are celebrated masterpieces by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Gerhard Richter, none of which has been seen before in the UK. These works will be offered at the evening auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art in New York on 10 November 2010 and have a combined value in excess of $80 million.

The Post-War & Contemporary Evening Auction and The Italian Sale on 14 October at 6.30pm will offer 51 and 45 lots accordingly and will include an extremely strong section of photography, and the most important work by Damien Hirst to be offered at auction since September 2008 (estimate: £2.5 million to £3.5 million).

Francis Outred, Head of Post-War & Contemporary art, Christie’s Europe : “This week in London is one of the most important and vibrant in the global art calendar. We will be showing a truly exceptional public exhibition at Christie’s which includes three hugely important works never before seen in this country; Andy Warhol’s ‘Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable)’; Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Ohhh…Alright…’; and Gerhard Richter’s ‘Zwei Kerzen‘, together with the auction preview for Thursday’s auction. We look forward to opening our doors and welcoming art lovers to Christie’s in London.”

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As a personal memento of the banking crisis there is an obvious buyer for lot 1001 at Christie’s next Wednesday. Named on a polished metal plaque celebrating the opening of Lehman Brothers European headquarters in 2004, is a certain Gordon Brown, who performed the ceremony.

Then there are the thousands of workers, both bitter and sanguine, who lost their jobs in such dramatic fashion when the Wall Street bank collapsed two years ago this month. “There has been significant interest from ex-employees,” said Christie’s director Ben Clark. “Because it’s a memento of their history.”

Christie’s is auctioning art (from Lucian Freud to Gary Hume) and ephemera (from metal signs to the collected works of Dickens) that once adorned the British and European offices of a bank that seemed as solid as they get for more than 100 years.

Barry Gilbertson, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and responsible for getting the full value from the estate, was at Christie’s today to see the lots go on display before Wednesday”s sale.

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Sotheby’s sold an Edouard Manet self-portrait for 22.4 million pounds ($33.1 million) on Tuesday, a record for the artist but toward the lower end of pre-sale expectations of 20-30 million pounds.

The painting, one of only two self-portraits by the artist and the only one in private hands, was the centerpiece of the auctioneer’s main impressionist and modern art sale in London this summer.

Overall the auction fetched 112.1 million pounds, within expectations of 101-148 million pounds, although the sale tally included buyer’s premium while the estimate did not.

Three works of art sold for eight figures — Manet’s “Self Portrait With a Palette, Andre Derain’s “Arbres a Collioure, which sold for 16.3 million pounds, double the previous record for the artist, and Henri Matisse’s “Odalisques jouant aux dames” (11.8 million pounds).

Sotheby’s said the results were “strong,” although the auction total was smaller than the equivalent sale in London in February which raised 146.8 million pounds.

Alberto Giacometti’s “L’homme qui marche I” sold for 65 million pounds, which was then a world record for any work of art at auction.

Christie’s, Sotheby’s main rival, holds its main sale on Wednesday, and expects to sell art worth 164-231 million pounds. If it makes even the lower end of the target, it would set a record for an art sale in London.

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Christie’s held London’s biggest ever art auction on Wednesday when its impressionist and modern sale fetched 153 million pounds ($227 million), but the total fell short of expectations of 164-231 million pounds.

The big disappointment on the night came when a Monet water-lily painting worth an estimated 30-40 million pounds failed to sell. Bidding reached 29 million pounds.

The other top lot did change hands, however, with a Blue Period portrait by Picasso selling for 34.8 million pounds. The price includes a buyer’s premium. Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, whose charity sold the painting, said he was pleased with the price, “especially in such austere times.

“This is a significant amount to devote to the Foundation’s passions — architecture and the sponsorship of young talent in musical theatre.”

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HONG KONG.- The Christie’s Hong Kong completed its Day and Evening Sales of Asian Contemporary Art and Chinese 20th Century Art on May 30th, 2010. Together with the ground-breaking 100% sell-through Evening Sale that totalled HK$303 million/US$39 million, the combined total of the Day and Evening Sales recorded a total of HK$523.4 million / US$67.2 million, an increase of 85% from Spring 2009 that nearly doubled our nearest international competitor.

Eric Chang, Christie’s International Director of Asia Contemporary Art and Chinese 20th Century Art, commented, “The momentum of the 100% sell-through Evening Sale the night before carried us into the highly successful Day Sales that began in the early afternoon and lasted late into the night. Together with the Evening Sale total of HK$303 million/US$39 million, the combined total of HK$523.4 million / US$67.2 million marks a 85% over our Spring 2009 results and doubling that of our nearest international competitor.

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