Bonhams breaks world records in 20th century British and Irish sale held yesterday

LONDON.- A new world auction record for a work on paper by Henry Moore was set by Bonhams yesterday (16th November) in the 20th Century British and Irish Art sale. Entitled Shelter Drawing: Seated Mother and Child, the work sold for £634,850, after much enthusiastic bidding. Executed in 1941, the work had only appeared a couple of times in public, including the Tate Gallery’s major retrospective of Henry Moore last year. The sale total was £4,150,000. Another world record for a work on [...]

Sotheby’s in London Sells a Group of Paintings by Vereschagin for $5.7 Million

LONDON.- Tonight, in Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Important Russian Paintings a group of works by renowned Russian master Vasily Vasilievich Vereschagin of Russian, Indian and Balkan scenes brought the well above-expectations combined total of £3.7 / $5.7 million (pre-sale estimate for the group: £1.2-1.9/$1.9-3.1 million). The top-selling lot of this group also set a new auction record for the artist. Headlining the evening auction and this component of the sale was Vasily Vasilievich Vereschagin’s oil on canvas The Taj Mahal, Evening, [...]

Modern and Contemporary Turkish Art Auction at Antik A.S. Totals $ 9.5 Million

ISTANBUL.- Antik A.S. in Istanbul, the sale of Modern and Contemporary Turkish Art totals of $9,500,000 within the presale estimate of $6 million. Competition was fierce for many of the top lots, with multiple bidders participating. Erol Akyavas’s monumental “VAV” was the top-selling lot in the sale.. Erol Akayavas (1932-1999), one of the most important Turkish artists whose painting “The Siege” had fetched 1.274.000 EURO in April 2010, the world record price for any modern Turkish work of art sold [...]

Sotheby’s Sale of 20th Century British Art Establishes a New Auction World Record

LONDON.- The sale of 20th Century British Art at Sotheby’s in London established a new auction record for a work by Sir Stanley Spencer (in pounds – see note at foot of email), when his Hilda and I at Pond Street sold for £1,430,050 ($2,249,612), far in excess of its pre-sale estimate of £400,000-600,000. (The previous auction record for Spencer was £1,320,000 ($2,161,454) and this was achieved for his The Crucifixion, which sold at Sotheby’s in London in 1990.) Hilda and [...]

Christie’s Hong Kong Achieves Highest Ever Sale Total for Chinese Paintings

HONG KONG.- Christie’s Hong Kong completed its two sales of Classical and Modern Chinese Paintings on Tuesday, November 30th, 2010, tallying the highest total ever for the category with HK$669 million/ US$ 86 million. The morning session of Fine Chinese Classical Paintings kicked off with high sold ratios of 91% by lot and 87% by value and a total of HK$100 million/US$13 million. The momentum continued unabated with the afternoon session of the Modern Chinese Paintings sale which totalled HK$ [...]

Sale of Modern and Contemporary Turkish Art at Antik A.S. in Istanbul Totals $ 10.2 Million

ISTANBUL.- At Antik A.S. in Istanbul, the sale of Modern and Contemporary Turkish Art totals of $10,230,000 within the presale estimate of $7.2 million. Competition was fierce for many of the top lots, with multiple bidders participating. This resulted in more than 94% of the lots achieving prices at or above their starting prices. Mubin Orhon’s monumental masterpiece dated 1962 was the top-selling lot in the sale, brought a remarkable 965,000 USD. It exceeded pre-sale estimation of 500,000 – 700,000 USD. [...]

A New Auction Record for Amedeo Modigliani at Sotheby’s Evening Sale in New York

NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern Art is currently underway in New York and a number of exceptional prices have already been achieved:  · A new auction record for Amedeo Modigliani was set tonight when the artist’s iconic Nu assis sur un divan (La Belle Romaine) sold for a remarkable $68,962,500. Five different bidders competed for the stunning nude, driving the price well past the more than $40 million* that had been expected. La Belle <Romaine is from [...]

Sotheby’s Summer Sales of Impressionist & Modern Art in London Total $194 million

LONDON.- Sotheby’s two-day sales series of Impressionist & Modern Art in London this week realised a combined total of £131,186,300 / $193,602,387 / €157,601,625 – an increase of 185% on the same series last year. The sum achieved brings the total for Impressionist & Modern Art sold by Sotheby’s London so far in 2010 to an unprecedented £295 million1 – the highest such total in Sotheby’s London history. For the second time in Sotheby’s London sales this year, three works [...]

Sotheby’s South Asian Art Sale Brings a Total of 5.5 Million Pounds

LONDON.- Today in London, Sotheby’s sale of South Asian Art brought an exceptional total of £5,465,550, well above the pre-sale expectations of £2,739,500-3,912,500 and a figure that is more than double the sum realised for the equivalent sale at Sotheby’s London last summer. The sale was 90% sold by value and 78% sold by lot. Furthermore, 81% of the lots that were sold in the sale achieved prices above their pre-sale high estimate. The group of 12 paintings by Rabindranath [...]

Christie’s Set World Auction Record for Any Modern Indian Work of Art

LONDON.- The two day sale of South Asian Modern + Contemporary Art Including Property From The Estate of Francis Newton Souza realised a total of £12,462,425/$18,092,364/€15,056,174 and was 98% sold by value and 91% sold by lot. The top lot was Syed Haider Raza (b. 1922), Saurashtra, 1983 which fetched £2,393,250/ $3,486,965/ €2,893,439, setting a World Auction Record for any Modern Indian Work of Art and a World Auction Record for the Artist. This monumental painting was bought by a [...]

Christie’s Asian Contemporary and 20th Century Art Sales Total $67.2 Million

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 [...]

Sale of Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art Realizes HK$44.5 Million

HONG KONG.- Christie’s Hong Kong Spring 2010 sale of Southeast Asian Modern and Contemporary Art marks a 33% increase over the Fall 09 sale total. More than 10 records were set for both established and emerging artists from both the modern and contemporary sections, including the top lot, Italian painter-traveler Romualdo Locatelli’s Bali picture, “Young Balinese Girl with Hibiscus”, which broke all previous records, selling for HK$6.02million (US$773,000). The extremely rare and early Fernando Cueto Amorsolo painting, “Lavenderas”, sold for [...]

Christie’s Sale of Asian Contemporary and Chinese 20th Century Art Totals $39 Million

HONG KONG.- Christie’s Hong Kong completed its Evening Sale of Asian Contemporary Art and Chinese 20th Century Art on May 29th, 2010 with a remarkable 100% sell-through rate. With a sale total of HK$303 million/US$39 million that is three times over the estimate, this is the first white glove auction for any Evening Sale in Asia. The top lot was ‘String Quartet’ by Chinese 20th Century artist Chen Yifei, a work which broke a new auction record at HK$61.1 million/US$7.85 [...]

Auction Record for a Scottish Colourist Achieved at Sotheby’s London

LONDON.- A new auction record for an artwork by a Scottish Colourist was set today at Sotheby’s in London when Samuel John Peploe’s Tulips sold for £623,650 / $964,224 / €717,632. The painting eclipsed the pre-sale high estimate (the painting had an estimate of £300,000-500,000) and established a new auction record for the artist and a Scottish Colourist by a considerable margin. **The previous auction record for a work by Peploe was £529,250 and this was set by his Roses [...]

Christie’s New York April Photography Week Totals $9.2 Million

NEW YORK, NY.- Over the past two days, three important auctions of photographs were held at Christie’s New York, including two significant single-owner sales with dedicated individual catalogues, Three Decades with Irving Penn: Photographs from the Collection of Patricia McCabe and Selections From The Baio Collection of Photography as well as the various-owner Photographs sale. In their entirety, the sales totaled an impressive $9,298,875. The strong success of Three Decades with Irving Penn: Photographs from the Collection of Patricia McCabe [...]

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