Constantin Brancusi's 1922-23 Bird in Space sold for $US27.5 million ($35.1 million) at Christie's New York, setting a new world auction record for the artist and for any sculpture at auction. Other notable results at the sale included Alberto Giacometti's Femme Leoni ($US8.4 million), Henry Moore's Draped Reclining Mother and Baby ($US5.7 million), Pablo Picasso's Tete et Main de Femme ($US13.4 million), and Cezanne's Les Grands Arbres au Jas de Bouffan (nearly $US11.8 million).
The article covers Constantin Brancusi's sculpture Pasarea in spatiu selling for 27,460,000 dollars at Christie's in New York, with the bid process described and prior ownership details. It mentions the work, its dimensions, material, date (1922-1923), and cites sources including The New York Times and Mediafax.
The Brancusi sculpture from the Bird in Space series sold for $27.4 million at Christie’s New York sale of Impressionist and modern art; pre-sale estimate was $12 million. The bidders identified in media speculation included Paul G. Allen, Sammy Ofer, Ronald S. Lauder, and S. I. Newhouse Jr.
Constantin Brancusi’s previously unknown sculpture Bird in Space, found in a dust-covered attic crate, sold for £14.5 million at Christie's in New York, making it the most expensive sculpture at auction. The work is described as one of the most important art discoveries in years.
The ViennAfair in Vienna featured 96 galleries with sales of over $260,000 for some exhibitors. Notable prices included Clemens Krauss works at $4,500 to $6,500, Tim Trantenroth pieces around $1,100 each, a Dieter Roth piece sold to a German museum, and a Marsyas sculpture by Alfred Hrdlicka for $161,000.
Shannon’s auction in Greenwich, Connecticut, on April 28 sold 87 percent of its 270 lots, totaling $3.8 million, at the high end of presale estimates. Top lot was Childe Hassam’s Nudes on the Cove (1904), which sold for $357,625, above its $300,000 high estimate. Other notable results include Richard Hayley Lever’s Dance of the Boats at $159,625, Fitz Hugh Lane’s A Wreck on the Coast of New England at $143,125, and a Henri Lebasque floral still life at $70,500.
Konstantin Makovsky The Judgment of Paris, 1889 sold for 2.1 million; Nicholas Roerich She Who Leads sold for 688,000; Zinaida Serebriakova Portrait of Vera Fokine sold for auction record; Boris Grigoriev Sailors at a Café sold for 1.6 million; top lot was 1825 porcelain palace vases at 3.9 million.
Marc Quinn's Self, a self-portrait sculpture made in 1991 from eight pints of the artist's blood, sold by Charles Saatchi for £1.5 million ($2.8 million) to Steve Cohen; the work was first shown in London in 1991 and has connections to the Saatchi Gallery and the Sensation exhibition. Earlier sales connected to Damien Hirst’s pickled shark were also to Cohen; prior valuations and related Quinn works are mentioned.
Louise Bourgeois's bronze spider sculpture Maman is being installed outside the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. The gallery notes the sculpture stands about 10 metres tall and carries a sac of 26 white marble eggs, with a $3.2 million price tag. The work has multiple bronze casts worldwide and is part of a broader discussion of acquisitions at the National Gallery.
The article discusses Andy Warhol's Liz, a 1963 painting of Elizabeth Taylor, selling for $12.6 million at Sotheby's, with a winning bid by Lawrence Graff and the piece originally owned by Irving Blum. It also mentions a Roy Lichtenstein work, Blue Nude (1995), selling for $5.2 million, and notes auction dynamics including total sale value and commissions.
Laurence Graff, a British jewellery magnate, paid $12.6m (£6.7m) for a Warhol portrait of Elizabeth Taylor at Sotheby’s in New York. The painting is one of 13 Warhol portraits of Taylor, and Graff’s purchase was the top lot in a sale of 73 works totaling $68m.
Warhol’s silkscreen portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, one of 13 made from a 1963 publicity shot, sold for $12.6 million. Laurence Graff outbid five contenders to acquire the work, which was the top lot at Sotheby’s contemporary art sale, part of a 73-work auction that grossed $68 million.
Alice L. Walton, the Wal-Mart heiress, has been building an art collection for 15 years and recently helped acquire an Asher B. Durand landscape for more than $35 million. The article notes her focus on paintings, drawings, and sculptures by artists such as Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, George Bellows, Marsden Hartley, and Charles Willson Peale as part of a plan to start a museum in Bentonville, Arkansas.
The article discusses a high-profile dispute over six Gustav Klimt paintings looted by the Nazis, which was settled out of court and referred to a three-member panel in Austria. The case involves Maria V. Altmann, heir of an Austrian Jewish art collector, pursuing the return of the paintings from the Austrian government and its national art gallery; the works are valued at more than $200 million.