The High Museum of Art in Atlanta hosted its second annual Collectors Evening on January 28, where four acquisitions were initially voted to be added: Vik Muniz's Leda and the Swan, after Leonardo da Vinci (2009); an African Elephant Headdress (19th century); Spencer Finch's Bright Star (Sirius) (2010); and Auguste-Jean-Baptiste Vinchon's Portrait of Nency Destouches (1829). An impromptu auction of four Delta Air Lines business-class tickets contributed to funding a fifth piece, the limestone sculpture Lamentation (1946) by Robert Laurent; a sixth acquisition was completed by an anonymous donor.
The article reports that the Getty Museum purchased J.M.W. Turner’s 1839 painting Modern Rome -- Campo Vaccino for $44.9 million at Sotheby’s in London, and that a UK export license cleared the sale. It notes past failed acquisitions and explains the license process under British law, with the artwork headed to Brentwood for display.
Maria Altmann, a refugee from Nazi-occupied Austria, dies at age 94 in Los Angeles. She and attorney E. Randol Schoenberg fought a prolonged legal battle over Gustav Klimt paintings looted by the Nazis, including the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, which was later returned and remains in the Neue Galerie in New York.
Maria Altmann, who famously won back Klimt portraits stolen by the Nazis, including the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, died at 94. Isabel Wilkinson recalls Altmann as a pioneer of art restitution and notes the sale of the portrait to Ronald Lauder for $135 million.
Pablo Picasso's portrait La Lecture, depicting his muse Marie-Therese Walter, sold at Sotheby's in London for £25.2m ($40.7m) after six minutes of bidding. The work portrays Walter, who was 17 when Picasso, then 45, first met her in Paris, and her relationship with Picasso influenced several later works.
Maria V. Altmann (1916–2011) was a Jewish refugee who successfully fought to recover paintings by Gustav Klimt seized by the Nazis, ultimately reaching the United States Supreme Court; she died in Los Angeles at age 94. The paintings involved included five works formerly owned by her uncle Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer.
Pablo Picasso’s 1932 painting La Lecture by Marie-Thérèse Walter sold for £25,241,250 ($40,711,612) (€29,744,296) at Sotheby’s, as part of an evening sale that totaled £68,834,400 ($111,023,004) (€81,114,475). The sale was led by strong bidding and achieved 84.5% sold by value, with an estimate of £55,630,000 – 79,250,000.
Maria V. Altmann, a Jewish refugee who waged a legal battle to reclaim Klimt paintings from the Nazis, dies at 94 in Los Angeles. The paintings, including Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, were seized during the 1938 Anschluss and later returned following Altmann’s legal actions, culminating in a U.S. Supreme Court case.
Pablo Picasso's La Lecture sold at Sotheby’s in London for £25.2 million ($40.5 million). The work from 1932, part of Picasso’s annus mirabilis, depicts his muse Marie-Therese Walter; seven bidders competed and the sale concluded after about six minutes to an anonymous phone buyer.
Paul Gauguin’s still life Nature morte a L’Esperance failed to sell at Christie’s London auction. The top lot was Pierre Bonnard’s Terrasse a Vernon, which sold for 7.2 million pounds, with the auction total at 61.9 million pounds.
Sotheby’s sold contemporary art worth 108.8 million pounds ($174.1 million) in London, the biggest such sale the auctioneer has held there. The Duerckheim Collection, comprising 34 works, contributed significantly, with the collection having gone for 60.4 million pounds ($96.7 million). The top lot was Francis Bacon’s Crouching Nude (1961) at 8.3 million pounds. Sotheby’s said records were set for Blinky Palermo, Polke, Eugen Schoenebeck, Markus Luepertz and Baselitz, while Christie’s held a separate sale the day before. The dollar total was affected by exchange rates.
Salvador Dali’s Portrait de Paul Eluard set a record for the surrealist with a price of nearly 20 million dollars, while Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for a Portrait of Lucian Freud sold for 37 million dollars at Sotheby’s London. The private-collection sale grossed about 180 million dollars (93.5 million pounds).
Francis Bacon’s triptych of Lucian Freud sold for 23 million pounds ($37 million) and Salvador Dalí’s Portrait de Paul Eluard fetched 13.5 million pounds, helping the Sotheby’s Looking Closely sale raise 93.5 million pounds in London.
Francis Bacon’s triptych Three Studies For A Portrait Of Lucian Freud sold at Sotheby’s in London for £23,001,250 (about $37m). The work depicts his friend Lucian Freud and had been expected to fetch £7m–£9m before a bidding surge, ultimately selling to an anonymous buyer. The sale also included a Salvador Dalí painting that set a new Surrealist auction record at £13.5m, while Portrait de Paul Eluard had reached £4.1m the day before.
Phillips de Pury & Company’s London Contemporary Art Evening sale in February realized £5,409,200 / $8,725,040 with 84% sold by value and 83% by lot. The top ten lots included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Raqib Shaw, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Rudolf Stingel, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, and Günther Uecker, with several new auction records noted.
The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool acquired the watercolour study Goodbye on the Mersey by James Tissot with support from the Art Fund, totaling £58,850 including a 100% grant; the work depicts a middle-class family saying goodbye to relatives bound for America on a transatlantic liner.