Picasso’s 1932 portrait of Marie-Thérèse, Femme Assise Près D’Une Fenêtre, sold for £28,601,250 at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale in London on February 5, with overall sale totals of £121,075,400; Egon Schiele’s Lovers – self-portrait with Wally from 1914 sold for £7,881,250 as part of a restitution-related series from the Leopold Museum in Vienna.
Yayoi Kusama ends her partnership with Gagosian Gallery, confirming she will remain with Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro. The article notes Kusama’s long career, a Tate Modern retrospective, and upcoming South American shows, along with context about Gagosian and other artists leaving the gallery.
The three Schiele sheets brought by the Leopold Museum were sold at Sotheby’s in London during the evening sale. Highlights include Gertrudmacher? (Note: the page mentions 'Selbstdarstellung in grünem Hemd' sold for about 5.08 million euros, 'Liebespaar (Selbstdarstellung mit Wally)' for 9.2 million euros, and 'Am Rücken liegendes Mädchen...' for about 1.2 million euros; combined total around 16.3 million euros. The Leopold Museum Privatstiftung aimed to finance the restiution settlement of Schiele’s 'Häuser am Meer' with these sales.)
Il Leopold Museum vende tre schizzi di Egon Schiele all’asta da Sotheby’s a Londra, con stime tra 9 e 12 milioni di euro complessivi (Autoritratto in camicia verde, Coppia, Ragazza supina con gambe e braccia incrociate) per rientrare da costi legali legati a cause di restituzioni. L’operazione mira a coprire spese legali e contenziosi milionari, incluso un precedente dipinto con la proprietà contesa di Lea Bondi Jaray e le questioni legate a Case sul mare.
Egon Schiele graphic work Lovers (Self-Portrait with Wally) from Sotheby's fetched 12.4 million dollars (7.88 million pounds) setting a new graphics record for the artist. The sale was part of Sotheby’s Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist auctions in London where Picasso achieved the top price of 45 million dollars.
Pablo Picasso’s portrait of Marie-Therese Walter sold for 28.6 million pounds, equivalent to $44.8 million, at Sotheby’s in London. The artwork is “Femme assise pres d’une fenetre” from 1932. The report notes the sale as part of a series intended to gauge collector demand for new works.
A portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne (au chapeau) by Amedeo Modigliani sold for 26.9 million pounds ($42.3 million) at Christie's in London, heading the sale and helping Christie's achieve 136.5 million pounds in total for the evening. Berthe Morisot's Apres le dejeuner sold for seven million pounds, and Picasso's portrait of Marie-Therese Walter sold for 28.6 million pounds at Sotheby's, with the night totaling 121.1 million pounds in art sales.
Amedeo Modigliani’s 1919 portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne sold for 26.9 million pounds (about 42.1 million dollars) at Christie's, highlighting the week’s strong Impressionist, modern, and surrealist sales in London. The sale contributed to Christie's total of 136 million pounds and Sotheby’s impressionist and modern sales totaled 145 million pounds. Other notable results included Berthe Morisot, Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte, Joan Miro, and Salvador Dalí works achieving solid prices.
Berthe Morisot's Apres le dejeuner sold for £7.0m ($11.0m) at Christie's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London, setting a new world record for a female artist. The previous record was £5.5m ($10.9m) for Natalia Goncharova's Les Fleurs sold at Christie's in 2008.
Picasso’s portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, the artist’s muse, sold for $44.8 million in a series of Sotheby’s London auctions. A related work, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, previously set a 2010 record of $106.5 million at Christie’s New York.
Edward Hopper’s original oil on canvas October on Cape Cod sold for $9.6 million at Christie’s American art sale in New York City. The sale set a new record for the most expensive item bought online at any international auction house. Other results mentioned include Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sun Water Maine at $2.2 million, Charles Ephraim Burchfield’s Golden Dream at $1.2 million, and Stuart Davis’ City Snow Scene at $1.2 million.
Francis Bacon’s self-portrait triptych titled Three Studies for a Self-Portrait sold at Sotheby’s in London for 13.7 million pounds (21.5 million USD, 15.9 million euros). The buyer was German collector Jürgen Hall acting for a major international institution. The sale also included two Gerhard Richter works which sold for 8.1 million pounds and 7.6 million pounds, respectively, contributing to Sotheby’s post-war and contemporary art sale total of 74.3 million pounds.
Henri Matisse’s Odalisque in Red Pants is being returned to the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art after being recovered by the FBI; the painting had disappeared from the museum in 2000 and a copy had replaced it. The FBI sting led to the arrest of Pedro Marcuello Guzman and Maria Martha Eliza Omelas Lazo, who pleaded guilty and were sentenced. The artwork will be returned to Venezuela within three to five weeks.
The article discusses the arrest of Phivos Istavrioglou, 29, in connection with the theft of Salvador Dalí's Cartel de Don Juan Tenorio (1949) from Venus Over Manhattan. The painting was valued at about $150,000. The NYPD linked fingerprints from the bottle of Blueprint juice to a previous shoplifting case at a Manhattan Whole Foods, which aided the arrest eight months after the theft.
The article discusses Lin Fengmian's Legend of the White Snake, including the painting Legend of the white snake, 26 x 26 in., which sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for 1,700,000 HKD (219,490 USD) in 2009; it also references Lady White and Lady Green, the Year of the Snake, and broader influences of the White Snake legend in art and culture.
The article discusses Georgia O'Keeffe and the University of Oklahoma's purchase of a Georgia O'Keeffe for $50 in a context involving the State Department and postwar art auctions.
A Sotheby’s report on the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art examines a survey of younger Chinese artists shaped by the social and cultural changes that followed the Cultural Revolution.