Monthly archive
19 headlines
Source-linked reporting
theartnewspaper.com
Sotheby’s stands alone and sweeps up $368.3m at Impressionist and Modern sales; the sale total reached $368.3m and 49 of 64 lots sold, with Monet works contributing major prices, including Nymphéas (1905) at $54m won by George Wachter; Christie’s had moved its sale earlier, but Sotheby’s maintained its schedule.
artnews.com
Vincent van Gogh’s L’Allée des Alyscamps (1888) sold for 66.3 million and led Sotheby’s impressionist and modern sale totaling 368.3 million, as Claude Monet works contributed 115.4 million; the top price remained below the record and 15 of 65 lots failed to sell.
christies.com
Pablo Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger (Version “O”), 1955, oil on canvas, is highlighted as a peak of his oeuvre in Christie’s Looking Forward to the Past Evening Sale on 11 May. The article discusses Picasso’s engagement with Delacroix’s Femmes d’Alger, the influence of Delacroix, and the painting’s place alongside Picasso’s other masterpieces such as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Guernica.
press.christies.com
The Christie's press release reports that Christie's Evening Sale Looking Forward to the Past achieved US$705,858,000, with Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger, Version O selling for US$179,365,000 and Giacometti’s L’homme au doigt (Pointing Man) for US$141,285,000, both new records. It notes a 97% sell-through by lot and 99% by value, and mentions records for sculpture and multiple high-value lots.
artnews.com
Pablo Picasso's The Women of Algiers (Version ‘O’), 1955, sold for $179.3 million including buyer’s premium at Christie’s, setting a record for a Picasso work and for any work at auction. The auctioneer was Jussi Pylkkanen, with Loic Gouzer and Brett Gorvy as top bidders; Gorvy won with a $160 million hammer price.
artnews.com
Christie’s Looking Forward to the Past sale raised $705.8 million, with Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) selling for $179.3 million and Alberto Giacometti’s L’homme au doigt selling for $141.2 million, setting records. The sale also produced six new artist records including Peter Doig, Cady Noland, Jean Dubuffet, Diane Arbus, Chaim Soutine, and Giacometti, while Claude Monet’s Le Parlement, soleil couchant sold for $40.5 million.
news.artnet.com
Pablo Picasso’s Les Femme d’Algers (Version “O”), 1955 sold for $179.4 million at Christie’s New York, setting a record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction. Alberto Giacometti’s Pointing Man (1947) sold for $141.3–$141.7 million, the priciest sculpture ever sold at auction, as Christie’s total for Impressionist to contemporary art, “Looking Forward to the Past,” reached $705.9 million.
dallasnews.com
Pablo Picasso's Women of Algiers (Version O) sold for $179.365 million at Christie's, setting a world record for artwork at auction, while Alberto Giacometti's Pointing Man sold for $141.285 million. The sale totaled $706 million across 34 of 35 lots, with prices including the auction house premium.
theguardian.com
Pablo Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O, 1954-55) sold for US$179m at Christie’s in New York, setting a new auction record. The article discusses the high-end art market, cultural value versus monetary value, and mentions artists such as Francis Bacon and others in context. The piece is by Andrew Frost and appeared in The Guardian.
jta.org
The Matisse painting Woman Sitting in an Armchair and Max Liebermann painting Two Riders on the Beach from the Gurlitt collection were cleared for return to heirs of Jewish owners by a Munich District Court. The artworks were among the most valuable in the Gurlitt collection, which is valued at about $1.26 billion and originated from a tax evasion investigation; the owners’ heirs may retrieve the paintings this week.
irishexaminer.com
Picasso’s Women of Algiers (Version O) and Giacometti’s Pointing Man led Christie’s Looking Forward to the Past sale, with Picasso’s piece selling for $179,365,000 and Giacometti’s for $141,285,000; the sale total was $706 million with 34 of 35 lots sold. Other notable highlights included Peter Doig’s Swamped at nearly $26 million, Monet’s The Houses of Parliament, At Sunset at $40.5 million, and Mark Rothko’s No. 36 (Black Stripe) at $40.5 million.
nytimes.com
The article discusses how Matisse’s painting Femme Assise from the Gurlitt collection was returned to the heirs of the Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg. Christopher A. Marinello, a lawyer, helped recover the work on behalf of Elaine Rosenberg, a descendant of Rosenberg, after negotiations with German authorities.
nbcnews.com
Henri Matisse’s 1921 Seated Woman, once owned by Jewish art dealer Paul Rosenberg and looted during the Nazi era, was restituted to Rosenberg’s heirs after being found in a Munich storage facility; the restitution also included Max Liebermann’s Two Riders on a Beach to another family. The story notes the discovery of works in the Gurlitt trove and ongoing restitution efforts.
theartnewspaper.com
Henri Matisse’s Femme assise dans un fauteuil was returned to the heirs of Paul Rosenberg. The work was part of Cornelius Gurlitt’s collection discovered in 2012. The restitution also involves several other pieces identified for return by a provenance Task Force.
artnews.com
Piet Mondrian’s Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black (1929) sold for $50.6 million, a new record for the artist, at Christie’s Impressionist and Modern sale in New York that totaled $202 million. Constantin Brancusi’s La muse endormie I (1909–10/executed 1912) sold for $9.13 million; Brett Gorvy and Amy Cappellazzo were prominent bidders, with the final sale at $50.6 million with buyer’s premium.
observer.com
The article covers Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematism, 18th Construction (1915), with an estimated price range of $30 million to $45 million. It describes the painting’s provenance, its display history, and its sale prospects at Sotheby’s in London, noting a past high sale of another Malevich work for $60 million in New York.
news.artnet.com
Max Liebermann’s Two Riders on a Beach (1901) from the Cornelius Gurlitt hoard is set to go to auction at Sotheby’s in London on June 24, with an estimated price up to £500,000 ($850,000). The work was restituted to the Rosenburg family and is one of the first two paintings restituted from the Gurlitt trove; the other is Matisse’s Woman with a Fan (1932).
news.artnet.com
Frida Kahlo is experiencing growing market demand with many exhibitions fueling interest. The article notes that only about 60 Kahlo works have appeared at auction in the past two decades, with a record sale of 5.6 million dollars for Roots (1943).
Sotheby’s
Ahead of Sotheby’s May 5–6 Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York, the house examines the artistic dialogue between Pablo Picasso and Françoise Gilot through works including Femme au chignon dans un fauteuil, Le Hibou noir and The Guardian.