A recap of Phillips London’s 30-lot evening sale during Frieze Week, noting 6 unsold lots and a final tally of £17,867,750. It mentions key lots and artists including Thomas Schütte, Urs Fischer, Rudolf Stingel, Mark Grotjahn, Mark Bradford, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Antony Gormley, Damien Hirst; highlights include Stingel and Bradford achieving or surpassing estimates and several notable pass-ins.
Vincent van Gogh’s View of the Sea at Scheveningen (1882) and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (1884) were recovered by Italian authorities 14 years after they were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in December 2002. The paintings were found in Castellammare di Stabia, near Pompeii, wrapped in cloth in a warehouse and are expected to be used as evidence in a trial.
Warhol’s Twenty Pink Maos (1979) sold for £4.7 million ($6 million) and Mark Bradford’s Rat Catcher of Hamelin III (2011) reached £3.7 million ($4.7 million) at Phillips, with the sale totaling £17.9 million ($22.7 million). The event was a 28-lot sale in London tied to Frieze Week, with several guarantees and a pre-sale estimate of £14.2 to £20.5 million.
The article discusses Frieze London viewing and sales, including the Carnegie Museum’s interest in a Kerry James Marshall painting valued at around $1 million. It notes prices quoted in pounds for works such as Anish Kapoor’s Stave (Red) and observations about how a weaker pound could benefit international collectors during Frieze London.
Jean Dubuffet’s Visiteur au chapeau bleu (Visitor with Blue Hat) (1955) leads Christie’s sale of Leslie Waddington’s collection; the sale total reached £28.3 million ($36.1 million) with four artist records set. The auction occurred during Frieze week in London, and Waddington’s collection comprised 44 lots with pre-sale estimates of £12-18.5 million.
Jean-Michel Basquiat's Hannibal (1982) is featured in Sotheby’s Frieze Week sale coverage. The article reports that Sotheby’s achieved the highest ever Frieze week evening sale total, with a £47.9 million ($59.6 million) sale, and notes the comparative lower lot count (34 works) for the evening sale.
The sale at Sotheby’s New Bond Street in London totaled £47.9 million ($59.6 million) with a high estimate of £31.2 million and a 91.2 percent sell-through. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Hannibal (1982) sold for £10.6 million ($13.1 million) to a phone bidder, leading the evening; the work significantly exceeded its £4.5 million ($5.6 million) high estimate.
Pablo Picasso’s The Actor, a 1904-05 Rouge Period painting, is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the estate of Paul Leffmann against the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The suit alleges the museum should not retain the work due to Nazi persecution and seeks restitution or acknowledgment of improper acquisition.
The article discusses the Warhol Brillo Box (3 ¢ off) and its journey from Lisanne Skyler’s family purchase in 1969 to its high-profile auction history, including sales at Christie’s and Gagosian, and its eventual appearance in a documentary after premiering at the New York Film Festival.
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, who is donating more than 100 major works of Latin American art to the Museum of Modern Art, and Glenn D. Lowry, MoMA’s director, are shown with Alejandro Otero’s Pampatar Board (1954). The article discusses Cisneros and her husband Gustavo A. Cisneros donating 102 more works and establishing a research institute at MoMA for Latin American art.
Nelson-Atkins Celebrates Generosity of Henry Bloch with New Acquisition discusses the acquisition of Piet Mondrian's Stammer Mill with Streaked Sky in honor of Henry W. Bloch and the related Bloch Galleries, announced at the Society of Fellows event in Kansas City.
Edvard Munch, Girls on the Bridge (1902) is highlighted as a potential second-priciest work at Sotheby’s New York sale on November 14, 2016, after The Scream. The piece previously sold for about $30.8 million in May 2008 at Sotheby’s New York and for $7.7 million in 1996, all at Sotheby’s New York. Other key works include Pablo Picasso pieces (one painting up to $18 million and a sculpture up to $8 million), Tamara de Lempicka (up to $6 million), László Moholy-Nagy (up to $4 million), and Diego Rivera (up to $700,000).
Paul Allen is reported to be the owner of a Gerhard Richter painting of a jet fighter that could fetch as much as $35 million at Phillips in New York. The work previously sold for $11.2 million at Christie’s in 2007, a record at the time for the artist.
Artists mentioned include Yayoi Kusama, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, George Condo, Lee Ufan, Liu Wei; the sale in Hong Kong at Mandarin Oriental is estimated to reach up to 100 million HKD ($12.9 million), with top works including a Richter Abstraktes Bild and a Lichtenstein landscape.
Gerhard Richter, Jet Fighter (1963) mentioned as Düsenjager (1963) is linked to tech billionaire Paul Allen as the likely consignor for a Phillips sale in November with an asking price up to $35 million. The article notes Bloomberg reporting by Katya Kazakina and quotes Phillips spokesman Michael Sherman; it also references the painting’s previous auction record and Richter market context.
The article discusses a brewing scandal in the Old Masters market centered on alleged forgeries, including a painting once attributed to Frans Hals that sold for $10 million and is now considered a forgery. It also covers the Cranach painting seized by French authorities, linked to Giulano Ruffini, and mentions related works by Parmigianino’s circle and Orazio Gentileschi, with display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery in London.
Sotheby’s announced that more than a dozen Robert Rauschenberg works from James and Roslyn Marks would be offered from fall 2016 through spring 2017, spanning nearly every period of the artist’s career and carrying published estimates up to $400,000.