The article reports Sotheby’s London auction results from June 21, 2017, noting a new auction record for Wassily Kandinsky at £33 million and a total London sale figure of £127,945,750. It covers the Actual Size curated sale, which achieved £20,931,250, including highlights like Ed Ruscha’s Blue Scream (£1,568,750) and Picasso’s Buste de femme couchée (£2,408,750), as well as a Piero Manzoni Achrome (£1,208,750).
Zhang Daqian’s 1965 scroll painting Ancient Temples Amidst Clouds sold for 102.5 million Hong Kong dollars (about $13.2 million) at a Christie’s sale in Hong Kong. The article notes Zhang as the biggest-selling artist at auction, with Picasso in second place at $31 million less in 2016, according to Artprice. It also mentions Zao Wou-Ki selling for about $19.6 million at Christie’s Hong Kong and discusses China’s growing share of public fine art sales.
Timothy Sammons, a British art dealer and former Sotheby’s specialist, faces extradition to the United States on 14 counts of grand larceny and one count of scheming to defraud. The extradition request was filed by the New York County District Attorney’s Office and UK District Judge Mike Snow has agreed to comply. Sammons allegedly ran a Ponzi-like scheme to acquire art from collectors, promising to find buyers and using funds for himself, including paying for travel to a beachfront home in South Africa.
Pierre Soulages is the artist of the 1962 painting sold in France for more than six million euros, beating its estimate; the work cited is Peinture 162 x 130 cm, 14 Avril 1962. The sale surpassed a previous Soulages record at Sotheby's London in 2013 for Peinture, 21 novembre 1959.
The article discusses a strong start to 2017 in the international art market with high-profile auction results in London, including Sotheby’s £195m and Klimt’s £48m top lot, and Christie’s £2.5m result for Njideka Akunyili Crosby. It notes a shift toward more curated auctions, greater selectivity, and rising attention to female artists such as Agnes Martin.
A painting by Roy Lichtenstein, Masterpiece (1962), owned by Agnes Gund, was reportedly sold for $165 million to fund criminal justice reform, with proceeds supporting the Art for Justice Fund and related initiatives.
Agnes Gund sold her 1962 Roy Lichtenstein Masterpiece for $165 million (including fees) to create the Art for Justice Fund, which will start with $100 million from the proceeds. The Ford Foundation will administer the fund and help raise an additional $100 million over five years.
The Culture Type article discusses acquisitions by the National Museum of Women in the Arts for its 30th anniversary, including Faith Ringgold's 1997 story quilt and works by Yael Bartana, Louise Bourgeois, Lalla Essaydi, Jami Porter Lara, and Berthe Morisot. It highlights Ringgold's piece, American Collection #4: Jo Baker’s Bananas (1997), and notes the museum's ongoing exhibition history with Ringgold’s work.
Helge Achenbach, a prominent German art adviser, has been ordered by the Düsseldorf district court to pay €18.7 million ($20.8 million) to the heirs of billionaire Berthold Albrecht. The ruling largely upholds an earlier 2015 decision and stems from Achenbach secretly inflating his commissions by tampering with receipts. The case previously involved a 2015 sentence of six years in prison and a damages figure that has since been adjusted in the subsequent ruling.
Kandinsky’s 1913 painting Bild mit Weissen Linien (Painting With White Lines) sold for 33 million pounds (about $41.6 million) at Sotheby’s in London, setting an auction record. The same evening, Kandinsky’s 1909 landscape with a green house sold for $26.4 million at the same sale.
Kandinsky in the Tretyakov gallery reports a new record for Kandinsky works at 41,825,000 USD, making it the third-largest auction result by a Russian artist. The painting discussed is Painting with white lines, 1913, sold at Sotheby’s on 21 June 2017, with earlier estimates around 30,000,000 USD and a result near 41,825,000 USD.
David Bowie’s Tintoretto is discussed as part of the Rubens House unveiling of Bowie’s collection, focusing on Tintoretto’s St Catherine altarpiece and the underdrawing revealed by KIK-IRPA, with plans for a scholarly publication and potential temporary return of the painting to Venice for the 2019 Biennale.
Wassily Kandinsky’s works set a new record at Sotheby’s London, with Bild mit weissen Linien selling for £33 million and Murnau – Landschaft mit grünem Haus selling for £21 million. The sale overall totaled £127.9 million, with a 73.9% sell-through rate, and Christie’s June contemporary auctions were canceled with Modern and Impressionist sales planned for next week. The article also reports on a forged-Hirst operation led by Vincent Lopreto, involving fake prints sold to multiple buyers.
Kandinsky’s works set two auction records at Sotheby’s New Bond Street in London, with Murnau – landschaft mit grünem haus selling for £21 million and Bild mit weissen Linien selling for £33 million; the sale also included records for Joan Miró and a Giacometti sculpture, among other lots in the Impressionist and Modern Art Sale valued at over £127 million.
Pablo Picasso’s painting titled Femme écrivant or Woman Writing, dated 26 March 1934, sold at Christie’s in London for £34,885,000 / €39,570,000. The work depicts Picasso’s muse Marie-Thérèse Walter and had not previously appeared at auction.
Wolfgang Tillmans’s Freischwimmer #84 (2004) sold for £500,000 hammer (£605,000 with fees) to set a new auction record for the artist at Phillips. The sale also featured Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (682-4), 1988, at £2.4 million and Peter Doig’s Tunnel Painting (Country-rock), 2000, at £1.16 million. Joe Bradley’s Hat Trick (2009) passed at £200,000. The evening sale totaled £24.4 million ($31.7 million) with a 94 percent sell-through rate.
Paul Gauguin, Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry?) (1892) is discussed as the painting previously billed as the most expensive, with a reported sale price of $300 million. The UK High Court suit reveals the actual sale price was $210 million, $90 million less than reported; the article also notes related works and historic auction records.
Sotheby’s June Impressionist and Modern day sale was led by sculptures from Mary and George Bloch, spanning Moore, Hepworth, Giacometti, Arp, Dubuffet and Calder and tracing four decades of collecting.