Pablo Picasso’s Femme au béret et à la robe quadrillée (1937) led Sotheby’s impressionist sale in London, estimated at £36 million and carrying a third-party guarantee, with the sale total reaching £136 million ($188.9 million). Colin Gleadell reports that the market showed strength as Picasso’s works dominated the evening, including the single most valued lot of the season in London, and that Sotheby’s was behind Christie’s total for the week.
Nate Freeman reports that a £112.7 million Picasso spending spree helped Christie’s and Sotheby’s achieve strong sales in London. The piece notes Christie’s Impressionist and Modern evening sales and a high-performing Picasso, with a Sotheby’s sale featuring Picasso’s portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter fetching £49.8 million ($65.6 million).
Rhode Island School of Design denies a claim on Pablo Picasso’s Femme assise au livre (Seated Woman with a Book) (around 1910-12) by the heirs of Alphonse Kann, who alleged the work was looted by the Nazis. Provenance research commissioned by RISD concluded the painting was not looted from Kann’s collection.
John McEnroe sold Mark Bradford’s 2007 painting Helter Skelter I for $10.4 million at Phillips in London; the work was inspired by Charles Manson. The painting was created by Mark Bradford and Housed in McEnroe’s Manhattan apartment prior to sale; the buyer was not disclosed.
Pablo Picasso La Dormeuse (1932) sold for £41.8 million ($57.8 million) and Allen Jones’s T-riffic (1966) sold for £705,000 ($974,000) at Phillips’ London sale, which totalled £97.8 million ($135 million), the highest Phillips sale ever. The article notes Phillips’ strategy of mixing Modern and contemporary works and discusses their use of guarantees and blue‑chip ambitions under Hugues Joffre and Edward Dolman.
Pablo Picasso’s portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter sold for nearly $70 million, contributing to a total of more than $430 million across eight Sotheby’s auctions held between February 28 and March 8, 2018. The period included a record online-only sale and high sell-through rates, with bids led by works from Picasso, Doig, Richter, and Wool among others.
Phillips’ March 8 20th Century Contemporary Art auction in London achieved total sales of £97.8m ($135.2m), a house record. Picasso’s La Dormeuse (1932) led with £41.8m ($58.1m), surpassing its £18m ($20.3m) estimate, while Mark Bradford’s Helter Skelter I (2007) brought £8.6m ($11.9m), setting a new auction record for the artist.
Mark Bradford's Helter Skelter I (2007) sold for £8.7 million ($12 million) at Phillips in London, a record for the artist. The buyer was Eli Broad’s The Broad Museum in Los Angeles, which also acquired another Bradford work, I heard you got arrested today (2018), and announced additional acquisitions by Yayoi Kusama, Kerry James Marshall, Sherrie Levine, and others.
Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman, bust length, from the 1620s, sold for £5.4 million in Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings sale in London on 4 July. The painting, once in Hans Wetzlar’s collection, has not appeared on the market for over 60 years. The work is associated with Rubens’ Venetian studies and may be based on a Tintoretto prototype.
Mark Bradford’s Helter Skelter I set a auction record, sold in London by Phillips for 8.7 million pounds; Eli Broad financed the purchase bringing the painting to The Broad Museum in Los Angeles. The Broad also acquired Bradford’s Ho sentito che sei stato arrestato oggi (2018), shown in a Hauser & Wirth exhibition in Los Angeles.
The Broad acquired Mark Bradford’s Helter Skelter I (2007), along with works by Julie Mehretu and Kerry James Marshall, after Bradford’s piece fetched a record price at auction. The article discusses the sale history, the price achieved, and Broad’s acquisition as a centerpiece for its collection.
Mark Bradford’s Helter Skelter I (2007) sold for £8.7 million ($12 million) at Phillips in London, with Eli Broad’s museum identified as the buyer. The Broad Museum in Los Angeles also acquired Bradford’s I heard you got arrested today (2018) and Kusama’s Longing for Eternity (2017), among other acquisitions.
The Broad in Los Angeles has acquired Mark Bradford’s Helter Skelter I, 2007, and I Heard You Got Arrested Today, 2018, as well as Yayoi Kusama’s Longing for Eternity, 2017. The museum purchased Helter Skelter I at Phillips, London, for $12 million.
Edward Hopper, “House by a River,” 1919, etching, sold for $100,000. Pablo Picasso, “La Colombe,” 1949, lithograph, sold for $67,500. Diego Rivera, “El sueño (La Noche de los Pobres),” 1932, lithograph, sold for $40,000.
The lot features a soapstone ink rest carved as a miniature kang table, a soapstone brush pot carved as a gnarled tree trunk, and a rectangular brush washer with inscribed auspicious verses. Largest piece measures 5 5/8 inches (14.3 cm) long.
Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XII, 1975, sold for $35 million at Lévy Gorvy’s booth to a private collector during Art Basel Hong Kong. The sale, tied to a tech billionaire collector, marked a strong start to the fair, which is described as maturing into an art-market powerhouse.
Willem de Kooning, Untitled XII (1975), was sold by Lévy Gorvy for $35 million to a private collector. The sale occurred during the VIP preview of Art Basel in Hong Kong, with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen identified as the owner who asked Lévy Gorvy to sell the painting.
Nazi policies forced Jewish collectors like Paul Leffmann to sell their art, whatever the price (The Art Newspaper). The article discusses a US court ruling regarding Picasso’s The Actor and how restitution perspectives conflict with the decision, referencing Paul Leffmann and Thelma Chrysler Foy, and noting concerns about third-party duress under New York law.
Mark Bradford is the Los Angeles-based artist discussed. The artwork and exhibition mentioned include a sold-out show at Hauser & Wirth in Hong Kong during Art Basel in Hong Kong, featuring works such as stand down soldier. The article notes the exhibition runs through May 12 and references Bradford’s Tomorrow Is Another Day shown in Venice and opening at the Baltimore Museum of Art in September.
Sotheby’s documents the market development behind Doig Leads Contemporary Masters to £109 Million in London | Contemporary Art. Its account reports that the Contemporary Art Evening Auction was led by a landmark Peter Doig painting — The Architect’s Home in the Ravine— which realised £14.4 million.