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June 2020 fine-art market intelligence

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Fine art

30 Sunflowers: David Hockney’s singular masterpiece

sothebys.com

David Hockney’s 1996 oil on canvas 30 Sunflowers is highlighted as a singular masterpiece in his oeuvre, marking a return to painting after a decade focused on photography. The article notes the painting’s dialogue with Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Vermeer, and Dutch Golden Age masters, and references Hockney’s preparatory remarks and the painting’s exhibition history, including mentions of Monet’s and Vermeer’s exhibitions.

Fine art

Greece escalates legal effort against Sotheby’s to recover bronze horse statuette

voanews.com

Greece seeks to reclaim a 2,700-year-old bronze horse statuette allegedly looted and sold to New York collectors, with a new legal push following a court ruling against Sotheby’s. Culture Minister Lina Mendoni described the ruling as a significant victory in repatriation efforts against the illegal antiquities trade.

Fine art

Francis Bacon’s large-format triptych tied to Oresteia of Aeschylus heads to Sotheby’s auction

sothebys.com

Francis Bacon’s Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus, circa 1981, is highlighted for Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on 29 June 2020 with an estimate in excess of $60 million. The work, one of 28 large-format triptychs and the sixth to appear at auction, draws on Aeschylus’s Greek tragedies and follows Bacon’s earlier Three Studies for Figures at the Base of the Crucifixion; it was most recently exhibited at Centre Pompidou in Bacon: Books and Painting.

Fine art

Show preview for Coeur d’Alene Art Auction in Southwest Art Magazine

southwestart.com

The article preview discusses the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV, with notable works and estimates including Carl Rungius’ Herd Bull, Victor Higgins’ New Mexico Zinnias, Thomas Moran’s Green River, Henry Farny’s Nomads, Edward Borein’s Trail Boss, Eanger Irving Couse’s The Tobacco Bag, and Gerard Curtis Delano’s The Mountain Man, along with expected bidding activity and health/safety considerations.

Fine art

Sotheby’s Hong Kong presents The Harry Garner Reticulated Vase in 2020 Spring Sales Series

sothebys.com

Sotheby’s Hong Kong Chinese Works of Art Spring Sales Series 2020 presents The Harry Garner Reticulated Vase. The press release notes the vase as a lost masterpiece rediscovered in a European country house and provides an estimate of HK$70,000,000 – 90,000,000 (US$9,010,000 – 11,580,000). The piece is described as a magnicent yangcai reticulated vase with a Qianlong seal mark and period.

Fine art

Christie’s to offer £6.5m–£9.5m Magritte in London leg of marquee ONE sale

artnews.com

René Magritte’s L’Arc de Triomphe (1962) is highlighted for Christie’s London session of its ONE sale of modern and contemporary art, with an estimated price range of £6.5 million–£9.5 million ($8.1 million–$11.9 million). The work originates from Harry Torczyner and was completed in March 1962.

Fine art

Lichtenstein brushstroke to fetch $30 million at Sotheby’s NY

salonprivemag.com

Roy Lichtenstein’s White Brushstroke I (1965) is highlighted for an upcoming Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York with a $20/30 million estimate. The painting is part of the Brushstroke series and has ties to several major museum collections, with the auction planned in New York the week of June 29.

Fine art

Phillips set to auction Basquiat work Victor 25448 in July contemporary evening sale

artnews.com

Jean-Michel Basquiat is the artist behind Victor 25448 (1987), a large-scale work offered by Phillips in its New York contemporary evening sale on July 2. The painting is expected to bring between $8 million and $12 million and a portion of proceeds will benefit the Art for Justice Fund. The piece previously appeared in galleries and auctions, including a 2008 Christie’s sale and prior exhibitions tied to Basquiat’s work.

Fine art

RELEASE Lucio Fontana to highlight ONE a global sale of the 20th century

press.christies.com

Lucio Fontana Concetto Spaziale, Attesa, 1966 is highlighted in the New York leg of ONE: a Global Sale of the 20th Century with an estimate of $7.5-10.5 million. The work is a red monochrome painting with a single vertical incision, among Fontana’s six largest single-cut paintings, and is noted as remaining in private hands along with other works in public collections. Mariolina Bassetti comments on Fontana’s work and its Space Age context.

Fine art

Sotheby’s live auction of American art achieves $9 million in New York

sothebys.com

Sotheby’s press release reports that the sale, led by Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s Abraham Lincoln: The Man (Standing Lincoln), brought in $1.6 million, with Thomas Hart Benton’s Noon and Milton Avery’s Colorful Mandolin with Pears also highlighted for $1 million and $740,000 respectively. Additional works in The Ginny Williams Collection Evening Sale included Georgia O’Keeffe’s New Mexico Landscape and Sand Hills with an estimate of $800,000 to $1.2 million.

Fine art

Waning market for African artefacts? Controversial Benin bronze fails to sell at Christie’s

theartnewspaper.com

The Art Newspaper reports on a Benin Kingdom Edo bronze plaque that failed to sell at Christie’s Arts of Africa, Oceania and North America sale in Paris, with an estimate of €30,000-€50,000. Academics criticized the provenance, and experts like Erin Thompson weighed in on repatriation and ethical considerations surrounding such artefacts.

Fine art

Sotheby’s reopens the market with $363.2 million June evening sale

artnews.com

The article reports Sotheby’s sold $363.2 million in modern and contemporary art in a hybrid, three-continent June evening sale with telephonic and online bidding. Top lots included works from Ginny Williams’s Colorado collection ($65.5 million), Hunk and Moo Anderson’s collection ($66.3 million), and a private Latin American Surrealists and modernists group titled “The Vanguard Spirit” ($26.6 million). The sale achieved a 93.2 percent sell-through across 69 lots, with bidding conducted from Sotheby’s staff and specialists.

Fine art

Lines drawn in solitude: Sanyu’s White Chrysanthemum in a Blue and White Jardinière

christies.com

Sanyu’s White Chrysanthemum in a Blue and White Jardinière sold for HK$191,620,000 on 10 July 2020 at Christie’s Hong Kong. The article references Sanyu (Chang Yu, 1895–1966) and outlines his Paris years, influences, and shift to ceramics and lacquered furniture which informed his painting style.

Fine art

Apocalyptic painting by John Martin ends at $550,000 at New Haven Auctions

antiquesandthearts.com

The painting The Destruction of the Cities of the Plains by John Martin (1789-1854) sold for $550,000 (including buyer’s premium) at Fred Giampietro’s New Haven Auctions in New Haven, Connecticut. The work, dating to 1823, was purchased in 1965 from Leggatt Brothers in London and has a frame size of 43 1/4 by 66 inches.

Fine art

Francis Bacon Triptych sells for $84.6 million at Sothebys virtual sale

barrons.com

Francis Bacon's Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus sold for $84.6 million, including fees, during Sothebys contemporary sale conducted virtually. The sale also included 18 works owned by Denver gallerist Ginny Williams, and Sothebys reported about the overall sale totals and regional bidding in New York, Hong Kong, and London.

Fine art

Sotheby’s Market Update: Sotheby’s Hong Kong Chinese Works Of Art Spring Sales Series 2020 To Take Place On 11 July 2020

Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s documents the market development behind Sotheby’s Hong Kong Chinese Works Of Art Spring Sales Series 2020 To Take Place On 11 July 2020. Its account reports that sotheby’s Hong Kong Chinese Works of Art Spring Sale Series 2020 on 11 July is proud to present The Harry Garner Reticulated Vase , a lost masterpiece of Chinese porcelain found in a remote European house almost 60 years since it last came to market.

Fine art

Sotheby’s Market Update: Sotheby's Hong Kong Announces Contemporary Art Spring Sales July 2020

Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s documents the market development behind Sotheby's Hong Kong Announces Contemporary Art Spring Sales July 2020. Its account reports that sotheby’s Contemporary Art Spring 2020 Sales, scheduled for 9 – 10 July 2020 in Hong Kong, will present a highly curated selection of distinguished works by Western and Asian artists.

Fine Art

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