Category: Auctions
The dark depths of the auction world
June 20 2011
In my day job, I spend a lot of time scouring auction catalogues. In practically every other general sale these days (in regional auction houses) there are pieces of what is called 'Nazi memorabilia'. American auctions particularly are full of the stuff. And it isn't cheap either. There's a whole underworld of collectors, some of them very rich, who are obsessed with anything Nazi-related.
What really baffles me, however, is the relish with which some auctioneers sell Nazi items. Take J P Humbert, for example, who tomorrow will sell a set of four drinking glasses engraved with swastikas and Hitler's initials. Mr Humbert is 'excited' to be selling Hitler's glasses. He tells The Telegraph:
"There is every chance that Adolf Hitler himself sipped from these very glasses.
"It was well known that Hitler had a personal valet in his bunker, and that he dined alone most evenings, using only the finest silver and glassware.
"Certainly the quality is there - the etching is superlative and the mouth and foot of each glass is superbly gilded.
"Whilst there is no written provenance, the fact that the same vendor owned Hitler's sword means that there is every chance that Adolf Hitler himself sipped from these very vessels.
"This really could be a little piece of history in our sale rooms. The glassware is estimated at £5,000-£8,000 but prospective buyers will have to make of it what they will."
As with all Nazi memorabilia, Mr Humbert added they were always mindful of people's feelings. "We have to be tasteful in all we do and would not wish to upset anyone with the item."
I wonder if the tasteful thing would have been to politely decline the lot.
Every now and then someone rings the gallery and mutters something like; 'Can you get me a portrait of Hitler?' With Gestapo-like efficiency, I tell them where to go.*
*ie, sod off.
New price record for Stanley Spencer
June 17 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Sunflower and Dog Worship, 1937, by Stanley Spencer, sold for a new record price of £5.4m at Sotheby's this week.
The Empire Strikes Back
June 16 2011
Picture: Philip Mould Ltd
In The Times and on the BBC’s Today programme yesterday morning was news of one of the recent Van Dyck discoveries included in our exhibition ‘Finding Van Dyck’. The story was later picked up in a rather muddled piece by Channel 4 news.
The picture, Study of the Head of a Woman (above), was bought at the Chatsworth ‘Attic Sale’ handled by Sotheby’s. It was catalogued as ‘Circle of Rubens’. Briefly, here’s just three reasons why I think the study is by Van Dyck.
- The same head appears in two larger compositions by Van Dyck, both painted in about 1630; Achilles Among the Daughters of Lycomedes (Schonborn Collection), and Adoration of the Shepherds (Church of Our Lady, Dendermonde).
- In the Achilles painting, the woman’s head is used in the lower centre, and has been rotated slightly for the figure looking up at Achilles. In the Adoration picture, the study has been inverted, and used for the shepherdess looking down at Christ. (I would illustrate both, but don't yet have permission to reproduce them online).
- In both of the above pictures, the heads follow the study closely, even down to details such as the highlight on the top lip, and the shadows in the cheek.
We are left, therefore, with two plausible options – either it is a copy after the Achilles or Adoration pictures. Or it was made by Van Dyck in preparation for those pictures.
We can immediately rule out option 1, that it is a copy. Not only is it too impulsive, animated and well painted to be by a copyist (or even a studio assistant), it is also at a different angle and with different hair, thus ruling out the possibility that it was painted after either of the larger works.
In response to inquiries from the BBC and Channel 4, Sotheby’s issued the following statement:
Sotheby’s carefully considered the painting when cataloguing it for sale, and reject the recent attribution to Van Dyck. Six out of seven of the world’s leading specialists in this field whom Sotheby’s has consulted also categorically reject the attribution to Van Dyck (the only one supporting the Van Dyck attribution being the same specialist Philip Mould consulted). The overwhelming weight of scholarly opinion – consistent with Sotheby’s original cataloguing – is that the painting is by an anonymous Flemish artist working in the 17th century, ultimately inspired by Peter Paul Rubens.
But here’s three curious things: [more below]
India joins China in the Eastern art boom
June 14 2011
Picture: Christie's
An untitled painting by the Indian artist Tyeb Mehta, which shows a figure resting in a rickshaw, has sold for $3.24m at Christie's. It's the second highest price paid for an Indian painting.
Christie's wins...
June 13 2011
Picture: Christie's
...the race to get their Old Master July catalogues out first.
It's about this time of the year that I nerdishly check Sotheby's and Christie's sites about twice a day, to see if the sales have been posted online.
Christie's have secured some remarkably fine pictures here, such as Robert Peake's Portrait of William Pope, 1st Earl of Downe (est. £1m-1.5m). I'll write more on these nearer the time of the sale (5th July). Now we await Sotheby's offerings...
New York Old Master sales results
June 11 2011
Picture: Christie's
There were some reassuringly solid prices at the main Old Master sales in New York this week. Christie's cover lot, an enticing Mary Magdalene by the Master of the Parrot (above), sold for $1,426,500, beating its estimate of $600-800,000.
Sotheby's star price was the $872,500 realised for Jacob van Ruisdael's Ruined Castle Gateway. This was estimated at just $100-150,000.
There were strong prices in all areas. The sudden craze for Napoleon portraits continues, with a full-length by Alexandre Dufay sellling for $236,500, against an estimate of $60-80,000. It is of middling quality. Not so long ago, portraits of Napoleon (which abound) where not stellar sellers. I wonder who is buying them now?
Van Dyck - or Rubens?
June 11 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
Sotheby's announced today a highlight of their forthcoming July Old Master sales. Portrait of a Carmelite Monk (oil on panel, 62.3 x 48 cm) is being hailed as a new discovery of an early work by Van Dyck. The estimate is £600-800,000.
It is an exquisite painting, and looks to be in fine condition. Colours on panel tend to last better than when on canvas, and here one senses the freshness of the painting, as if it was made only recently. One also sees how the paint has been physically worked up with layers of impasto, in an almost sculptural manner.
Traditionally, the painting has been attributed to Rubens. But Sotheby's has given it instead to Van Dyck, and dated it to c.1617-20. George Gordon, Sotheby's co-Chairman, observes:
...that while Rubens’ portraits are always formally composed, the current work, especially the way the young monk’s head is turned to one side, creates an impression of spontaneity. In addition, the brushwork in the present picture, which is painted in oil on oak panel, is clearly legible throughout most of the painting and is more reminiscent of Anthony Van Dyck when he worked in Rubens’ studio, than of his teacher. Specifically, the use of thick paint to denote highlights in the sitter’s habit is a characteristic of Van Dyck’s personal style at this date, and can be seen in a series of paintings the artist made of the Apostles.
It has become something of a fashion to re-attribute Rubens's made between c.1616-21 to Van Dyck, who was by far Ruben's best pupil. I haven't seen the painting myself, but to be honest my initial hunch from the image is that this leans more towards Rubens.
Either way, it looks like a bargain at that estimate, and will surely sell for more.
Angelica Kauffman slips through the net in NY?
June 11 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
I was interested to see that up for auction a second time in New York was this pair of portraits called 'Circle of Benjamin West.' They were offered at Sotheby's in December, with an estimate of (if I recall correctly) $30-50,000, but failed to sell.
This time they comfortably exceeded their estimate of $10-15,000 to make $28,125 (inc. premium). Despite the obvious damage in the Lady, the condition is actually pretty good. I think the new owner has something of a bargain, for they are, in my opinion, by Angelica Kauffmann (Italian period). You read it here first...
Van Dyck found
June 11 2011
Picture: Philip Mould Ltd
Breaking news! I'll post more on this later, but here is a piece appearing in tomorrow's Observer on a few discoveries a certain blogger has been involved with...
Repin it in
June 7 2011
Picture: Christie's
Forgive the rubbish pun, but yesterday Christie's set a new record for a work by Ilya Repin (1844-1930). A Parisian Cafe, 1875, had been estimated at £3-5m, and sold for £4.5m (inc. premium). The strong price is - thankfully - a sign of the continuing strength of the Russian market.
Sotheby's also sold a fine Repin yesterday, a portrait of his wife, Vera, for £1.1m. And they too set a new record for a work by the Russian artist Vasilya Vereschagin. His The Taj Mahal, Evening sold for £2.28m. It had been estimated at just £250-450,000.
From £3m to £12m to £17.5m - Watteau continues to Surprise
June 7 2011
Picture: Christie's
The government has put a temporary export bar on Watteau's La Surprise. The picture, which was an exciting new discovery when first sold at Christie's in July 2008, is priced at £17.5m, should any public galleries be interested in raising the funds to buy it.
Thought to have been lost for over 200 years, the picture was estimated by Christie's at £3-5m in 2008. It sold for £12.3m (inc. premium).
Of course, with today's non-existent acquisition budgets, you have to wonder whether the whole process is something of a charade. I'll eat my trousers if any museum raises the money to buy it - so what, really, is the point in pretending we might be able to stop the picture being exported?
Lowry self-portrait
June 6 2011
Picture: Bonhams
There's a touching self-portrait of L S Lowry coming up for sale at Bonhams. In Group of People with the Artist, 1961, Lowry is seen on the left, in profile, very clearly standing apart from the group. Says the catalogue:
[Lowry] is the only figure not physically connected on the picture plane to any of the other people. It is almost as if he has been rejected by the assemblage and is staring into a lonely abyss. This is no coincidence as it is surely symbolic of Lowry's state of mind and how viewed himself within society.
Yours for £100-150,000, on 29th June.
'Now, lot 32 - the really rubbish fake. Do I hear €500k?'
June 1 2011
Picture: Der Spiegel
German police have smashed a highly succesful forgery racket. Believed to be Germany's largest ever forgery scandal, the victims included Hollywood actor Steve Martin, and Christie's.
The above painting, 'Landscape with Horses', was sold as a genuine work by Heinrich Campendonk at Christie's in 2006 for €500,000. (I would link to it on their website, but, mysteriously, the lot has been removed). It had in fact been knocked up by Wolfgang Beltracchi, and his accomplice Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus. They had been producing high-quality fake modern and contemporary art since 2001, and possibly earlier. From Der Spiegel:
The accused allegedly attributed almost all of the forged works to artists from the first half of the 20th century, including Campendonk, Max Pechstein, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst and others. Most of the works were sold with now 60-year-old Beltracchi's story that they were part of the art collection of Cologne businessman Werner Jägers, who was the grandfather of the two female suspects in the case. Jägers was said to have bought the works from the renowned art dealer Alfred Flechtheim and hidden them on his estate in the Eifel Mountains of western Germany during the Nazi years. Schulte-Kellinghaus allegedly used a similar ruse, claiming the paintings, which were supposedly lost, originated from the collection of his grandfather, the master tailor Knops from Krefeld.
I've often heard it said that buying modern and contemporary art is a safer investment than old masters, because there are never any doubts over authenticity. But, alas, that's a load of old phooey. And it's practically impossible to fake an old master.
Sketches by Jean Francois de Troy
June 1 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
An important set of seven sketches by Jean Francois de Troy will be offered at Sotheby's in Paris later this month. Brilliantly painted, they were the artist's initial designs for a series of Gobelins tapestries. They mostly carry an estimate of EUR200-3000,000. An eighth is catalogued as 'Studio of de Troy', tho' frankly you'd be hard pushed to tell the difference.
The sketches will be sold under 'Faculte de Reunion' rules: each one will be auctioned in the normal way, but at the end the opportunity will be presented to buy the group by offering them all at the cumulative price. If nobody bids for the lot, then the previous seperate sales go ahead.
Maybe size is everything...
June 1 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
I mentioned earlier a 2 inch high miniature by Frida Kahlo, estimated by Sotheby's at a hefty £800k-£1.2m. But it turns out it didn't sell.
£5m Michelangelo drawing at Christies
June 1 2011
Picture: Christie's
Christies will offer this drawing by Michelangelo, a preparatory study for the abandoned Battle of Cascina fresco, on 5th July. The upper estimate is £5m. Lovely - but a lot of money for a fragmentary sketch.
New Lowry record
May 27 2011
L S Lowry's Football Match was sold yesterday at Christie's for £5,641,250, including buyer's premium. The estimate was £3.5-4.5m.
The previous record was set in 2007, with £3.77m paid for Good Friday, Daisy Nook.
The Churchill boom
May 27 2011
Picture: Christie's
The Beach at Walmer, painted in 1938 by Sir Winston Churchill, has sold for £313,250.
Churchill was certainly a handy painter, and in the list of history's most important figures he ranks near the top. But I wonder if his paintings are becoming a little over-priced?
I can see why, for today's market, his paintings are attractive. But when valuing art you always have to take the long view. So, one has to ask whether the fascination for all things Churcill will be as strong in, say, 100 years, or will he have been eclipsed by a new clutch of popular heroes?
Would a painting by Oliver Cromwell, or Churchill's ancestor the Duke of Marlborough, fetch such sums today? Probably not. The best indicator of value in a painting will always be the quality of the work itself - nothing else really matters.
Pablo who?
May 23 2011
Picture: China Guardian Auctions
Another record price in China seems to confirm the direction of the art market: a work by Qi Baishi (1864-1957) was sold in Beijing yesterday for $65m (or 425.m yuan). Eagle Standing on a Pine Tree, 1946, sets a new record for a modern Chinese painting.
According to Art Price, Qi's work raised $70m worldwide in 2009 - the only artists ranked higher were Warhol and Picasso.
The auction house was China Guardian Auctions.
