ANIMAL » Christie’s

Warholphilia Forever: Andy’s $38.4M ‘Self-Portrait’ Bidding War

Marina Galperina — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:00:21 +0000

Yesterday, Christie’s Rockfeller Center salesroom “booed and hissed, applauded and laughed” in an “epic 16 minute bidding battle” for Andy Warhol’s Self-Portrait, 1963-64. Oh journalists, I do declare, that sounds most riveting indeed… but looks kinda womp womp on video. Hmm. Maybe I’m spoiled after that Orgy of the Rich at Sotheby’s. Anywho, some proper person took home Mr. Photo Booth Mug for $38.4 million because Andy’s still hot hot hot. Will New Yorkers ever stop worshiping Warhol? Judging by the sacrificial pile of Campbell’s Tomato Soup cans at the feet of his chrome monument in Union Square, neve-e-e-e-er.

Dennis Hopper’s Art Collection Has Many Dennis Hoppers

Marina Galperina — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 22:35:45 +0000

Christie’s Jan 11-12 sale of Dennis Hopper’s massive art collection features blue chippers Takashi Murakami, Gerhard Richter and Cindy Sherman, but also, pricey likenesses of the late great actor and “gallery bum” himself. Looking at Randy McDowall’s portrait of Hopper the youthful angel, it’s really hard to remember Hopper the demonic old pervert.

Ohhh… Alright… Cha-Ching at Christie’s

Marina Galperina — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:00:58 +0000

Jeff Koons’s metallic hemorrhoid and Andy Warhol’s soup porn sold big at Christie’s auctions Pop Art garage sale this week, which raked in loot totaling $273 million. The biggest banked item? A ’64 Roy Lichtenstein Ohhh … Alright … that sold for $42.6 million. As in, ohhh, alright, I give up. Gerhard Richter’s candle pair painting was beautiful, though not unique. Still, I’m glad my massive yawn-induced eye roll landed on its calming fuzzy flames.

How to Hide $28.6 Million in a Jasper Johns Painting

Marina Galperina — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:30:22 +0000

It took Christie’s two minutes to sell “Flag” by Jasper Johns yesterday, fetching a new Johns auction record of $28.6 million. “Flag” was part of the late writer Michael Crichton’s personal collection. He purchased the work in 1973 and hung it in his Beverly Hills home bedroom.

Crichton happened to be between divorce and re-marriage then, making for some patriotic bachelor romps. But patriotism probably isn’t the motivation for the high sale. Art dealer Richard Feign thinks it’s just smart investing. An artwork is a “safe place to park $30 million more or less” to “hedge against currency fluctuation.” Invest in your future: stock up on over-hyped fine art now! |AP|

‘Da Vinci’ Goof Might Cost Christie’s $150 Million

Marina Galperina — Thu, 06 May 2010 16:19:41 +0000

A former owner of a 15th-century ‘da Vinci’ valued at $150,000,000 is suing Christie’s. She claims that the drawing was negligently misrepresented as a 19th-century German picture and sold for $17,000, less than 0.01% of its potential worth, in July. She wants full compensation. Can Christie’s afford it? The auction house raked in $335.54 million last Tuesday, its highest total since 2006, mostly because of their record sale of the ‘Eat, Shoots & Leaves’ Picasso painting of his muse sadomasochist sex toy.

“La Bella Principessa” hangs in a Swedish museum as a Da Vinci. The dispute goes on. One expert said that there are anatomical errors that Leonardo wouldn’t make. The ex-owner has fingerprint and carbon dating evidence and “Christie’s strongly disagrees with these claims and believes they are without merit.” Draaamaaa. |Guardian|

Picasso’s Painting of Blond Mistress Sets Record, Is Fug

Marina Galperina — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:40:09 +0000

Yesterday Christie’s set the auction record by selling a Picasso for $106.5 million to an anonymous bidder, breaking Sotheby’s record for a $104.3 mill Giacometti. The reclining Coco-esque blond in “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” is his young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, so that’s twisted, post-coital smugness you’re looking at. She also looked like this, before he knocked her up and exchanged her for a fresher assortment of mistresses/wives/furniturized female forms. There’s not much to this painting aside from its assigned value, really, and the artistic process may have sounded something like this: “Want to be part of art history? Ok, lie down next to this curtain.” |NYT|

Art Market Hopes to Profit from Profiteers

Marina Galperina — Mon, 03 May 2010 16:30:55 +0000

Looks like the art market is looking up again, at least according to “experts” who point to another noticeable spike in the wealth of their target collectors – bank advisors and hedge fun managers. Those sorts usually have an appetite for big ticket items that Christie’s and Sotheby’s are hoping to unload at their upcoming auctions.

Christie’s will attempt to peddle a $90 million Picasso and $74.3 million of Michael Crichton art stash that includes a Jasper John’s flag. At Sotheby’s, Tom Ford is hoping to sell his Warhol “Self Portrait” for $25 million. You never know; it might match some big exec’s purple couch. |Reuters, Bloomberg|

Record Estimate for Picasso’s Absinthe Sipper, Also: Drinking Talk

Marina Galperina — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:15:20 +0000

Christie’s highest European pre-auction estimate is $45-$60 million for Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period portrait of party-boy artist Angel Fernandez de Soto visiting the Green Fairy. Disputed as Nazi loot, the 1903 Picasso brings up the subject of absinthe at Washington Post.

Absinthe is “falsely subversive” and “uncool” as of 2009 according to NYT (along with lower back tattoos and Interpol). The olde-turned-new trend has passed, friends (Mansinthe, anyone?).

But sure, the ceremony of it is nice: the flaming sugar cubes on porous spoons and drip-drip and sip-sip and all that. Then again, it’s sporadically priced, tastes like “bitter-licorice-anise-fennel” and has a worthless 10 parts per million content of wormwood active ingredient/hallucinogenic thujone across the board. Though I’m sure you kids can regale each other with fancy stories of ‘the real deal’ or ‘that one craaazy night in Amsterdam,’ mostly, it’s hard to enjoy absinthe without punching yourself in the face for pretentiousness and being called an asshole.

But it was a different time and a different set of slacker Bohemian fads back in 1900s. Plus, Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole.

Bid On Dash Snow’s Couch, Other Treasures

Will Sherman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 17:15:17 +0000

Christie’s is auctioning off a collection of contemporary art that includes Dash Snow’s cheap leather sofa and other oddities. A gift from his friend, photographer Ryan McGinley, the old couch lived in Snow’s LES apartment where it was excavated in a fruitless search for a mythical bag of coke. Snow later planted a palm tree and various other drug den decorations in the hole he and McGinley dug and titled it “This Was Your Life.” The party mess was exhibited at the now closed Rivington Arms Gallery in 2005, sold to collector Charles Saatchi, and is estimated to be worth between $40,000 and $55,000. Also up for bid at the Post-War & Contemporary Art auction on October 17th in London is a tattooed pig by Wim Delvoye, a couple of trashy fucking rats, a $30k FAILE painting and Damien Hirst’s statue of a girl with a broken leg, featured after the jump.

Empty Cardboard Box Valued at $30k

Will Sherman — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 18:23:50 +0000

From White Cube, the gallery that debuted Damien Hirst’s $100 million diamond covered skull comes more absurdly priced art: a cardboard box valued at $30k. Christie’s expects to fetch that sum auctioning off Gavin Turk’s “Brillo 5,” described as “an ironic and ambiguous work that is essentially a copy of a cardboard box.” |NYP|