British American Tobacco (BTI), the second largest cigarette maker in the world, has been extending their spindly claws of death towards the art world, scraping up $18.5 million for some paintings at Sotheby’s auction the other day. Not as scary as smokey poison peddlers sponsoring elementary schools in China, but still creepy.
Tangent image: lalitkala
Alberto Giacometti’s “L’homme qui marche 1 (Walking Man 1)” sold at Sotheby’s for a record $104.3 million, making it the most expensive artwork ever sold at an auction, despite it being an edition of six. The buyer of the slim, bronze gentleman is a mystery, like most of Sotheby’s anonymous bidders from the gilded percentile that patron the art market, Economic Armageddon regardless.
Also, Gustav Klimt’s “Kirch in Cassone“ was sold for $43 million—most ever for a landscape—after being baby-sat by the Nazis for awhile, making it extra rare and valuable. Explaining the night’s total jackpot of $235 million, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Melanie Clore credited “the serious people” with resolve: “When they see these pieces of art they fall in love… just as they would fall in love with a person.” Yes, a person that you can buy, strap onto your wall and show off to all your swanky friends… Kinky. |CNN|
Sticky street artist Sam Bassett was arrested last week after a failed attempt to tape up Sotheby’s as “a guerilla action to bridge the gap” between the “new creative generation” and all the dead artists up for auction. Tragically, the building’s ledges were too narrow to work on, forcing an abortion of the masking mission. Read more »
Sotheby’s post-war and contemporary art auction saw more then $130 million in sales last night. Helping nearly double the auction’s pre-sale estimate was Andy Warhol’s cash tribute. The pop master’s 1962 painting “200 One Dollar Bills,” sold for $43.7 million, triple its estimated price. That means every single dollar in the 7.5-foot screenprinted painting is worth more than $218k. |Artinfo|
Not surprisingly, contemporary art sales are not only down in New York, but in London too. At London’s June auctions of Impressionist and contemporary art, Sotheby’s, Christie’s International and Phillips de Pury made $270 million, down 70 percent from last year’s record $900 million haul. |Bloomberg|
On Friday, as part of Sotheby’s ridiculously priced “Important 20th Century Design” auction, a bunch of furniture and other items will be offered, including these expensive chairs by artists like Tom Sachs, Shiro Kuramata, Gaetano Pesce and Robert Wilson. Also on the block are pieces by Frank Gehry, Tiffany Studios, Jean Prouve, Gustav Stickley, Olafur Eliasson and this tendriled radiator by Joris Laarman. For just 30 to 50 thousand dollars you can heat your home with “one of the most acclaimed designs of the decade,” according to the auction house. Click here to see the full catalogue.
Tomorrow, Sotheby’s is holding a ‘Photographs’ sale in London and it might be a good time for art collectors to take advantage of the thoroughly depressed art market. Nude works by Helmet Newton are among the auction’s highlights, as well as images from David LaChapelle, Nobuyoshi Araki, and Erwin Olaf among others. After the jump is a decidedly not safe for work gallery of some choice photos that are estimated to fetch between $5000 and $30,000, but will likely sell for less.
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A metallic-looking blue and pink egg by Jeff Koons that sold for a paltry $5.5 million was the highlight of last night’s poorly performing contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s. The results are reportedly the worst in 6 years. |Luxist|
An early photograph of Manhattan’s Upper West Side from 1848 sold for $62,500 on Monday at Sotheby’s auction house. The daguerreotype depicts “a white house with shutters, a grassy hillside and a horse-drawn carriage.” |AP|
With the continual problems facing the economy, the media has been intensely following the big ticket auctions that aren’t selling ridiculously priced artwork, linking the plunging art market to the failings on Wall Street. While we’re no experts and don’t dismiss the far reaching consequences of the current financial climate, the rich could just be losing interest in some of the contemporary art selections. Even if you had the money and were a fan of Roy Lichtenstein, would you plop down $15 million for this “comic-strip painting”? The work failed to sell last night and most buyers probably opted for the less prestigious, more economical version of the image being offered by the high end auction house: it’s catalogue. |NYT|
Roy Lichtenstein, Half Face with Collar, 1963. Oil and Magna on canvas. 121.9 x 121.9 cm.
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