Displaying items by tag: Auction

On the heels of its historic sale, "The Artist's Muse," which combined Impressionist and contemporary masterworks, and achieved a new $170 million Modigliani record, Christie's focused this evening's sale purely on postwar and contemporary art.

The sale realized $331.8 million compared with expectations of roughly $320 million. While, overall, it was a solid night, it was clear that the real fireworks had already passed; they happened the previous night.

A spectacular pink diamond, the largest of its kind to ever appear at auction, sold for $28.5 million (26.6 million euros) on Tuesday, narrowly beating auction house Christie's projection. 

An unidentified bidder snatched up the 16.08-carat rare gemstone, kicking off a week of auctions that could see another colored diamond set a new world record.

That stone, a 12.03-carat blue diamond described by experts as flawless, is being sold by rival auction house Sotheby's on Wednesday, and could fetch a record $55 million.

Christie's on Monday smashed world record prices at auction for Amedeo Modigliani and Roy Lichtenstein, selling works by the artists for $170.4 million and $95.37 million respectively.

Modigliani's "Nu Couche" or "Reclining Nude," painted in 1917-18, sold in New York after a frantic nine-minute bidding war in the first time the painting has ever come to auction. 

It was the second highest price ever achieved at auction for a work or art, Christie's said. Applause erupted in the packed room when the sale concluded.

One of the world’s largest watch collections, owned by a Dutch dynastic family that dates back to the 13th century, is going under the hammer at Bonhams in December.

Containing 2,000 timepieces, the collection belongs to the late Jan Willem Frederik baron van Wassenaer, and is so vast that the pieces will be sold in instalments, via various auctions, throughout 2016.

Money Hat, a one-of-a-kind artwork by Andy Warhol, created at the height of his artistic prominence in the ’70s, is coming up for auction on November 11, 2014, with an estimated sale price of $800,000-1,200,000.

The sale is being handled by Nye and Company Auctioneers / Appraisers of Bloomfield, N.J., and will be offered online for a period of three weeks, after which desirous parties can place bids prior to the live sale at the auction house in Bloomfield on November 11.

Warhol was prolific across a spectrum of media, but millinery was never one of them. That is, until 1972, when the preeminent Pop artist adorned a straw hat with a band of 10-dollar bills. One of the bills is signed by Warhol, making the consignment of this unique all the more rare and important.

Adding to the significance of this atypical objet d’art is that the headpiece that served as Warhol’s “canvas” was confected by Halston, the iconic fashion designer of the 1970s.

Warhol presented Money Hat as a 30^th-birthday gift to his friend and confidante Dr. Robert Giller, and is being consigned, with impeccable provenance, by Dr. Giller’s widow. With the exception of a recent traveling three-stop museum exhibit about Warhol and Halston, Money Hat has not been on view to the public.

Dr. Giller can be seen wearing the hat in Andy Warhol’s Exposures, a book published in 1979 and filled with celebrity photos Warhol took with his ever-at-hand Kodak TX-36. Dr. Giller’s copy of the book, autographed on the cover and inscribed on the title page To the Doc/Love, Andy, is part of the lot.

Says John Nye: “It is not every day that an undiscovered work by Warhol comes to the market, much less one in the form of a hat, so my company is elated to be able to put it before the public in this auction,” adding that “We are anticipating a lot of spirited bidding.”

The public is welcomed and encouraged to attend the exhibition at Nye and Company in Bloomfield and to bid at the live auction. With the exception of Saturday, November 7, Money Hat will be available for viewing every day at the Nye and Company galleries until the auction closes on November 11. The galleries are open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Sunday, November 8, the exhibition will open at 12 Noon and remain open until 7 p.m. for a reception. Condition reports and additional photographs are available for those unable to make it to Bloomfield.

It was a somewhat rocky start to the New York sales Wednesday night at Sotheby’s, as the lots from the estate of its former owner A. Alfred Taubman—breathlessly hyped due to the $500 million guarantee plunked down by the house to win it from its arch-rival Christie’s—often sold at below or barely over their low estimates, with some big-ticket lots not selling at all. The final total came to $377 million, inching past the low estimate for the sale by a few million and casting doubts on whether the auction giant can make back its record investment with the rest of the Taubman sales.

On November24th and 25th, 2015, Sotheby’s London will host a major two-day sale of art and antiques from the collection of the Bernheimers, one of Europe’s greatest art dealer dynasties.

The incredible story of the Bernheimer family is a tale of resilience and constant reinvention. Covering four generations of art dealers, it is permeated with the vicissitudes of 20th century history and, in many ways, charts the evolution of the dealer ‘trade’ over for the last 150 years. The Bernheimer business started with a tiny market stall in Munich in the mid-19th century and swiftly grew into the most illustrious antique and interior decoration emporium in the world, renowned for supplying royalty (e.g. King Ludwig II) and the elites of the time.

On December 15 in London, Christie's will offer Mrs Thatcher: Property from the Collection of The Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, LG, OM, FRS -- a rare opportunity for collectors to acquire property from a leading political figure of the 20th century.

In the year that "The Iron Lady" would have celebrated her 90th birthday, approximately 350 historic and personal lots will be offered across two landmark sales: a flagship auction presenting 150 lots in London at Christie's headquarters on Tuesday December 15, and an online only sale comprising 200 lots from December 3 to December 16. These sales are taking place 25 years after Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) left Office, following an 11-year tenure as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990).

Musician Sting and wife Trudie Styler are selling more than 200 items from their art collection, previously housed in their former family home in London.

Works by Matisse, Picasso, Gustav Klimt and Ben Nicholson will be offered at auction at Christie's in February, as well as Sting's Steinway piano.

The auction house said the couple had collected the works "with passion and knowledge" over 20 years.