Displaying items by tag: Sotheby's

Though musician and cultural icon David Bowie kept his life as an art collector almost entirely a secret, the lesser-known side of his life will be revealed when hundreds of pieces from his personal collection are staged in an exhibition and auction entitled “Bowie/Collector” at Sotheby’s next month. The three-part sale on November 10 and 11 will encompass over 350 works, including a 'spin' painting Bowie created in collaboration with Damien Hirst, an altarpiece by Renaissance master Tintoretto, works by 20th Century British Masters, and more. These pieces have been published in a catalogue, and images are displayed online to give the public a sneak-peek.

A new scandal has rocked the art world, the likes of which have not been seen since the "early Vermeer" scandal of the 1940s. Sotheby’s was recently forced to take back an £8.4 million ‘Frans Hals,’ because it was revealed to be a fake. The paintings in question are Old Masters, said to be by Frans Hals, Lucas Cranach, and others. Few major art figures are willing to speak openly because the scandal is a matter of such embarrassment, but one well-known dealer has described the individual behind the forgeries as the “Moriarty of fakers” because they are so brilliantly constructed.

Earlier this month at Sotheby’s London, the Louvre paid £965,000 ($1.44 million) for a Betrayal of Christ, the left wing of a French renaissance triptych by Dreux Bude Master (probably André d’Ypres). The larger central panel, a Crucifixion (below) has been in the Getty Museum since 1979, and the right panel is in the Musée Fabre. The three panels were briefly displayed together at the Art Institute of Chicago for a 2011 exhibition.

Sotheby’s, the New York-based auctioneer under pressure to improve returns, said Patrick McClymont will resign as its chief financial officer and executive vice president effective Jan. 1, a little more than two years after assuming the post.

McClymont was a partner and managing director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. prior to joining Sotheby’s in 2013. He will receive $3.75 million in cash severance.

The auction house Sotheby’s has accepted the buyouts of 80 employees, or 5 percent of its 1,600-person global work force, the company reported in records filed on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

As a result of the buyout offer, which expired Dec. 9, Sotheby’s said in the filing that it expected a charge of about $40 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The Lock, one of John Constable’s most famous compositions sold for £9,109,000 / €12,562,266 / $13,699,025 at Sotheby’s London, 160 years after its last appearance on the market. The monumental landscape depicting the countryside of the painter’s “careless boyhood” was the highlight of the Old Master & British Paintings Evening sale which featured a significant number of museum-quality works and totalled £22.6 million / €31.2 million / $34 Million (est. £21.8-32.6 million).

Sotheby’s has developed and launched an App that is now available on the New Apple TV device via the tvOS operating system. The Sotheby’s App is available to users in eighty countries and offers an array of ways to go inside the world of art and luxury via the platform that has been dubbed ‘the future of TV.’ The broad range of video content ranges from HD streams of top auctions to videos focusing on the worlds most prized works of art, and insights from Sotheby’s experts.

Marc Porter has resigned his position as Chairman at Christie’s and will leave the company at the end of the year. Earlier this year, he stepped down as the head of Private Sales.

Porter is expected to join Sotheby’s some time in the next year (presuming he has a non-compete and it lasts roughly a year.) At the moment, Porter’s role at Sotheby’s has not been disclosed. But there’s a very good chance he will take a prominent position leading business development for the auction house.

Next week, The Lock, one of John Constable’s most famous compositions will reappear on the market for the first time in 160 years. The monumental landscape - depicting the countryside of the painter’s “careless boyhood” - will lead Sotheby’s London Evening auction of Old Master & British Paintings on 9th December. The sale will be further distinguished by museum-quality works, an unusually large number of which are from private collections and come to the market for the first time in several generations.

There was a silver lining to Wednesday’s otherwise disappointing Sotheby’s auction of American art from the Alfred A. Taubman collection: The sale led to a reunion of siblings.

“The Great Florida Sunset,” an 1887 landscape by Martin Johnson Heade, sold for $5.9 million — more than double the previous record for him, though less than the expected $7 million to $10 million.