Sotheby’s Evening Contemporary Sale – London

Once again, sorry for the late update.  I’ve been working on my dissertation all week and, after an intensive day of reading and writing about art markets and entering auction data into a spreadsheet, it’s a bit hard to concentrate enough to talk about art market news not relating to the Japanese market.

So, the Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening sale that occurred last week on 1 July.  Not surprisingly, the beautiful yet small Study for the Head of George Dyer, 1967, by Francis Bacon exceeded the £8m – £10m estimate (that was available on request) to sell for £13.8m ($27.5m).  Because it is such a small (14 in x 12 in) painting and a study, I wasn’t expecting a crazy price like Abramovich paid for the large Triptych.  However, with the beautiful colors and movement and intimacy and strong brush strokes, I had no doubt that it would go over estimate.

Study for the Head of George Dyer by Francis Bacon

I was, however, surprised to see how well Murakami’s work did at the sale.  DOB Flower, 2000, sold for £825,250 ($1.6m).  Mushroom-1, 2000, went for £481,250 ($959,709) and a statue of his character Kiki from a 2000 edition of 5 came in at £361,250 ($720,405).  While Kiki came in underestimate, the two paintings surpassed their high-end estimates.  I’m surprised by this because they’re very impersonal Murakamis, I haven’t researched them but I assume they were produced in the studio.  However, they did both come through Galerie Perrotin in Paris where they were exhibited in 2001.  Also, they both show iconic characters often produced by Murakami.  Still, despite my surprise, I’m happy – helps me in proving my dissertation hypothesis!

DOB Flower by Takashi Murakami

The U2 Basquiat did alright, selling for £5.1m ($10.2m), under the high-end estimate of £6m, but still a nice little packet for the band to split.

Basquiat owned by U2 on display at Sotheby\

And Gormley’s maquette for Angel of the North, 1996, sold for £2.3m ($4.6m), well above the £600,000 – £800,00 estimate.

The sale total was £94.7m ($188.9m), just exceeding the pre-estimate of £92.6m.   It does seem to be a bit of a bear market at the moment.  But I’m not yet sure how much of this is a result of the overall financial situation, or how much of this is just contemporary art prices re-adjusting themselves from the excessive highs they have been at lately.  I’m rather inclined to think it’s simply a bit of both.

NB – all sale results include Buyer’s Premium

Christie’s Post-war & Contemporary Evening Sale – London

Christie’s Post-war & Contemporary Evening Sale occurred at King’s Street last night.  The 58 lots achieved a sale total of £86.2m ($172.3m), just above the pre-sale low estimate of £80m.  Only 83% of the lots sold.

The most expensive lot of the night was a set of three self-portrait studies by Francis Bacon, 1975, that went for £17.3m ($34.5m).  Jeff Koon’s monumental Balloon Flower (Magenta), which has been on display in St. James’ Square down the street from Christie’s as it was too large to be in the auction house, sold barely above estimate for £12.9m ($25.6m) – although that was a world auction record price for Koons.  And Lucien Freud’s Naked Portrait with Reflection, 1980, went for only £11.8m ($23.4m) compared to its pre-sale estimate of £15m.

14 of the lots last night had guarantees on them – minimum prices the auction house agrees to pay the seller.  If the sale price is higher than the guarantee, the consignor and house usually come to an agreement to split the excess.  If the guaranteed work fails to sell, the auction house (or a guarantor) will pay for the lot outright and own it.

Many art market professionals noted that Christie’s estimates for last night were a bit on the high side and, while there is nothing wrong with the market, buyers won’t buy when prices look high.  So, a Fontana and a Hirst, among others, failed to sell last night.

The Morning and Afternoon sales are today.

Bringing Home the Bacon

Sorry for the absence, but I take my bank holiday weekends very seriously. Or, I was just too ill to be bothered to try and form a coherent sentence. But the former sounds much more glamorous.

On to the art market. Last week I was lucky enough to attend a press call at Sotheby’s London to preview Study for the Head of George Dyer (1967) by Francis Bacon. The painting is absolutely wonderful, full of color and life and motion as it showcases the love of Bacon’s life. It’s intimate for a Bacon, only 14 x 12 in., and one of only two known portraits of Dyer in this small format. Bacon never worked from life models, instead using photographs taken by John Deakin. I was able to see a copy of the photograph Bacon used for this study, and it’s quite interesting. Bacon first cut out the photograph and mounted it, doctoring it a bit to fit his aesthetic view. The end result of the study is quite different from the photograph, but the main points of the composition remain the same.

The painting of Dyer has been in the same collection since it was bought at Marlborough Gallery two months after Bacon painted it. Oliver Barker, Senior Specialist for Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s London, wouldn’t comment on why the collector was selling it outside of “very personal reasons”. The study was recently exhibited at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in the exhibition Francis Bacon: Portrait and Heads where it was also the cover image of the catalogue. It was also on display at the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg for A Guest of Honour: Francis Bacon und sein Umkreis. And the Tate has requested it for their upcoming Francis Bacon retrospective which will travel to the Prado and the Met.

Study for the Head of George Dyer will be auctioned at Sotheby’s Evening Sale of Contemporary Art on Tuesday 1 July 2008. The date of the sale was moved so it doesn’t conflict with Euro 2008 football (no, really, I’m serious. This is what the Sotheby’s people told me.). The painting is estimated in excess of £8 million.

Discussing the phenomenal price the Triptych, 1976 sold for at the latest Evening Contemporary auction in New York ($86.3 million, to refresh your memory), Mr. Barker was asked if he thought the market could hold such prices. He replied that when such amazing works come onto the market, there will always be knowledgeable, passionate collectors who are willing to put out the money to buy them, no matter the state of the economy. He was very excited to have such an intimate and special Bacon to offer in the upcoming sale and, like many of us, is looking forward to seeing how it sells.

Contemporary Spring New York Sales – Sotheby’s & Christies

The spring contemporary sales in New York did extremely well, despite naysayers predicting a downturn in the art market. Christie’s total for it’s May 13 evening sale was $348.2 million, well above it’s low estimate, but not quite at it’s high estimate for the night. Rothko’s “No. 15″ (1952) was the top seller of the night, going to a telephone bidder for $50.4 million. Lucien Freud’s “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” (1995) also went to a telephone bidder, but for $33.6 million, an auction record for Freud. Indeed, an auction record for any living artist. In addition, only 3 lots of a total of 57 were bought in.

Perhaps the most interesting lot of the Christie’s sale was a house. Designed by Richard Neutra for Edgar J. Kaufmann as a desert retreat, the 5 bedroom modernist house located in Palm Springs, CA sold for $16.8 million with premium (a steal when you consider that a painting went for $50 million).

Neutra’s Kaufmann House in Palm Springs

The Sotheby’s evening sale on May 14 also did very well, bringing in $362 million for the house, above the high estimate of $356 million. Only 10 lots of 83 were unsold. As mentioned before on this blog, Francis Bacon’s “Triptych” (1976) sold for $86.3 million (with premium), the highest price ever for a ‘contemporary’ lot. Apparently 18 records for artists were set, including that for Takashi Murakami when his “My Lonesome Cowboy” sold for $15.16 million. Yves Klein’s works sold well on the night, as did those of Robert Rauschenberg who passed away on May 12. Usually after the death of an artist, the prices will drop or stagnate for a bit before rising sharply. However, Mr. Rauschenberg, ever avant-garde, seems to have defied this trend.

Yves Klein’s “MG 9″ (c. 1962) sold for $23.56 million (photo copyright Sotheby’s)

While both sales had a smaller number of lots with greater quality lots, both still exceeded expectations. It seems that the contemporary market is still safe, for now at least.