Sotheby’s launched yesterday this Autumn auctions in New York. In today’s economic context, after last month’s deceiving London sales, a major Pablo Picasso , Harlequin (1919) was withdrawn by its owners for “private reasons”, probably afraid to see it go under its estimate of $ 30 million …
Despite this, many historical art works were proposed under the hammer of the US auctioneer, including a 1915 Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Composition, never seen at auction, and hardly estimable, how rare these paintings previously sold or offered for public sale are, as well as a Vampire by Edvard Munch , a Danseuse au repos by Edgar Degas and Modigliani , Monet , Matisse and Cezanne .
For a sale product estimated at between 309 and $ 427 million, the total amount reached 224 million dollars (72% of low estimates, and 52% of high estimates), an unsold rate of 37% (26 works unsold out of 70) when it is normally around 30%. This product has been strongly supported by the three highest auction results, also records for the artists:
Kazimir Malevich , Suprematism Composition (1915): 60 million (the highest recorded auction results)
Edvard Munch , Vampyr (1894): 38.2 million dollars (highest recorded auction results)
Edgar Degas , Danseuse au repos (1879): 37 million (highest recorded auction results). This work was awarded $ 28 million in 1999 and was the previous record held by the artist to this day.
The eight following art works estimated between 10 and 25 million were not sold: Amedeo Modigliani, Homme assis (appuyé sur une canne) (1918), Claude Monet, la cathédrale dans le brouillard (1894), Henri Matisse, Titine Trovato en robe et chapeau (1934), …
Also note the $ 6.6 million obtained for oil and pasted paper Guitar Juan Gris . It had been sold $ 3.5 million in 1997 and the two records obtained one after another in the evening by Boris Grigoriev , whose paintings binious (pipe player) (1948) and Shepherd of the Hills (1920) obtained respectively in 3,218 M$ and 3,722 M$ .
Modern & Impressionist Art Sale continues this day, Christie’s will launch its NY season with no less than four catalogs including the Hillman & Lawrence collections today.
All auctions results as well as calendars and catalogs are available on Artvalue.com , free information website on the art market.
