Lily Safra was the buyer of the $104.3 million Giacometti `Walking Man I’ according to an article by Bloomberg News’ London art market correspondent Scott Reyburn. The news quells speculation that the buyer was Russian, Asian or from the Middle East. Hong Kong collector Joseph Lau was among unsuccessful bidders, according to Reyburn.
Safra’s identity as the buyer is attributed to a pair of unnamed London-based dealers in Reyburn’s story.
The work sold at Sotheby’s in London on Feb. 3 for 65 million pounds, achieving a record as the most expensive artwork sold at auction. Safra is the widow of…
Andy Warhol 1962 "Mike and Bob Abrams," est. $200,000-$300,000, photo: Phillips
Phillips de Pury will offer 325 lots from the estate of Nina Abrams, widow of art publisher Harry N. Abrams, on April 7 in New York. Mrs. Abrams died in 2008 at the age of 97. Her husband died in 1979.
The sale spans American social realism, 20th century modernism and the Postwar era. Works include a 1940s Raphael Soyer portrait of Nina Abrams, estimated $1,800 to $2,500, and Andy Warhol’s 1962 portrait, Mike and Bob Abrams, of the Abrams’ sons, pegged…
Link to Bloomberg story here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — As Polaroid, that once mighty photo giant, withers away in bankruptcy court, a chunk of its remarkable photography collection will be dispersed at a controversial sale set for June 21 and 22 at Sotheby’s in New York.
More than 1,200 works from Polaroid’s corporate collection, chronicling decades of artistic experimentation by Andy Warhol, Chuck Close and others who pushed the aesthetic boundaries of the instant-film process, will be hammered away by order of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. Many…
Freeman's Lehman catalog
Liquidation of Lehman Brother’s art collection continues with a Feb. 12 sale at Philadelphia’s Freeman’s, including mostly works on paper sold without reserve. The 374 lots are expected to fetch about $160,000 to $250,000. The sale can be previewed here.
Chris Johanson, "Forever is Both Ways for All Time", est. $300-$500, via Freeman's
Offerings range from James John Audubon prints of hooping cranes and chestnut colored finches, (13 prints estimated $600-$900) to contemporary editions by Michael Mazur, Pat Steir, Robert Natkin, James Nares…
Giacometti’s slinky ‘Walking Man I’ dominated the Wall Street Journal’s front page after selling for 65 million pounds or $104.3 million at Sotheby’s in London on Feb. 3, becoming the priciest artwork sold at auction.
Wall Street Journal devotes page one to Giacometti's record busting "Walking Man I" photo: Lindsay Pollock
Giacometti with his sculptures
Sotheby’s sold Giacometti’s mottled bronze six-foot tall Walking Man I for 65 million pounds or $104.3 million tonight in London, setting a record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. The buyer was an anonymous phone bidder, according to Sotheby’s.
Picasso's 'Boy with a Pipe' sold for $104.1m at Sotheby's in 2004
The previous record was held by Picasso’s rose and blue Boy with a Pipe, which fetched $104 million in 2004 at Sotheby’s in New York.
Bidding on the striding man started at…
Picasso's "Tete de Femme" sold for $12.9m at Christie's London, via Christie's
Picasso’s 1963 portrait of his headband-wearing second wife, Tete de femme (Jacqueline), fetched $12.9m last night at Christie’s in London, more than doubling the high estimate. It was the evening’s priciest lot.
“My parents loved that painting,” said Nancy Newberger, speaking by phone from Chicago this morning. Newberger sold the painting, along with her sister Susan Newberger.
It had belonged to her late parents, Kenneth and Bernice Newberger, who had investments with convicted swindler Bernard Madoff. “There were losses, but not…
Frances Lasker Brody
The auction wars are heating up as Christie’s and Sotheby’s battle for an estimated $100 million to $150 million worth of artworks from the estate of Frances Lasker Brody, said to be up for grabs for the big ticket May New York auctions.
Brody, a Los Angeles based philanthropist who died in November 2009 at the age of 93, was patron of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Huntington Library. She was the daughter of Chicago advertising mogul Albert Lasker, and…
Goltzius, via Bloomberg
Link to Bloomberg News article here.
By Lindsay Pollock
Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) — Hendrick Goltzius’ 1612 depiction of an erotic encounter between a voluptuous sleeping damsel and a satyr, once owned by Nazi Hermann Goering, fetched $6.8 million yesterday at Sotheby’s in New York from an unidentified European collector who was bidding by phone.
The 6-foot-wide painting, “Jupiter and Antiope,” was estimated to sell for $8 million to $12 million, but drew interest from only one buyer.
Sotheby’s Old Master Painting sale otherwise sparked fairly healthy bidding, tallying…
Andreas Gursky 'Madonna 1,' 2001, courtesy Sotheby's
If I was a famous rock star, worth hundreds of millions, and Andreas Gursky gave me a photograph of one of my most historic concerts, I’d probably keep it.
Apparently Madonna doesn’t feel the same way.
She may be the original ‘Material Girl,’ with a taste for art collecting, but Gursky’s nine-foot tall photograph of a Madonna concert, which the photographer had given to Madonna as a gift, is up for sale at Sotheby’s in London on Feb. 10. Madonna I’s pre-sale estimate…
