Both Sotheby's and Christie's turned in
snappy performances in the London
contemporary art sales in late June, with
Christie's besting its arch competitor in
sales volume £7.61 million to £ 7.35
million ($11.72 million vs. $11.31
million). As you might recall, Christie's
also posted higher results in the New York
sales in May, making it a clean though
modest sweep for the Christie's team,
headed by Brett Gorvy in London and Neal
Meltzer in New York.
But the real fireworks and genuine drama
occurred at Sotheby's evening sale on June
26 under the deft handling of
expert/auctioneer Tobias Meyer when Andy
Warhol's big and brassy Mao (1972) soared
to £672,500 ($1,034,770). New York private
dealer (and former Sotheby's contemporary
chief) Lucy Mitchell-Innes bought the
picture for an unidentified private
client. Her seatmate, Paris private dealer
Marc Blondeau, was on the phone with the
eager buyer and Blondeau telegraphed the
bids to Innes who smiled throughout the
contest. The trio had to duel with a half-
dozen competitors, including Larry
Gagosian, the eventual underbidder. The
extremely rare Mao had been in the same
private collection since 1973. Even though
the estimate, at £100,000-£150,000, was
absurdly low--a fact obvious to every
reasonably informed bidder--the contest
still made for great theater.
The Warhol icon, the second highest lot of
the evening, helped make the sale
Sotheby's strongest in London since June
1990.
Jean Dubuffet's 1946 oil, sand and putty
on canvas, Hommes Et Arbres
Somnambuliques, took top-lot honors at
£826,500 ($1,271,730), selling to German
collector and billionairess Heide Charmat,
the mysterious figure who virtually made
Sotheby's earlier, June 24 Impressionist
and modern sale, snaring five of the top
seven lots.
Charmat was also the buyer of Lucio
Fontana Concetto Spaziale from 1954,
complete with glued-on Murano glass
pebbles, skipped to £ 386,500 ($594,710).
The Fontana would make a strange housemate
for a circa 1883 Renoir, another of
Charma's acquisitions in the Imp-Mod, but
no one at Sotheby's was criticizing the
hungry collector's taste. Charmat was
reportedly at it again (bidding through
Sotheby's Vienna office chief Agnes
Husslein) nabbing the wide-eyed and
vulnerable Lucien Freud portrait from
1947, Girl in a White Dress, for £364,500
($560,860).
With only 55 lots offered, Sotheby's
exceeded its high estimate and achieved a
taut 15% buy-in rate.
Christie's weighed in with 79 lots at its
June 27 evening sale, including five by
the Russian-born abstractionist Serge
Poliakoff (1906-1969), rarely seen in New
York salesrooms. Poliakoff's Composition--
Rouge, Jaune, Blanc, Bleu au Traits (1952)
sold to a European institution for
£199,500 ($307,230).
Both houses cheered that American buyers
went after European material usually
shunned by that portion of the market,
including works by Yves Klein, Lucio
Fontana and Jean Fautrier. Christie's
delivered a slim 12% buy-in rate but
landed mid-way between its £l6.3 million
to £8.5 million presale estimate.
Christie's cover lot, Francis Bacon's
fearsome Head of a Woman from 1960,
believed to be the portrait of Muriel
Belcher, Bacon's close friend and
proprietress of his favorite drinking
club, The Colony Room, fetched £540,500
($832,370). It was a bargain, estimate
wise, since it hammered in at £60,000
below the £550,000 ($800,000) low
estimate. The moderately sized work
measured about 35 by 27 in.
A stunning Nicolas de Stael highway scene,
La Route d'Uzes from 1954 sold for
£315,000 ($485,100) to New York dealer
Larry Gagosian. Another Lucio Fontana
punctured canvas, this one with a luminous
gold ground, Concetto Spaziale (1959-60),
zoomed to £452,500 ($696,850).
Demand for Yves Klein continued with
considerable brio as IKB 272 (1957), one
of Klein's eleven "Blue Monochrome" canvases
of the same size and format, smashed its
high estimate and realized £254,500
($391,930). Larry Gagosian was the buyer,
vanquishing his competition. "What has
changed completely and utterly is the
participation of Americans," raved
Christie's Brett Gorvy.
Newsflash: In what can be seen as a vote
of confidence for the future of SoHo as
the world's most important contemporary
art scene, dealer and art advisor Jeffrey
Deitch has acquired the Canal Lumber
building on Wooster Street (just south of
Colin DeLand's American Fine Arts) and
will convert the huge warehouse into
gallery spaces under the expanding Deitch
banner. Deitch says he will continue the
cutting-edge programs at Deitch Projects
on Grand Street, formerly the home of
Fawbush Gallery. Before the massive re-do
on Wooster, Deitch will present several
shows in the rough-hewn space. "It's a
lumber yard," marveled the dealer, who
declined to identify the artists who will
debut there in the fall.
Judd Tully covers the international art
market for a variety of publications,
ranging from Art & Auction to The
Washington Post.
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