The Impressionist and Modern market continued to show a hearty though selective appetite for top class works as Sotheby’s delivered a $219,010,001 result for the 50 lots that sold in its Imp/Mod auction on Wednesday night. Thirty-six of the fifty lots sold made over a million dollars and of those, four hurdled the ten million dollar mark.
Twenty-one lots failed to sell for a flabby buy-in rate of 30 percent by lot, 23 percent by value. No artist records were set.
The 71 lots offered had pre-sale expectations of $218.1-317.95 million, figured before the add-on of the steep buyer’s premium calculated at an additional 25 percent of the hammer price up to $100,000, 20 percent up to $2 million and 12 percent for anything above that mark. The night’s tally came up short compared to last May’s $230 million result for 60 works sold. It also significantly trailed Christie’s $285.8 million result for 47 lots sold on Tuesday evening.
Still, the auction benefitted from auctioneer Henry Wyndhams’s authoritatively breezy and humorous style, imported from London, where he presides as chairman of Sotheby’s Europe. Wyndham is an ace replacement in this arena for star auctioneer Tobias Meyer, who left the company last year.
On the financial guarantee front, five lots had backing either from Sotheby’s or anonymous third parties, assuring the sale of those works no matter how they fared in the auction salesroom.
The evening got off to a stellar start as Pablo Picasso’s “Composition avec femme aux cheveaux mi-longs,” a sparely linear white panel composition from 1930 and one of a dozen works from the Jan Krugier estate, sold to Zurich/St. Moritz dealer Krystna Gmurzynska of Galerie Gmurzynska for $2,285,000 (est. $900,000-1.2 million). Despite the big price, Gmurzynska said, “I thought it was quite a good buy.”
Eleven of the 12 Krugier works sold for $32.9 million, well in excess of the group's overall $28.6 million high estimate.
As at Christie’s evening sale on Tuesday, Picasso was represented by 13 works, but on Wednesday it wasn’t his lucky number, with five of those works failing to sell, no doubt because of unrealistic estimates. Still, the maestro added $62 million to the overall tally.
Another Krugier offering, George Braque's “Verre et guitare” from 1912—a choice, oval shaped work in charcoal, pencil, faux bois paper, brown paper and chalk on cardboard, also from the Krugier estate—realized $629,000 (est. $400-600,000). It had last sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2004 for $456,000.
And Fernand Leger’s color-charged, geometric “Les Maisons” from 1922, once owned by the novelist W. Somerset Maugham and more recently by Krugier, sold to a telephone bidder for $3,973,000 (est. $2.5-3.5 million). New York private dealer Nancy Whyte was the underbidder.
The Picasso cavalcade returned with the page-sized, thickly impastoed oil “Portrait de Marie-Therese” from 1932, depicting his lover ensconced in a red leather armchair. It made $4,869,000, selling to another telephone bidder (est. $3-4 million). London dealer Simon Theobold was the underbidder. The work had last sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 2000 for $1.1 million.
Another Marie-Therese inspired picture, “Le Sauvetage” from November 1932—a lively beach scene of acrobatic bathers playing while a limp, half-drowned figure is carried out of the sea—launched a marathon bidding war. Guaranteed by an anonymous third party, it sold to a determined telephone bidder for the top-lot price of $31,525,000 (est. $14-18 million). It was also the week's most expensive lot so far, beating out the Claude Monet "Nympheas" that sold for $27 million at Christie's the night before.
“Le Sauvetage” had last sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2004 for $14,792,000, or less than half Wednesday's price.
Picasso’s long-time friend and rival, Henri Matisse, didn’t capture the fancy of the salesroom. His “La Séance du matin” from 1924, featuring Henriette Darricarrera, the artist’s model and studio assistant, taking a painting lesson in Matisse’s studio in Nice, sold to an Asian buyer in the salesroom for $19,205,000. (est. $20-30 million). It carried a third party guarantee, as evidenced by a horseshoe-shaped symbol adjacent to the artist’s name in the telephone book-thick auction catalogue. The painting had last sold at auction at Sotheby’s New York in May 1986 for $1 million.
Asian buying, in fact, contributed a hefty $63.9 million of the evening’s proceeds, accounting for eight of the lots sold and demonstrating once again the growing depth of that hungry market.
Though dominated by 20th century offerings, the sale also included a handful of Impressionist-era works, like Alfred Sisley’s light-and-shadow-dominated painting from 1880, “Les Carrieres a veneux au soleil-le matin,” which brought $3,749,000 (est. $2-3 million), and Claude Monet’s dramatic cliffside view from 1882, “Sur la falaise a Pourville,” deaccessioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which sold to another telephone bidder for $8,229,000 (est. $5-7 million). London dealer Jonathan Green of Green Gallery was the underbidder.
Green tried for two other lots, noting after the sale, “there’s a very strong market for good things, but there’s no market for s---!”
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s pretty though artificially posed “La Toilette” from 1885, portraying a half-dressed beauty pinning up her hair while seated in a bucolic outdoor setting, sold for $3,525,000 (est. $4-6 million).
A 20th-century Monet, the lush and beautiful “Le Pont japonais,” depicting the foot bridge spanning the lily pond at Giverny and dated from 1918-24, brought $15,845,000, selling to a telephone bidder speaking to Patti Wong, Sotheby’s Asia head (est. $12-18 million). It failed to sell the last time it was offered at auction, at Sotheby’s New York back in May 1997, so the long hibernation was clearly beneficial. The painting is stamped with the artist’s signature, and not personally signed, meaning it never left Monet’s studio during his lifetime. Signed Monets carry considerably more commercial weight in the market.
Sculpture was strongly represented, with four bronzes by Alberto Giacometti, including his iconic 43½-inch high “Femme de Venise V” from a 1958 cast, which sold from the Krugier trove for $8,789,000 (est. $6-8 million). Another version, “Femme de Venise IV,” finished with a rarer and more desirable hand-painted patina, sold at Christie’s Tuesday evening for $12.7 million (est. $10-18 million).
Back at Sotheby’s, Giacometti’s 1948 cover lot, “La Place”—a reputation-making urban scene of gaunt, alienated figures crossing a city square—brought $13,045,000 (est. $12-18 million). It had last sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2000 from the Morton F. Neumann Family Collection for $4.5 million.
A Giacometti painting was also part of the Swiss artist’s mix, “Atelier I” from 1950, a kind of still life portrait of one of the artist’s sculpted heads perched on a studio pedestal. It carried a third-party guarantee and sold for $3,861,000 (est.$3-4 million).
Together, the five Giacometti works contributed $35.1 million to the evening's total.
In fleshy contrast to Giacometti’s spectral figures, Auguste Rodin’s carved marble “Eve” from 1900-01, modestly standing with arms akimbo, protecting her bare chest, made $4,869,000 (est. $4-6 million).
Hans Arp’s polychromed wood relief on painted cardboard from 1923, “Tete au nez rouge,” another Krugier entry, sold for $485,000 (est. $400-600,000) to Zurich dealer Doris Ammann, who then came back to win Giacometti’s 20-inch high bronze, “Nu debout” from a lifetime cast of the 1955 plaster, for $5,989,000 (est. $3.5-4.5 million). New York dealer Maxwell Davidson was the underbidder.
Works by other modern masters, including five paintings by Joan Miro, were led by “Sans titre” from 1947, painted during Miro's stay in New York (and literally filmed while he was making it), which sold to a young and constantly smiling Asian bidder seated in the salesroom with a cell phone glued to his ear for $8,005,000 (est. $4-6 million). Cool under pressure, he beat out at least three other bidders.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the Picasso offerings came near the tail end of the sale, as the contemporary scaled, 77-by-51-inch “Femme dans un rocking-chair” from 1956, also from the Krugier collection, found a new home at $6,325,000 (est. $2-3 million). The obviously low-ball estimate certainly helped this time around; the picture was offered and went unsold last November at Christie’s New York , where it carried an $8-12 million estimate.
“I think when things are not estimated too aggressively we see very good results,” said art advisor Abigail Asher of Guggenheim Asher Associatesas she exited the salesroom, “and when things are estimated very aggressively, the market pulls back. So it’s hit or miss.”
The evening action resumes on Monday at Christie’s one-off contemporary sale, “If I Live I'll See You Tuesday.”
