Still’s $61.7 Million Abstract Tops Picasso, Warhol: 2011 Sales
As the European debt crisis roiled financial markets in 2011, the value of the most expensive works of art sold at auction fell 41 percent.
The priciest 10 lots amounted to $413.6 million, compared with a tally of $698.6 million in 2010, according to Bloomberg News calculations.
With a dearth of major estates and masterpieces by market stars, not a single artwork crossed the $100 million threshold in 2011, compared to two pieces the previous year: Pablo Picasso’s 1932 painting “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust,” which fetched $106.5 million at Christie International, and Alberto Giacometti’s bronze “Walking Man,” which sold for 65 million pounds (then $103.4 million) at Sotheby’s.
Evening sales of Impressionist and modern art in London and New York dropped by 21 percent from last year; their postwar and contemporary counterparts fared better, gaining 35 percent, according to Bloomberg News calculations. Together, the major auctions, including private collections, in these categories at Sotheby’s and Christie’s International tallied $3 billion, just beating the $2.9 billion in 2010.
Museum-quality works by undervalued artists, from Old Masters to postwar set records and ignited bidding wars.
Here are the year’s 10 most valuable artworks at auction.
A large abstract painting by Clyfford Still fetched a record $61.7 million at Sotheby’s (BID) on Nov. 9, surpassing the reclusive artist’s previous auction high of $21.3 million. The brooding canvas, “1949-A-No.1,” led a group of four Still lots consigned by the City of Denver to raise money for the endowment of the Clyfford Still Museum, which opened in November. The group tallied $114.1 million.
Roy Lichtenstein’s 1961 painting of a man looking through a peephole sold for $43.2 million at Christie’s International on Nov. 8, setting a record for the pop artist. Titled “I Can See the Whole Room!… And There’s Nobody in It!” it was consigned by Courtney Ross, the widow of former Time Warner Chief Executive Officer Steven J. Ross.
An 18th-century view of Venice’s Grand Canal by Francesco Guardi fetched 26.7 million pounds ($42.7 million) at Sotheby’s on July 6, a record for the artist and the second-highest price paid at auction for an Old Master painting. Dating from the late 1760s, the work was consigned by heirs of the Conservative politician Paul Channon, who died in 2007. The record auction price for an Old Master is 49.5 million pounds for Peter Paul Rubens’s “Massacre of the Innocents” at Sotheby’s London in 2002.
Pablo Picasso’s painting of his mistress Marie-Therese Walter sold for 25.2 million pounds ($40.5 million) at Sotheby’s on Feb. 8. Painted in 1932 -- the same year as Picasso’s Walter- inspired “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” -- ”La Lecture” attracted seven bidders and was bought by a client of Mark Poltimore, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, who works with Russian buyers.
A 1915 landscape by Gustav Klimt surged past its presale estimate of $25 million to reach $40.4 million at Sotheby’s on Nov. 2. Stolen by the Nazis from its Jewish owner, the work was consigned by the woman’s grandson, Georges Jorisch. “Litzlberg am Attersee” depicts verdant hills above the lake of the title in western Austria. Earlier in the year, Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg, Austria, returned the painting to Jorisch. Zurich dealer David Lachenmann bought the work on behalf of a client who he declined to identify.
More news
 |
By now, it’s fairly clear that the protester is the figure who truly defined the year (even Time magazine and Shepard Fairey agree), and it’s as true in the realm of culture as it is in politics.
02 January '12
www.artinfo.com
|
 |
The presentation The beauty of Silence – Japanese prints by Tsukioka Kōgyo will be opening in the Bonnefantenmuseum on 15 January 2012.
02 January '12
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
The Cairo-based artist Ganzeer’s stencil of Egyptian riot police, bravely painted on the side of the Mogamma government building on Tahrir Square last month, is the latest in a long line of works of art that have flourished in Egypt’s streets since Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February 2011.
02 January '12
www.theartnewspaper.com
|
 |
Helen Frankenthaler, the lyrically abstract painter whose technique of staining pigment into raw canvas helped shape an influential art movement in the mid-20th century and who became one of the most admired artists of her generation, died on Tuesday at her home in Darien, Conn. She was 83.
28 December '11
www.nytimes.com
|
 |
US pop artist James Rizzi, best known for his bright, cartoon-like drawings and 3D constructions, has died aged 61.
28 December '11
www.bbc.co.uk
|
 |
Art historians at the Louvre have been accused of "overcleaning" a masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci, leaving the painting with a brightness that was never intended.
31 December '11
www.telegraph.co.uk
|
 |
Exclusively for guests of Art Rotterdam, we now present Hotel Rotterdam. During Art Rotterdam, Hotel Rotterdam offers overnight stays in the studios and homes of artists in Rotterdam.
27 December '11
www.wakeupinart.nl
|
 |
The Association of International Photography Art Dealers will hold the 32nd edition of The AIPAD Photography Show New York, one of the world’s most important annual photography events, March 29 – April 1, 2012, at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City.
27 December '11
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
Masterworks of the traditional fine arts of Japan will be on view during New York’s Asia Week in JADA 2012: An Exhibition by the Japanese Art Dealers Association.
26 December '11
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
From New Year, dealers and auctioneers must pay artists' heirs up to 4% of the sale price of works sold for more than €1,000.
26 December '11
www.guardian.co.uk
|
 |
Art by Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 index over the past 10 years, according to a new measure by Artnet AG designed to rank the performance of art as an asset.
25 December '11
www.bloomberg.com
|
 |
The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that it is collaborating with Google to allow users to search the Web via pictures they take on their mobile phones, to increase access to information online about its encyclopedic collections.
22 December '11
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
The VIP Art Fair has announced the list of exhibitors for its second edition, which opens in February.
20 December '11
www.artreview.com
|
 |
A four-day New York auction of the belongings of Hollywood star Elizabeth Taylor has fetched more than $150m, with one leather-bound film script selling for 50 times its estimate.
18 December '11
www.bbc.co.uk
|
 |
Street artist Banksy has installed a vandalised sculpture of a priest in a gallery in Liverpool.
16 December '11
www.bbc.co.uk
|
 |
In mid-December Foam presents the first major retrospective exhibition in the Netherlands of the work of Joel Sternfeld (1944, New York), one of the pioneers of color photography.
16 December '11
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
The Museo del Prado is presenting to the public for the first time The Wine of Saint Martin’s Day by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the leading figure within 16th-century Flemish painting.
14 December '11
www.artdaily.org
|
 |
A painting believed to be by the street artist Banksy has appeared in Liverpool city centre.
14 December '11
www.bbc.co.uk
|
