May 14 (Bloomberg) -- Lucian Freud,
the 85-year-old flesh- and-flab-loving British painter, became the
world's priciest living artist at auction last night when his graceful
portrait of a 280-pound civil servant named Sue fetched $33.6 million
at Christie's International in New York.
The 1995 Freud was one of eight records
smashed in an exuberant sale featuring the male clique of auction stars that includes Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon and Richard Prince. Tom Wesselmann, Prince, Sam Francis and Adolph Gottlieb also fetched new highs.
"Benefits
Supervisor Sleeping,'' Freud's life-size, 7-foot- long painting of Sue
Tilley curled up on a ratty sofa, was estimated to sell for $25 million
to $35 million. The overall 57-lot sale tallied $348.3
million, the second- highest total for the category and closer to the
top of the $282 million-to-$398.6 million presale range. Just three
lots didn't sell and Americans took home 70 percent of works sold. It
was as if buyers were oblivious to talk of recession and remnants of
the credit crisis in the world outside the Rockefeller Center
salesroom.
"Defying gravity tonight,'' said
billionaire Eli Broad as he stepped out of the salesroom, accompanied
by wife Edye, and Joanne Heyler, director of the Broad Art Foundation. The top lot was a 1952 Mark Rothko painting, with red bands on a yolk-yellow background, that fetched
$50.4 million. Estimated to sell for about $40 million, it rode the
Rothko wave that began a year ago, when David Rockefeller sold a pink-and- yellow
canvas for a record $72.8 million at Sotheby's.
As the salesroom cleared, The New Yorker architecture critic Paul Goldberger spotted Michael Ovitz in the crowd.
"I haven't seen you since St. Barts,'' Goldberger declared, sidling up to Ovitz. ``But you had a beard then.'' Other bold-faced collectors included real estate developer Aby Rosen, lanky plastics magnate Stefan T. Edlis and perennially tanned fashion designer Valentino Garavani. "The very important went very high,'' Valentino said. Christie's didn't miss any marketing angles. The firm's billionaire owner Francois Pinault hosted a dinner Monday night honoring Jeff Koons.
In November, Koons's 3,500-pound, hot-pink, stainless-steel ``Hanging
Heart (Magenta/Gold)'' sold for $23.6 million at Sotheby's New York ,
establishing him at the time as the priciest living artist at auction.
In an unusual move, Christie's tapped the boom market for contemporary art in offering a famous
mid-century home, the Richard Neutra-designed "Kaufmann House.'' The
five-bedroom house in Palm Springs , California , fetched $16.8 million, near the low end of $15 million-to-$25 million estimate. After the sale, the anonymous
phone bidder exercised an option to purchase an orchard parcel, one third of an acre for an additional $2.2 million. Christie's sale was the first postwar and contemporary auction of the week.
Sotheby's auction, starring a Bacon triptych expected to fetch about
$70 million, is tonight. Phillips de Pury & Co. follows on May 15.
Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas , said while the top end of the contemporary market is for the super rich, it's broad.
"The misconception is that it is just hedge fund people,'' he said. ``The fact is buyers are in every segment of
international business.'' Enviable
returns studded the sale. Bacon's 1976 ``Three Studies for
Self-Portrait'' fetched $28 million. In 1999, the somber twisted
portraits sold for $2.9 million at Christie's in London and six years later made $5.2 million in New York .
Prince's
campy "Nurse'' series paintings went for less than $100,000 five years
ago. Last night, "Man-Crazy Nurse #2'' went for $7.4 million. The
seller was television producer and MoMA trustee Douglas S. Cramer. Hedge fund titans Steven Cohen and Daniel Loeb are among Prince's devotees. "I would've expected a correction by now,'' said Broad. "It's just a question of when.''
Warhol dominated the field with eight lots. A spare black 1966 silkscreen "Double Marlon,'' using a film still from Marlon Brando's bad-boy "Wild One'' film, fetched $32.5 million, more than a $30 million estimate. In 1992, the work sold for $935,000 at Sotheby's in New York .
San Francisco film producer and punk rocker Henry S. Rosenthal sold a 1962 Warhol "Campbell 's Soup Can (Pepper Pot),'' which he said his father bought
in 1962 for a few hundred dollars. For the last 30 years, the painting
has hung in Rosenthal's warehouse in San Francisco 's skid row. Last night, it fetched $7.1 million. "It
was a difficult decision to sell,'' said Rosenthal, 53. "But as the
painting became absurdly valuable, it became more nerve-wracking to
keep it.''
Gerhard Richter's 1987 riff on abstraction, the yellow, blue and red "Abstraktes Bild
(625)'' sold for $14.6 million. The 13- foot-wide canvas fetched $3.4 million five years ago at Christie's in New York . "There is no recession in the art market,'' said Norman Rau, collector and president of Sandusky Radio. ``I wish traditional media was this good.''
Last week, Christie's and Sotheby's held impressionist and modern art auctions. Overall the two weeks of sales were projected to total up to $1.8 billion. Sale prices include a buyer's commission of 25 percent of the hammer
price up to $20,000, 20 percent of the price from $20,000 to $500,000,
and 12 percent above $500,000. Estimates do not include commissions.
May 15 (Bloomberg) -- Francis Bacon's three-panel painting of a headless man devoured by vultures sold for $86.3 million in New York last night, smashing the auction record for contemporary art and defying predictions of a recession. The
sale drew an array of solvent swells, including former Paine Webber
Group chairman Donald Marron and Blackstone Group Vice Chairman J.
Tomilson Hill III. The $362 million auction was the New York company's biggest ever and beat its $356.7 million high estimate for the 83 lots.
"There are fewer people in the market,'' said Paul Gray of Chicago's Richard Gray Gallery. ``But those who
are in have plenty of confidence, exuberance and lots of dough.'' Eight lots went for more than $10 million. Records fell for 18 artists from around the globe, including Yves Klein, Hans Hofmann, Lee Krasner and Takashi Murakami, who attended the sale carrying a designer camouflage tote bag. Ten lots failed to reach Sotheby's minimum price and didn't sell.
On Tuesday night, Christie's International pulled in $348 million for 26 fewer lots, $14 million less than Sotheby's total. Sotheby's shares rose 11 percent yesterday, their biggest jump in more than two
years, in expectation of a buoyant evening. Phillips de Pury & Co.
holds its contemporary auction tonight. Sotheby's previous record for its top sale was $315.9 million at a November 2007 contemporary auction.
Murakami's
buck-naked, 8-foot-tall "My Lonesome Cowboy,'' inspired by a Japanese
video game hero with a swirling semen lasso, fetched more than five
times its $3 million low estimate. At $15.2 million, it may be the most
expensive ejaculation ever auctioned. (A Sotheby's spokeswoman said that's one category they don't track.) Accessories around the salesroom included a straw cowboy hat, a neck tattoo and four-inch designer heels. Dealer Larry Gagosian managed to make gum chewing and granny gl**** look cool.
"A successful auction takes two things: money and testosterone,'' said Chicago collector Stefan Edlis, outfitted in a black leather jacket. The
trophy Bacon, "Triptych, 1976,'' was inspired by Greek mythology and
the artist's angst. Oozing amorphous figures represent the bleak view
of Bacon, who died in 1992. His previous record was $52.7 million, set
at Sotheby's New York last year, for a swirling, red, Pope-like figure
in the 1962 "Study for Innocent X.''
Bidding for the Bacon opened at $60 million, not far off the $70 million estimate, indicating Sotheby's confidence. The race narrowed to two contestants, represented over the phone by Oliver Barker from the London
office and Patti Wong, chairman of Sotheby'sAsia.
The room was hushed as bids rose mostly in million-dollar steps. At $76 million, auctioneer Tobias Meyer looked at Wong. "Be brave!'' he exhorted. Wong laughed and offered $76.5 million, her client's final effort.
"Is he sure?'' Meyer asked. ``Even if I beg?''
Wong's client was done. An unidentified European collector, on the phone with Barker, prevailed.
The evening's biggest casualty was Mark Rothko,
whose 1956 "Orange, Red, Yellow'' drew not a single bid. Estimated to
sell for more than $35 million, it was especially painful for
Sotheby's, which said it "owns the lot in whole or in part or has an
economic interest in the lot equivalent to an ownership interest.'' On Tuesday, the top lot at Christie's was another yellow- and-red Rothko, which sold for $50.4 million.
Rothko's 1950s ``White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)''
held the previous record for priciest contemporary work sold at
auction, fetching $72.8 million last year at Sotheby's in New York.
Sotheby's sale got a lift from 33 lots from the Lauff Collection, totaling $96
million, more than double the $47 million estimate. "Provenance and
quality,'' art adviser Thea Westreich said, explaining their success. With
a juice and bottling fortune, German collectors Helga and the late
Walther Lauffs bought major minimalist, Pop and conceptual artworks in
the 1960s and 1970s. They purchased under the direction of Paul
Wembers, the influential director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, Germany. The collection was formerly on loan to the museum.
Sotheby's guaranteed the collection, promising the seller an undisclosed amount regardless of the outcome of the sale. (New York dealer David Zwirner is also selling a large chunk of Lauff works.)
A reflective 1962 Yves Klein "MG 9,'' with mottled gold leaf, was the evening's second-highest lot,
fetching a record $23.6 million. Klein's "IKB 1'' in his trademark
electric blue, made $17.4 million. Private dealer Philippe Segalot bought both. Robert Rauschenberg's
oil-and-silkscreen 1963 canvas of images of New York stop signs and
office buildings fetched a record $14.6 million, just below the $15
million presale high estimate. The artist died on Monday at age 82.
Bansky, the fashionable
London street artist, turned out to be not quite so hot on canvas. Last
night marked his first appearance in a Sotheby's New York evening sale.
Four quaking cloaked figures, on their knees, pray and prostrate to a
red sign announcing "Sale Ends Today.'' Estimated to fetch up to
$800,000, the painting didn't sell. Prices include a
buyer's commission of 25 percent of the hammer price up to $20,000, 20
percent of the price from $20,000 to $500,000 and 12 percent above
$500,000. Estimates do not reflect commissions.
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Embattled art dealer Lawrence Salander suffered a defeat in a Poughkeepsie, New
York, courtroom yesterday, when he and his wife, Julie, were ordered to cede
control of their finances to an independent trustee.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Cecelia Morris approved a motion to convert the Salanders' case
from a Chapter 11 reorganization to Chapter 7 liquidation, in which a trustee
sells all except ``exempt assets.''
The U.S. Justice Department introduced the motion last month, and it was
opposed by the Salanders. Justice Department lawyer Eric Small said yesterday
that since the Salanders filed for bankruptcy protection in November, they've
been slow to sell assets and quick to accumulate new debt.
``This proceeding has been an exercise in delay,'' he said.
Yesterday's rebuke wasn't Salander's first by Morris. In February, she denied
his request that he be rehired by his bankrupt Salander-O'Reilly Galleries LLC,
calling it a ``fatally flawed motion.''
The Manhattan district attorney has seized records from the Salanders'
Manhattan home and the Upper East Side mansion he rented that housed the
gallery. Salander, who has seven children from two marriages, hasn't been
charged with a crime.
Excluding fees for bankruptcy-related professionals, such as lawyers, Small
said yesterday that the Salanders incurred about $800,000 in new debt since
their bankruptcy filing, through February. He pointed out that the couple hasn't
sold their Manhattan townhouse or their home in Millbrook, New York, though they
have hired a Manhattan broker and have sought court approval to enlist one for
Millbrook.
`No Confidence'
``The debtor does not have the confidence of the creditors,'' said Lewis
Wrobel, a lawyer representing Renaissance Art Investors, which supported the
conversion to liquidation and claims to own 600 works of art held by Salander-
O'Reilly. ``This cries out for an independent fiduciary.''
The Salanders were in court and left before the judge's order. Salander
lawyer Douglas E. Spelfogel argued that a trustee would be less effective in
selling the Salanders' art collection than Salander himself. One reason the
couple didn't rush to sell their real estate was to realize the best price,
Spelfogel said.
Salander-O'Reilly Galleries also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November,
as it and Salander personally faced dozens of lawsuits alleging that art and
funds were misappropriated and debts were ignored. Salander has denied
wrongdoing.
April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Paula Rego's studio has been invaded.
Interview by Martin Gayford
Strange figures have appeared: Some are gigantically tall, some have bulbous
heads like potatoes, others are skeletally thin. First they appeared in her
paintings and drawings, now they are going to attend her new show at Marlborough
Chelsea, New York.
"It's like bringing my friends here,'' Rego says in a phone interview. "But
they have to sit still.''
Of course, these personages aren't really alive. They are grotesque figures
made by Rego and her regular human model of many years, Lila Nunes, which Rego
then depicts as characters in her work. That might sound a bit cute, all the
more so since in the past she has used children's books such as ``Peter Pan'' as
sources. Yet when you listen to Rego talk about them, you realize that there's
nothing twee about her art at all (nor is there anything twee about those
classic British children's stories).
Rego calls one of the modeled figures the "Old Woman.'' This withered,
almost naked mannequin, as Rego describes it, has "a mask that looks like Aunty
Death or something, but she's quite plump, so she's more like a person with a
very skinny body than a skeleton. And she's incontinent, wearing something like
nappies.''
So the sinister doll, rather than a game, is a way of confronting grim
reality. "It's a way of giving a face to what you become. You become a
grotesque as you age -- don't you think? It's difficult to depict that, unless
you have the most colossal compassion, so you have to find ways round it.''
Truth and Fantasy
The combination of harsh truth and fantasy is typical both of Hispanic art
and the London world of Bacon, Freud and Hirst. Rego, born 73 years ago in
Lisbon, belongs to both. She was brought up in Portugal, studied art in Britain,
married an English painter -- the late Victor Willing -- and has divided her
life between the two countries.
"I'm really both, exactly, British and Portuguese. I wouldn't have done
these pictures if I'd stayed in Portugal, not on your life. England gave me the
freedom to be more myself, I suppose. Portugal was more restrictive.''
One artist of the past whose name comes to mind when looking at Rego's work
is Francisco Goya, painter of sinister carnival masks, grotesque
monsters, hideous cruelty, sexuality and old age. Rego loves Goya's work, both
the fantasy of his early tapestry cartoons and the bleak horror of his scenes of
war and carnage. She is eager to travel to Madrid to see the recently opened
exhibition at the Prado, ``Goya in Times of War.''
"I was brought up on Goya,'' she says. "I've always looked at the etchings
he did, the `Disasters of War' and the `Caprichos.' I love the bull fights as
well. Everything is very simply put down, but he drew the most extraordinary,
moving, heartbreakingly wonderful figures.''
Bedroom Goya
"One of the "Disasters'' is of a woman holding a dying man,'' Rego says. "He has been wounded and he's dying; she's holding him up in such a way that
his face is near hers, and his mouth is slightly open. So, it's as if he's dying
but they could also be kissing. Love and death are going on at the same time
there and I find it immensely moving. I've got it in my bedroom; I've had it
since 1957. It never stops amazing me.''
Her own work, too continues to evolve. An earlier variety of sculpted model,
made by her son-in-law, Ron Mueck, already has changed art history. Mueck evolved his
skills as a commercial model maker for special effects in movies and
advertising. But he also made one of Pinocchio for Rego, which happened to be
seen by Charles Saatchi on a visit to her studio.
"Charles said, `What's that?' and wanted to buy it straight away,'' Rego
says. "Before that Ron had made models for films and advertisements but Charles
said Ron was a young British artist, and he has just carried on being one since
then.''
Her own models are different. "Ron never made anything that was distorted in
any way, he has the gift of life.''
Her models are not works of art themselves -- sculptures -- but subjects to
be made into art. With their help, her work has moved into a new phase,
simultaneously earthy and fantastic, playful and grim, very Iberian and
extremely British.
Paula Rego's exhibition, "Human Cargo'' is at Marlborough Chelsea, New York,
from April 17 through May 17. For more information, go to http://www.marlboroughgallery.com.
(Martin Gayford is a critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions
expressed are his own.)
April 10 (Bloomberg) -- A nude photograph of France's first lady Carla Bruni fetched $75,000, almost 20 times its high estimate, at Christie's International in New York today.
The image of Bruni, an Italian singer and former model, had an estimated range of $3,000 to $4,000. French president Nicolas Sarkozy married Bruni in February after divorcing his second wife, Cecilia, in October.
Alex
Cao, a dealer at China Square Gallery in Chelsea, bought the photo,
which cost $91,000 including fees. Cao was bidding on behalf of a
Chinese collector, Christie's said.
The
black-and-white photo, taken in 1993 by Michel Comte, was part of a
135-lot sale from the collection of Gert Elfering. The auction, which
is continuing, also features nude photos of models Kate Moss, Gisele
Bundchen and Naomi Campbell.
Proceeds from the Bruni sale will benefit Sodis, a Swiss organization that provides drinking water in poor countries.
Today's auction represents the third group of photos from Elfering's collection offered by Christie's since 2005. It is part of a week of photography sales in New York. On Tuesday, Sotheby's sold Edward Weston's photograph of his
naked wife, Charis, for $325,000.
(Katya Kazakina is a reporter for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are her own.)
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