- Nicolas de Stael, Composition (€700-1m) €1.520,750
- Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bird of Paradise (€600-800k)€912,750
- George Condo, Incomprehensible Dream (€300-400k) €576,750
- Maria-Helena Vieira da Silva, Sans Titre (€300-400k) €540,750
- Karel Appel, Fille en pleurs (€280-350k) €504,750
- Jean Dubuffet, Le Batailleur (€150-200k) €408,750
- Roger Bissiere, Composition 119 (€40-60k) €384,750
- Jean Tinguely, Eclosion I (€150-200k) €336,750
Auction Results
0June 01, 2012
Sotheby’s Paris Contemporary = €20.74m
General
0August 09, 2011
French Auction Houses Unleashed for Private Sales
The Antiques Trade Gazette says it’s official, the French government has released auction houses in France from some of the strictures that prevented them from competing with London and New York on an equal footing:
FRENCH auction houses have won their battle to conduct private treaty sales.
The change in the law that forbade them from doing so came in July after vigorous lobbying from Christie’s, Sotheby’s and others in the face of equally vigorous attempts to prevent a change by those who stand to lose out the most as a result: dealers.
The changes come into force on September 1. [...]
Further changes to the law in France now permit auctioneers to complete after-sales beyond the previous two-week deadline and also to offer guarantees, a highly significant marketing tool in recent years, but a system that all but closed down when the market crashed in late 2008, leaving Sotheby’s and Christie’s significantly exposed in the short term.
Regulation has also been tightened, however, with real powers to prosecute auction houses in the civil courts given to the Conseil des Ventes, France’s industry watchdog.
French Lift Ban On Private Treaty Sales in France (Antiques Trade Gazette)
Auction Results
0June 02, 2011
Sotheby's Sparkles in Paris = €60m
It’s been a while since we’ve heard any more of the rumblings that Paris would continue to gain in market strength but Sotheby’s has quietly reinforced the idea with these results from their Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary sales:
New auction records were established for paintings by Pierre Soulages and Nicolas de Staël in the Contemporary Art Evening Sale, and 11 works sold for more than €1 million ($1.4 million) and eight works sold for more than $2 million.
Impressionist and Modern Art Sale
Total: €16.142.675 – $23.316.480
Estimate: €12.536,000 – 18.096,000 / $18.107.000 – 26.137.900
66.3% sold by lotContemporary Art – Grand total
Total: €24.850.825 - $35.741.450
High Estimate: €16.816.800 – $24.186.600
85.6% sold by lot
61% achieved sums in excess of their pre-sale high estimatesContemporary Art – Evening Sale
Total: €19.274.750 - $27.721.710
High Estimate: € 12.690.000 - $18.251.270
96.2% sold by lotContemporary Art – Day Sale – Record for a Contemporary day sale at Sotheby’s Paris –
Total: €5.576.075 - $8.019.734
High Estimate: €4.126.800 - $5.935.330
83.6% sold by lot61% achieved sums in excess of their pre-sale high estimates
Auction Results
0May 26, 2011
Sotheby's Paris Dec Arts = €4.75m
Sotheby’s Paris Sale of 20th Century Decorative Arts & Contemporary Design totaled €4.75m ($6.64m)
60% of lots sold over high estimates, including a bench by Antoni Gaudí – €384,750 ($571.915) and a mirror by Archibald Knox – €114,750 ($160.556)
Design
0April 06, 2011
Deco Doesn't Dance in Paris
The collection of 20th Century furniture assembled over a ten-year period by Laurent Negro was sold at a loss for the market-minded collector. One reason offered by observers is that Negro had become the top end of the market during that period leaving no one to sell on to in a large sale such as this:
The Christie’s International three-day sale in Paris of the contents of the Chateau de Gourdon museum accumulated by Laurent Negro raised 42.4 million euros ($60 million) with fees. Demand was selective. The total at hammer prices was lower than the estimated 40 million euros to 60 million euros [...]
Negro lost money on a number of pieces. He paid $386,500 for Jan and Joel Martel’s 1931 aluminum Art Deco sculpture of an express train, “Locomotive en marche,” at Sotheby’s (BID),New York, in 2008. It sold for a hammer price of 200,000 euros. A 1927 Gustave Miklos bronze sculpture, “Jeune Fille,” fetched 1.15 million euros without fees. This had been bought at a French auction in June 2005 for 1.6 million euros. The purchase price of the design collection had been higher than the low estimate, Jonathan Rendell, Christie’s New York- based deputy chairman, said in an interview before the event.
‘World’s Best’ Modern Design Sale Fetches $60 Million in Paris (Bloomberg)
Museums
0February 10, 2011
Arnault Museum Faces Opposition
The Telegraph reports on the battle between Bernard Arnault and local residents over his Frank Gehry-designed museum project in Paris:
François Douady, who leads the association for the safeguard of the Bois de Boulogne, told Le Journal du Dimanche: “They want to impose on us a 12,000 square metre building 46 metres high – 20 metres above the trees. We lack greenery in Paris, not museums. I hope this project is razed to the ground.”
LVMH argues that on the contrary, the project will increase the size of the surrounding green areas and remove a 1950s bowling alley dubbed an “architectural horror”.
But Mr Douady’s group won its court battle last month on a technicality, as the judge ruled the centre had been built too close to a tiny asphalt road deemed a public right of way.
World’s top architect Frank Gehry brands Paris residents ‘philistines’ after planning permission revoked (Telegraph)
