Phillips de Pury - Art Market Monitor

Marion Maneker0May 11, 2012

Basquiat and Guarantees Bolster Phillips Sale

Katya Kazakina had these observations on Bloomberg:

“Things that are desirable and iconic sell very well,” said Simone Battisti, who recently joined the Gladstone Gallery in New York and Brussels as associate director. “Others don’t.”

The seller of Claes Oldenburg’s humorous sculpture “Popsicle, Hamburger, Price” (1961-1962) wasn’t as lucky. The work sold for $458,500, a 27 percent decline from the seller’s purchase price of $632,000 at Christie’s in 2006.

The Master, Judd Tully, does his detailed duty on Artinfo:

there was plenty of wonga around for the Willem de Kooning’s handsome, 80-by-70-inch cover lot abstraction, “Untitled VI” (1975), which sold to a telephone bidder for $12,402,500 (est. $10-15 million). New York dealer Robert Mnuchin was the underbidder. The guaranteed de Kooning last sold at auction in May 2000 at Sotheby’s New York for $1,380,750.

“Mao” (1973), which sold to New York dealer Hugo Nathan of Simon Dickinson Gallery for $10,386,500 (est. $9-12 million). It last sold at auction in November 1991 at Sotheby’s New York for a hard-to-believe $165,000.

Carol Vogel chatted up Philippe Ségalot and observed this sale:

Twombly’s “Untitled (Bolsena),” a canvas of scrawled white lines painted in 1969, was bought by a lone bidder for $5.5 million, or $6.2 million with fees; its low estimate had been $6 million. Still, it was a big price considering that the last time it was on the market, at Sotheby’s in 2004, it sold for $2.9 million.

Basquiat, Schutz Boost $87 Million Phillips de Pury Sale (Bloomberg)

Phillips de Pury & Company Nets $86.9 Million, Crowned by a Record $16.3-Million Basquiat (Artinfo)

Basquiat Painting Brings $16.3m at Phillips Sale (New York Times)

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0May 10, 2012

Phillips de Pury NY Cont Eve = $89.9m

Jean-Michel Basquiat ($8-12m) $16.3m
Willem de Kooning Untitled VI ($10-15m) $12.4m
Christopher Wool, Untitled (S69) ($2.5-3.5m) $4m
Joan Mitchell, Sunflowers ($1-1.5m) $1.65m
Andreas Gursky, Prada II ($500-700k) $782,500
Dana Schutz, Death Comes to Us All ($300-400k) $482,500
George Condo, The Three Graces ($350-450k) $458,500
Sterling Ruby, Kiss Trap Kismet ($150-200k) $206,500
Seth Price, Repossessed Audi ($50-70k) $92,500

Top Ten

Lot 6 Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, $16,322,500

Lot 19 Willem de Kooning Untitled VI, $12,402,500

Lot 8 Andy Warhol, Mao, $10,386,500

Lot 4 Andy Warhol, Gun, $7,026,500

Lot 25 Cy Twombly, Untitled (Bolsena), $6,242,500

Lot17 Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke Nude, $5,458,500

Lot 3 Christopher Wool, Untitled (S 69), $4,002,500

Lot10 Roy Lichtenstein, Still Life with Cash Box, $3,442,500

Lot 5 Maurizio Cattelan, Daddy Daddy, $2,546,500

Lot 14 Andy Warhol, Statue of Liberty, $2,434,500

Artist World Records:

Lot 6 Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, $16,322,500

Lot 42 Seth Price, Untitled, $92,500

Lot 44 Dana Schutz, Death Comes to All, $482,500

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0April 27, 2012

Phillips de Pury Prints & Multiples = $3.3m

JOSEPH BEUYS, Sled $314,500
ANDY WARHOL, Queen Elizabeth suite, from Reigning Queens $236,500 (record price for this set)
ROY LICHTENSTEIN, Reverie, $110,500
PABLO PICASSO, Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement (d’après Delacroix), 1ere variation; and Femmes d’Alger, 2eme variation: four states $98,500 (record price for this set)
JOSEPH BEUYS, Felt Suit $96,100 (record price)
ANDY WARHOL, Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn) $94,900
JASPER JOHNS Six, Lithographs Series $92,500 (record price)
MARCEL DUCHAMP, Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2 $88,900
ROBERT INDIANA, Book of Love portfolio $82,900 (record price)
ROY LICHTENSTEIN, La Nouvelle Chute de l’Amérique $74,500 (record price)

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0March 08, 2012

Phillips de Pury Under the Influence = $7.2m

Phillips de Pury’s March Contemporary Art Evening auction totalled $4,324,900 with 89% sold by lot; The Under the Influence day sessions totaled $2,879,050, 72% by lot.

Top Ten Lots Evening Sale:

9 CINDY SHERMAN, Untitled #426, $446,500

25 ANSELM KEIFER, Hommage à Omar Khayyám, $314,500

21 ROY LICHTENSTEIN, Brushstroke Still Life with lamp, $302,500

11 DAN FLAVIN, Untitled (to Pat and Bob Rohm), $302,500

29 TIM NOBLE AND SUE WEBSTER, Two works: Puny Undernourished Kid and Girlfriend from Hell, $242,500

22 ANDY WARHOL, Vesuvius, $242,500

23 JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT, Untitled (Skull), $218,500

6 DAN COLEN, The son of a white man( Air force pilot / plantation owner), $206,500

7 STEVEN PARRINO, Untitled, $170,500

8 ANSELM REYLE, Untitled, $146,500

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0February 17, 2012

Phillips de Pury London Cont = £5.7m

Some highlights from the £5.7m Phillips de Pury London Evening sale of contemporary art:

17 LUCIO FONTANA, Concetto spaziale, Attese, £1,049,250/$1,653,303

5 RUDOLF STINGEL, Untitled, £505,250/$796,122

12 ANDY WARHOL, Mao, £457,250/$720,489

7 CINDY SHERMAN, Untitled #410, £433,250/$682,672

9 TAKASHI MURAKAMI, Troll’s Umbrella, £385,250/$607,038

15 DAMIEN HIRST, Wretched War, £325,250/$512,496

6 MARC QUINN, The Golden Column (Microcosmos,), £289,250/$455,771

10 THOMAS SCHÜTTE, Gelber Hund, £241,250/$380,138

25 ALEX KATZ, Ada on Green, £229,250/$361,229

21AHMED ALSOUDANI, Untitled, £229,250/$361,229

ARTIST WORLD RECORDS

22 WALEAD BESHTY, FedEx® Kraft Box© 2005: FedEx Standard Overnight Los Angeles….£58,850/$92,730

27 RAYMOND PETTIBON, Untitled (The view from beyond the breakers) £157,250/$247,779

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0February 16, 2012

The Market Goes Deep in London

Judd Tully gives a little depth on Phillips de Pury’s £5.7m London sale:

Only one work sold for over a million pounds and that was Lucio Fontana’s slashed canvas “Concetto Spaziale, Attese” in virginal white from 1960, which sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for a little over £1 million ($1.7 million) (est. £1-1.5 million/$1.6-$2.4 million). The most remarkable thing about the Fontana is that it was once owned by Andy Warhol and sold back at Sotheby’s New York in May 1987, shortly after the artist’s death following gallbladder surgery for a minute $132,000 figure.

Meanwhile, Scott Reyburn gets this eyebrow-raising quote:

“Prices are strong,” the Paris-based collector John Sayegh- Belchatowski said. “The market is deep, not like the fantasy of 2007,” said Sayegh-Belchatowski, who was outbid on the two lots he hoped to buy.

Phillips de Pury’s Petite London Sale Scores $9 Million, Buoyed by Andy Warhol’s Fontana (ArtInfo)

Andy Warhol’s Slashed Fontana Painting Boosts $9 Million Auction in London (Bloomberg)

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0November 15, 2011

Phillips de Pury Latin American Highlights

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0November 08, 2011

Mugrabis Buying and Selling at Phillips de Pury

There’s a bit of Rashomon in the press over last night’s sale at Phillips de Pury. Depending upon whom you’re reading the sale was either a sign that Phillips had made its way into the first rank of Contemporary art auctioneers or the sale was a “tepid affair.”

Carol Vogel has the dealer gossip fingering the Mugrabi family as the source of much of the guaranteed work at Phillips de Pury:

Of the lots that made up Monday night’s sale, 18, or about 40 percent, had some kind of financing, according to the catalog. A large number of these works, several dealers in the contemporary art world said, were being sold by Jose Mugrabi, the New York dealer, who has done a lot of business with Phillips in the past. Most were bought by auction house representatives bidding on behalf of telephone bidders

Judd Tully watched as Mugrabi’s son, Alberto, bought up a few new items:

A trio of Christopher Wool paintings from an American collection found solid reception, led by the densely patterned, ink-blot-branded “Untitled (P177)” from 1993 that sold for $2,210,500 (est. $1.2-1.8 million). New York dealer Stellan Holm was the underbidder. The other two Wool entries, also painted on aluminum panels, were snared by New York dealer Alberto Mugrabi, who nabbed the earlier “Untitled (P63)” from 1988 for $842,500 (est. $700,000-900,000) and “Untitled (P71)” from the same year for $1,370,500 (est. $1-1.5 million).

$71 Million in Art Is Sold at Phillips, Near Low Estimate (New York Times)

Third-Party Guarantees Carry Phillips de Pury to a $71.3 Million Contemporary Art Sale (Artinfo)

Auction Results

Marion Maneker0November 07, 2011