Christie’s announced that they will offer one of the last of the great female portraits painted by Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) at the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in London on 23 June 2010.

Executed in 1917-18, Frauenbildnis (Portrait of Ria Munk III) is the third and final painting in a series of three portraits commissioned by the Munk family of their daughter Ria. One of the last and most modern of Klimt’s full-length female portraits, the painting offers a glimpse into the working methods of one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century and is expected to realise £14 million to £18 million.

Sotheby’s announced a new and exciting collaboration with Sudeley Castle with an inaugural selling exhibition of cutting-edge contemporary design to be staged in the spectacular grounds of the estate from Friday 28 May to Sunday 1 August 2010. The Sotheby’s selling exhibition, arranged in association with Carpenters Workshop Gallery, will showcase a series of one-off and limited edition pieces by leading contemporary artists and designers including Marc Quinn, Lionel Scoccimaro, Pablo Reinoso, Marcel Wanders, Jurgen Bey, Wendell Castle, Robert Stadler, Vincent Dubourg and Ingrid Donat, as well as the design ateliers Studio Job, Demakersvan and Atelier Van Lieshout.

Highlights will include a number of specially commissioned works: Pablo Reinoso’s exuberant Huge Sudeley Bench and Lionel Scoccimaro’s playful Giant Jar. Many other works will be shown for the first time including Studio Job’s Pouring Jug, Sebastian Brajkovic’s intertwined chairs entitled Lathe X, Marcel Wanders’ delectable Bon Bon Gold chair and Jurgen Bey’s fantastical installation, TeaSceneryDeLuxe. Prices will range from £10,000 to £250,000.

The exhibition follows in the footsteps of previous successful outdoor shows by Sotheby’s at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire (Sotheby’s Beyond Limits sculpture exhibitions at Chatsworth are now in their fifth year), and also at Isleworth in Florida since 2003. In contrast to Beyond Limits, which focuses on monumental sculpture, the Sudeley exhibition will present design pieces with a utilitarian aspect. The works can be used as functional lifestyle objects or simply appreciated as works of art with profound aesthetic appeal.

Text: ArtDaily

Christie’s, the world’s leading art business is delighted to announce that its eighth auction of International Modern and Contemporary Art, estimated at $4.8 million, realized $15,122,125 / AED55,528,443, selling 96% by value and 86% by lot.

This is an extraordinary result which reflects the quality of the sale and the passion of the collectors that Christie’s has helped to bring to this fascinating market during the past 3 years. It is extremely rare for a sale in any market to triple its pre-sale estimate.

At this evening’s auction, Christie’s saw competitive and international bidding taking place in a vibrant, animated and packed saleroom, where 26 works of art sold for over $100,000. Buyer activity (by lot / by origin) was 64.5% Middle East, 16.5% Europe, 28% Americas and 1% Asia. A 100% increase in online bidding via Christies LIVE was recorded, coming from a record number of 16 countries registering in the sale.

The top price of the sale was paid for Mahmoud Said’s (Egyptian 1897-1964) Les Chadoufs, of 1934, setting a record for any modern painting by any Middle Eastern artist, selling for an extraordinary $2,434,500 / AED8,939,484.

Jussi Pylkkänen, President of Christie’s Middle East and Europe said, “Tonight was a landmark sale which perfectly illustrates what can be achieved when Middle Eastern masterpieces are offered to the international art market. I am sure that the sale will give Middle Eastern collectors around the world the confidence required to continue to sell their major works of art here at Christie’s in Dubai. Where we had seen Iranian works steal the limelight in recent seasons, tonight it was the turn of the great Egyptian artists such as Mahmoud Said, Mahmoud Mokhtar, Hamed Nada and Abdul Hadi El-Gazzar. We now fully understand what can happen in our Dubai sale room when we offer the very best from the significant artistic communities in the region.”

Click HERE for a detailed summary of the auction

Text credit: Art Daily

On 23 & 24 April 2010, Phillips de Pury & Company in London will stage the inaugural sale of contemporary art from Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Acknowledged as the four largest high-growth emerging economies, the BRIC countries have also distinguished themselves with a budding contemporary art scene, represented by a stable of major artistic talents.

Reflecting the increasing interest in contemporary art coming from the BRIC countries, the BRIC sales offer a ground-breaking collection of approximately 450 lots, meticulously selected across Contemporary Art, Photography and Design with an overall pre-sale estimate of £9,000,000 – £13,000,000.

Viewing and Auction Location
Saatchi Gallery
Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, London SW3 4SQ

Evening Sale Friday 23 April 2010 – 5 pm
China Day Sale Saturday 24 April 2010 – 11 am
India Day Sale Saturday 24 April 2010 – 1 pm
Russia Day Sale Saturday 24 April 2010 – 3 pm
Brazil Day Sale Saturday 24 April 2010 – 5pm

Visit: www.phillipsdepury.com for further information

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BRIC is a term that was first used in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs. The four letters stand for Brazil, Russia, India and China, the main emerging economies. Since then you cannot open the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal without there being extensive coverage on the dynamic BRIC economies. Floriane de Saint Pierre, the star head hunter of the luxury industry, rightly pointed out that it is condescending to speak of emerging economies but far more appropriate to speak of fast-growing economies.

Whenever there is a strong economic upturn in a region or a country it goes hand in hand with a vibrant creative surge in the artistic areas. This is nowhere as obvious as in Brazil, Russia, India and China. It therefore seemed to us more than overdue to, for the very first time, put the spotlight on the extraordinary cultural achievements of the BRIC countries. In the art world, like in the business world, decades of ‘westernization’ are rapidly being replaced by an ‘easternization’.

We are most grateful to Charles Saatchi, the ultimate taste maker in the contemporary art world, to let us use the totality of his fabulous Saatchi Gallery to display a rich sampling of the best that BRIC contemporary culture has to offer. While we will devote an unprecedented amount of gallery space to display the contents of this sale we have decided to also devote an unprecedented amount of editorial space in the catalog.

Thanks to our able colleague Karen Wright we have included articles, amongst others, on Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, the towering Russian artists, and to Ai WeiWei, the outstanding Chinese artist whose recent one-man show at the Haus der Kunst is one of the best exhibitions I have ever seen. Uli Sigg is the pioneer collector who is at the centre of the international interest for contemporary art from China.

Music is also a seminal part of contemporary culture. Thanks to Alban de Pury we have been able to secure the unique talents of Nitin Sawhney and of Gilles Peterson, the best world music DJ, who will both perform at the opening party for BRIC.

SIMON de PURY, Chairman Phillips de Pury and Company

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Lot 125 – Frank Kozik, Mao, 2009

NB: See Auction reviews from the Telegraph by clicking HERE and the FT by clicking HERE

Six international masters of their trade were given the opportunity to work in collaboration with Vuitton to design a unique piece embodying their exceptional expertise in their respective professions.

The custom pieces created were a butterfly armoire by Damien Hirst, a trolley case with knife tray by chef Ferran Adrià, camera bags by photographer Annie Leibovitz, an instrument case by musician and composer Gustavo Santaolalla, a dog carrier by Vuitton creative director Marc Jacobs and an alligator tool kit by Patrick Louis Vuitton, the head of Vuitton’s Special Orders department and a member of the fifth generation of the Vuitton family.

The evening went down a storm with guests including Brian Ferry, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi raising a total of £495,000 for the Nigerien Red Cross Fighting Malnutrition Programme. Damien Hirst’s suitcase alone went for £360,000.

If you were not able to make the auction, you can still do your bit for charity, head to the website (www.louisvuitton.com) and order any of four classic Louis Vuitton handbags – the Speedy, the Keepall, the Noe, and the Alma – and 10% of your purchase will be donated to the American Red Cross.

1 December 2009, Sothebys, London
Russian art day sale

1 December 2009, Christies, Amsterdam
Post-war and contemporary art

1 December 2009, Christies, Paris
Impressionist and modern art

1 December 2009, Christies, London, King Street
Russian pictures and works of art

2 December 2009, Christies, London, King Street
Russian pictures and works of art

3 December 2009, Christies, London, King Street
Russian pictures and works of art

8, 9 December 2009, Sothebys, Paris
Contemporary Art

8 December 2009, Christies, New York
Important 20^th century decorative art & design

8 December 2009, Christies, Paris
Post war and contemporary art

8 December 2009, Christies, London, King Street
Old master prints

8 December 2009, Christies, London, King Street
Old master & 19^th century paintings, drawings and watercolours, evening sale

9 December 2009, Sothebys, Paris
Impressionist Art

9 December 2009, Christies, London, King Street
Old master & 19^th century paintings, drawings and watercolours, day sale

11 December 2009, Christies, London, King Street
Old master & 19^th century paintings, drawings and watercolours, day sale

The Arts Club Sale: Selected pictures from the Club will take place in London on Tuesday, 10^th November at Bonhams in New Bond Street.

 The Arts Club in Dover Street, London, is about to undergo a major refurbishment with its managing committee deciding to sell some of the Club’s distinguished collection of paintings to help pay for the works, as well as making way for new pieces.

Approximately 200 pictures will be for sale tomorrow at Bonhams in New Bond Street, London. Most of the pictures were acquired directly by the famous club from the artists themselves and have never previously been for sale or been on public display.

It is a wonderful opportunity to acquire works by artists such as Sir John Everett Millais, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Victor Pasmore, John Piper, Maurice Cockrill, Jacques Henri Lartigue, Elizabeth Sam Francis and Barbara Hepworth amongst others.

Head of Pictures at Bonhams, Caroline Oliphant, comments: “Bonhams is delighted to be in a position to offer these works from such a distinguished artistic institution which has played a significant part in the London art scene for almost 150 years.”

‘The Arts Club was founded in 1863, by a small group of aesthetes including Lord Frederic Leighton PRA and Charles Dickens, as a meeting place for men and women involved with the arts either professionally or as patrons. It was the first Arts Club to be established in the world, and is housed in an 18th century Mayfair town house.

During the 19th and 20th centuries it has been the hub of artistic endeavour and was the powerhouse behind the dealings of the Royal Academy. Its members have included Algernon Swinburne, Millais, Whistler, Kipling, Monet, Rodin, Degas, Turgenev, Lutyens and Sir Alfred Munnings’.

Current membership includes a number of Royal Academicians, architects and writers. The Club’s Royal Patron is HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Peter Blake is the Club’s President.

For further press information please contact Julian Roup on 0207 468 8259 or julian.roup@bonhams.com or press@bonhams.com

1 November 2009, Sothebys, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire UK
Beyond Limits: A Selling Exhibition of Modern & Contemporary Sculpture

3 November 2009, Christies, New York
Impressionist/Modern day sale

3 November 2009, Christies, New York
Impressionist/Modern evening sale

4 November 2009, Christies, New York
Impressionist/Modern works on paper

4 November 2009, Christies, London, South Kensington
Japanese art & design

4 November 2009, Sothebys, New York
Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale

10 November 2009, Christies, New York
Post-War & contemporary evening sale

11 November 2009, Christies, New York
Post-War & contemporary morning sale

11 November 2009, Sothebys, New York
Contemporary evening art auction

12 November 2009, Sothebys, New York
Contemporary day art auction

12 November 2009, Christies, London, King Street
20^th century British & Irish art

12 November 2009, Phillips de Pury, New York
Contemporary Art Part 1

13 November 2009, Phillips de Pury, New York
Contemporary Art Part 2

14 November 2009, Phillips de Pury, New York
Photographs

14 November 2009, Phillips de Pury, New York
Design

14 November 2009, Phillips de Pury, New York
Modern and Contemporary Editions

14 November 2009, Phillips de Pury, London
Contemporary art, memorabilia, photographs, design, jewelry, editions all inspired by music

17, 18, 19, 20 November 2009, Christies, Paris
Yves Saint Laurent & Pierre Bergé – second sale NB: proceeds going to AIDS research foundation

17 November 2009, Christies, Amsterdam
Impressionist and modern art

24 November 2009, Christies, Milan
Contemporary and Modern art

25 November 2009, Christies, London, South Kensington
Impressionist and Modern art

25 November 2009, Sothebys, Milan
Contemporary art

29 November 2009, Christies, Hong Kong
Asian contemporary art and Chinese century art, evening sale

30 November 2009, Christies, Hong Kong
Chinese 20^th century art

30 November 2009, Sothebys, London
Russian art evening sale

3 October 2009, Phillips de Pury, New York
Contemporary works that inspire, reflect and embody the spirit of Latin America

15 October 2009, Phillips de Pury, London
Design

15 October 2009, Phillips de Pury, London
Photographs

17 October 2009, Phillips de Pury, London
Contemporary art day

17 October 2009, Phillips de Pury, London
Contemporary art evening

27 October 2009, Christies, London, King Street
20 Century decorative art & design

27 October 2009, Christies, Dubai
International modern & contemporary art

27 October 2009, Sothebys, London
Fine 20th Century design

28 October 2009, Christies, London, South Kensington
Old Masters & 19^th Century art

29 October 2009, Christies, London, South Kensington
Picasso editions

The Wall Street Journal has reported that in a daring move, auction house Phillips de Pury & Company, is adding another 18 contemporary art sales to its calendar over the next year and a half, while Sotheby’s and Christie’s are scaling back and promoting their fine art sales.

The new sales at Phillips de Pury & Company, are expected to occur once a month between London and New York and will be themed according to titles such as ‘Sex’, ’Film’ and ‘Black/White’. This in keeping with Phillips’s reputation as the younger, hipper auction house, who’s sales are closely followed by the art market.

At a time when revenue at Christie’s are down considerably from last quarter, and Sotheby’s has shrunk their once heavyweight catalogs nearly to the size of CD cases, Phillips, the third-largest auction house for contemporary art, is keeping to their format of A3 sized catalogues and increasing their print runs.

This rather bold move comes courtesy of Bernd Runge, Phillips’s new chief executive and former vice president of Conde Nast International. Mr. Runge was tapped early this year by Phillips’s new owner, Mercury Group, a Russian retailing giant that acquired a majority stake in the privately held auction house last October.

Though critics say that trying out untested works on the battered art market could prove to be a mistake, others are praising the novelty of the plan. Mr. Runge, in his first interview since taking the post, said the monthly auctions will target local audiences in New York and London who haven’t bought art before. He said that he is handling the logistics of the sales, along with the company’s other business affairs, but said that the art will be chosen by the company’s art specialist and its chairman, Simon de Pury.

This is a risky strategy, and critics say that moving more untested artworks into the marketplace now could backfire if collectors hold on to their wallets, potentially rattling confidence in the overall art market.
But, Phillips is going ahead and placing some of its biggest bets yet on the volatile category and what happens on the 26th (‘Now’ auction in September, London – see earlier post) remains to be seen…

NB: Phillips was founded in 1796 by Harry Phillips, formerly the senior clerk of Christie’s founder James Christie. In its early years, the house held sales for Marie Antoinette and Napoleon, and later made its reputation in English furniture and silver. It made its first major foray into contemporary art when Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy bought the company in 1999. In 2002, LVMH sold the company to its managing directors at the time, Simon de Pury and Daniella Luxembourg. Ms. Luxembourg sold her shares five years ago, and Mr. de Pury has run the company since then.
Source: Bloomberg