In the last few weeks, London city has proved to be the European capital of the art market. With sales dedicated to the modern and impressionist sector, Sotheby’s and Christie’s have confirmed the good state of the market. Indeed, the “Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale” held on 24th June fetched 144 million pounds (284 million dollars), achieving the highest total for a European auction and giving “Le bassin aux nymphèas” by Claude Monet the new world record for the artist, selling the piece for 41 million pounds.

A painting by the Italian Futurist artist Gino Severini sold for $29.6 million including fees, a record for the artist, at a Sotheby’s auction of Impressionist and Modern art in London on Wednesday. The sale brought in a total of more than $200 million.
The brightly colored 3-foot, 3-inch-high canvas, “Danseuse” (1915) had not been seen on the auction market for more than 80 years. It had been expected to fetch up to $20 million, Sotheby’s said. The seller of the painting had been guaranteed a minimum price, the New York-based auction house said. The previous record for Severini was $3.6 million, the saleroom result tracker Artnet said.
There were four telephone bidders for the work, which sold to a senior specialist in Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s Europe, Philip Hook, taking instructions from a client. Mr. Hook was underbid by Mark Poltimore, who presides over Sotheby’s Russian auctions.
The 1939 Pablo Picasso oil-on-canvas portrait, “Tête de Femme (Dora Maar),” measuring 16 inches high, sold for $15.6 million.
It was one of five works being sold from the estate of the Norwegian dealer and collector Haaken Christensen to benefit the charity Médecins Sans Frontières. Never offered at auction before, the portrait of Picasso’s mistress had been expected to fetch up to $10 million, Sotheby’s said.
A sculpture by Alberto Giacometti sold for $18 million with fees, by telephone, to a New York-based Sotheby’s Contemporary art specialist, August Uribe, who was also taking instructions from a client.
The 2-foot, 4-inch-high bronze, “Trois Hommes Qui Marchent I,” had been estimated to sell for between $8 million and $12 million.
The 1948 sculpture was cast during the artist’s lifetime in an edition of six, Sotheby’s said. (Bloomberg News)

From today until 7th September, the London National Gallery is dedicating to Italian divisionists an exhibition entitled “Radical Light: Italy’s Divisionist Painters 1891–1910.” It is one of the first exhibitions to be held outside Italy that explores this artistic period, by displaying more than fifty paintings realized by the most important divisionist masters such as Giovanni Segantini and Gaetano Previati. The exhibition will also present rare paintings lent by important private and public collections in Europe and North America.

translated by Giorgina Arcuri

On 25th June, Sotheby’s London auction house will open the “Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale”, an extraordinary event for collectors of masterpieces by the most famous names of the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. The success of this auction seems to be anticipated by the artistic figures that will be presented. In a period when we keep on waiting for the signs of the art market crisis to surface, Sotheby’s makes the right choice, that is to auction 56 pieces of undoubted quality executed by the greatest names of the history of art. A very wise strategy that even collectors should pursue, as important works are not affected by devaluations and even if the market may slow down due to the latter, it will certainly never fail.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

The Italian publisher Rolando Pieraccini, who has lived for about thirty years in Finland, has become an Art Ambassador, or rather he has put into practice the important mystery of the intention of art as an extraordinary diplomatic medium. In his entire career as a publisher, in many ways Pieraccini promoted the cultural rapport between Finland and Italy, organising on one hand, numerous exhibits of Italian artists in Finland and viceversa. And what’s more, he contributed to the formation of relevant modern Finnish art collections in European museums including the Albertina in Vienna and Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.