One of the most significant bequests to the nation in a century, including masterpieces by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, goes on public display from today.
The exhibition of the 18 masterpieces, at Tate Britain, London, is likely to be the first and last opportunity to view the £100m collection in its entirety before the works are split between the Tate and the National Gallery.
Simon Sainsbury, the British philanthropist and art collector who died in 2006, left the pieces to the two institutions – five to the National, with the rest to be housed by the Tate. Some, such as Freud’s Boy Smoking, have not been seen by the public since 1954. Paul Gauguin’s Bowl of Fruit and Tankard before a Window has not been exhibited since 1936.
The pieces left to the Tate include three works by Freud, a rare early work by Bacon, Thomas Gainsborough’s Mr and Mrs Carter, and three works by the French artist, Balthasar Klossowski de Rola. Two pieces by the French painter, Pierre Bonnard, Nude in the Bath and The Yellow Boat, will make the Tate one of the principal places to see his work outside Paris.
Other works include the gallery’s first “conversation piece” by the German painter Johan Zoffany, and an oil painting of a hunt by the English artist John Wootton, who specialised in sporting subjects. The National Gallery will receive impressionist and post-impressionist works, including Monet’s Snow Scene at Argenteuil and Water-Lilies, Setting Sun.
Simon Sainsbury had a passionate interest in the arts, particularly 18th and 19th century architecture and art. Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of Tate Galleries, said the gift would “transform” the Tate’s ability to show a number of artists in depth. He said it was “one of the most important in the history of Tate” and would greatly enhance its collection.
Nicholas Penny, the National Gallery’s director, said the bequest would make a “huge difference to our impressionist and post-impressionist galleries”.
(The Independent)

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.

London – Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale took place this evening (30 June 2008) and realised £86,241,600 / $171,879,508 / €108,578,174 - the highest total for the category at Christie’s in Europe.  The top lot of the auction was Three Studies for a Self Portrait by Francis Bacon (1909-1992), a rare self-portrait triptych that the artist painted while in Paris in 1975, which sold for £17,289,250 / $34,457,475 / €21,767,166.

A 1975 set of three self-portraits by Francis Bacon fetched 17.3 million pounds ($34.5 million) in London, the most expensive lot at Christie’s International sale of contemporary art.
At least four bidders competed for the 14-inch-high, gray- hued oil canvases “Three Studies for Self-Portrait”, featuring faces that are twisted, sliced and gorged. The lot, with a presale estimate of more than 10 million pounds and seen in public for the first time, went to an anonymous phone bidder. The record for Bacon was set in May when “Triptych, 1976″, depicting a headless corpse eaten by vultures sold for $86 million.
Christie’s 58-lot auction last night netted 86.2 million pounds, against the company’s own low estimate of 80 million pounds. Eighty-three percent of the lots were sold. Bacon’s piece was one of four trophy works - the other three are by Lucian Freud, Jeff Koons and Lucio Fontana - whose combined estimates represented half the auction’s value. The Bacon was the only one that sold for much more than its top estimate.
Koons’s 11-foot, 2-inch-high chromium-steel sculpture “Balloon Flower (Magenta)” sold for an artist record of 12.9 million pounds, against a presale estimate of 12 million pounds. Freud’s 1980 canvas, “Naked Portrait With Reflection”, showing a nude model reclining on a battered sofa, sold for 11.8 million pounds, compared with a top estimate 15 million pounds. (Bloomberg)

CHELSEA PATRON HAS DISCOVERED A PASSION FOR ART COLLECTIONS THANKS TO NEW FIANCÉ

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Roman Abramovich, the forty-year old businessman of Russian origins, seems to be tired of dealing only in real-estate properties, yachts and football teams (for Chelsea he has so far spent a billion dollars). As for many Russian oligarchs, Abramovich’s new “toy” is art. Indeed, on 12th June 2008 the super-billionaire inaugurated in Moscow a new gallery centre, event that attracted to the Russian capital great names of worldwide art, such as the famous art gallery owner Larry Gagosian, director of the Tate Modern and of the Hermitage, but also many VIPs of the International Jet Set.

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Art Basel has started and the buyers have arrived. However, the Americans are missing. This seems to be the biggest complaint on behalf of operators. The American public has stepped aside and given way to the Europeans. It is not a change that affects the number of transactions, but rather an actual geographic shift of the market. This does not worry all the art gallery managers, some of whom have proven to be indifferent with respect to who buys the works. Also because many of the participants are too busy calculating their business volume to worry about the nationality of the buyers.

FROM JOHNS TO HIRST AND KOONS AND FINALLY FREUD

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New York auctions have given us some exciting news. In particular, two very important new records: Francis Bacon has realized the highest price ever paid for a work of contemporary art and Lucian Freud has become the most paid living artist in the world. However, after the adrenalin stirred up by the important results, the time for questioning arrives. Who might be the mysterious buyer of the fantastic paintings sold in New York? What will become of them? Public exhibition or private viewing?
Some of these questions may have found an answer. Indeed, within the circle there are rumours about a few names, and it seems that the buyer of the two masterpieces of contemporary art sold in the last days has been identified.