LONDON - Sotheby’s sale of Old Master Paintings totaled £51,488,650 /$101,530,469/ €64,813,991 well in excess of the pre-sale estimate of £30.2-44.2 million. In a sale that attracted bidders from across the globe, 19 new artist’s records were established, with 58% of the lots sold realising prices in excess of high estimate. Two works sold for over £5 million, four for over $5 million, 13 for over £1 million, and 19 for over $1 million.

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A few months ago our Magazine had already announced the auctioning of Andrè Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism at Sotheby’s auction house in Paris.
At long last, the sale took place on 21st May achieving great results. Indeed, the auction dedicated to books, manuscripts and photographs, which included some of Andrè Breton’s works, fetched 6,052,780 euros. An extraordinary sale whose absolute protagonists were the French’s poets manuscripts, presented for the first time on the art market and belonging to a collection of the writer’s first wife, Simone Collinet.

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On 27th May, Sotheby’s Milan housed “Modern and Contemporary Art”, a very interesting auction that totalled 12,368,680 euros. Of the 345 lots presented to the public in the saleroom, during the three rounds, the works of some great artists stood out, pieces that have marked the evolution of the history of Italian art, such as “Achrome” by Piero Manzoni (estimate 500-700 thousand euros, sold for 800 thousand euros, rights excluded) or a beautiful painting executed by Giuseppe Santomaso in 1959, which from a pre-sale estimate included between 120 and 180 thousand euros, achieved 110,000 euros (rights excluded), while another work from 1978, valued at 120-180 thousand euros, sold for 210,000 (rights excluded).

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In the history of the art market, the 15th May 2007 will certainly be remembered as an memorable evening in New York, thanks to the hammer prices that roused surprise, disbelief and astonishment among auctioneers, sellers and buyers.

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On 15th May, “Contemporary Art Part I” was held at Phillips de Pury & Co. New York, a sale that concluded the New York sessions of the three main international auction houses dedicated to contemporary art, confirming once again the excellent condition of contemporary art on the market, which remains vital and continues receiving approvals and international participation. After Christie’s and Sotheby’s, which achieved record takings, even the young Phillips has realized a total of 59,001,000 dollars, with an 84% sale percentage.

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On 15th May “Photographs” was held at Christie’s London, a great occasion for collectors of the category who are passionate about works by the most famous names in the history of photography, but also more contemporary artistic figures.
An interesting sale that, despite not achieving a great stir, presented 114 lots fetching 1,402,525 pounds with a 72% sale percentage.

The Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Christie’s New York  had already been anticipated as one of the most important sales of this period. So it was and even more than expected. The evening totalled 33,641,000 dollars, the second highest total ever realized in auction history for the category with 95% of the lots sold.

The Contemporary Art Evening Sale, which took place on 14th May at Sotheby’s New York, was a record auction from every point of view. Firstly, for its turnover: 362,037,000 dollars, well above the best estimates which expected the auction to realize between 288.1 million and 354.7 million dollars. This is the second best result ever achieved in the world for a contemporary art auction and the most important sale in the history of Sotheby’s. 73 lots of the 83 presented were sold and represented 86.8% of the works by value.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

 

The auction that will take place by Sotheby’s in Milan on April 8^th is an unmissable date for all art lovers and collectors of contemporary art. The works that will go on show come from a private collection composed of about 150 pieces dating from 1953 onwards.