The first semester for the art market is about to come to an end and before its conclusion Christie’s auction house is going to try itself out with an auction completely dedicated to author prints. Indeed, on 31st July Christie’s New York is going to propose a very interesting sale that will attract many neo-collectors, thanks to the very low estimates that vary from 300 to 18 thousand dollars. “Prints & Multiples” will auction 357 lots, including 29 works by Pablo Picasso, 23 by Joan Mirò and 5 by Marc Chagall. If we look through the catalogue we will see many interesting works that could give an excellent result to this sale dedicated to prints and multiples, a sector considered as one the minor sectors of the art market.

translated by Giorgina Arcuri

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.

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.

On 15th May, the auction house Phillips de Pury & Co. in New York will begin two sessions dedicated to Contemporary Art, which will conclude on 16th May with the latest returns. We will be helping to showcase the two sales which amount to about 370 lots, among which are some of the most famous stars of the contemporary art world.

The story of the rise of the Japanese artist Takashi Murakami seems to be unstoppable. The huge success obtained at the MoCa Los Angeles to open the world tour of his retrospectives was not enough, which until May 2009 will hit the greatest artistic institutions like the Brooklyn Museum New York (until 13th July 2008), the Museum fu Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt (September 2008 – January 2009) and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao (February – May 2009).

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

The “Kyobai” sale dedicated to art and contemporary Japanese culture, and organised on the 3^rd April by the Phillips de Pury auction house in London made profits of 3,287,000 pounds. It was a somewhat mediocre result for the Phillips which presented to the public masterpieces executed by the greatest celebrities within the artistic sphere Made in Japan.

Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

Many of the most famous international artists count on the work of numerous collaborators who carry out the most diverse tasks from arranging research to actually participating in the creation of the artwork. An emblematic example of this situation is that of Warhol and his assistant Ronnie Cutrone, now an artist in his own right, who has constantly supported the work of the great artist.