Interesting Green: Sotheby’s auction hits post credit crisis high

MYPAPER, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 4, 2010, BUSINESS, PAGE A26
From http://myepaper.mypaper.sg/ebook/web_php/fvbrowserjs.php?urljs=http://myepaper.mypaper.sg/ecreator/sphopf/mya041110cnd_opf_files/mya041110cnd.js&ver=Gen
By NEW YORK, BLOOMBERG

PHOTO: Seated Nude on Divan, 1917
Modigliani, Amedeo 1884 - 1920 Italy, Expressionism
BREATHTAKING: This Amedeo Modigliani 1917 nude sold for S$88.9 million.
(PHOTO: AP)
MYPAPER, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 4, 2010, BUSINESS, PAGE A26
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AN AMEDEO Modigliani 1917 nude has sold for US$68.96 million (S$88.9 million), a record for the artist, helping Sotheby’s reach its highest total for a New York Impressionist and modern-art sale since May 2008.

The auction tallied US$227.6 million with commissions, below Sotheby’s top estimate of US$266 million, which does not include the buyers’ premiums.

That reflected a sober mood in the room, brimming with cautious dealers and collectors.

A quarter of the offerings failed to sell, including works by Francis Picabia, Joan Miro and Henri Matisse.

“The sale was strong in areas, and weak where it should be,” said London dealer Alan Hobart of Pyms Gallery, who bought Henri Matisse’s bronze Deux Negresses for US$8.5 million on behalf of a client.

Modigliani’s Nu Assis Sur Un Divan (La Belle Romaine) was offered early in the 61-lot sale, the first of the two-week New York autumn season.

Five phone bidders vied for the work, described in the catalogue as a “post-coital rendering”.

“It really set a benchmark,” said dealer David Nash of Mitchell-Innes & Nash.

The artist’s previous record was set in June, when a limestone bust went for US$53 million, blasting past its US$7- million estimate.

The sale provided further evidence of fine art’s recovery since the credit crisis.

On Tuesday, Sotheby’s shares rose US$1.88 to US$45.12, the highest closing price in almost three years. The New York-based auctioneer is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings today.

Modigliani nudes are especially coveted. La Belle Romaine has an almond-eyed model, head cocked eductively and torso wrapped in white drapery that reveals more than it obscures (conceal).

It previously sold at Sotheby’s in 1999 for US$16.8 million. The seller then was a member of the Sultan of Brunei’s family, dealers said. It was estimated to fetch US$40 million on Tuesday night.

The sale on Tuesday also saw a pair of paintings offered to benefit non-profit organisation YoungArts, established by the late billionaire Ted Arison. Dealers said the seller was his wife, Marilyn.

One of the works, Claude Monet’s 1917-1919 verdant water-lilies painting, fetched US$24.7 million.

The Arisons acquired the work for US$9.9 million in 1998 at Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s charges buyers 25 per cent of the hammer price up to US$50,000, plus 20 per cent from US$50,000 to US$1 million, and 12 per cent above US$1 million.

Impressionist and modern sales also took place last night at Christie’s, with an 85-lot sale slated to total between US$199 million and US$287 million.

By NEW YORK, BLOOMBERG

HELPDESK
我的字典: Wǒ de zì diǎn

Tallied: 加起来 - jiā qǐ lái
Bust: 胸像 - xiōng xiàng
Drapery: 窗帘 - chuāng lián
Non-profit organisation: 非牟利机构 - fēi móu lì jī gòu

Other Interesting Oil Paintings Reproductions

PHOTO: L'Abandon
Seignac, Guillaume 1870 - 1924 France, Academic Classicism
http://www.allartclassic.com/img/Guillaume_Seignac_SEG017.jpg
http://www.allartclassic.com/subj_pictures_zoom.php?p_number=&p=&number=SEG017&stt=13&forder=1

PHOTO: The Wave
Seignac, Guillaume 1870 - 1924 France, Academic Classicism
http://www.allartclassic.com/img/Guillaume_Seignac_SEG018.jpg
http://www.allartclassic.com/subj_pictures_zoom.php?p_number=&p=&number=SEG018&stt=13&forder=1

PHOTO: The Awakening of Psyche
Paintings Seignac, Guillaume 1870 - 1924 France, Academic Classicism
http://www.allartclassic.com/img/Guillaume_Seignac_SEG001.jpg
http://www.allartclassic.com/pictures_zoom.php?p_number=172&p=&number=SEG001

PHOTO: In the Tepidarium, 1881
Alma-Tadema,Sir Lawrence 1836 - 1912 Painter,Draftsman,Netherlands,Victorian Neoclassicism
http://www.allartclassic.com/img/Lawrence_Alma_Tadema_ALT007.jpg
http://www.allartclassic.com/subj_pictures_zoom.php?p_number=&p=&number=ALT007&stt=13&forder=1

PHOTO: Leda Atomica , 1949 Dali, Salvador 1904 - 1989 Spain, Surrealism
http://www.allartclassic.com/img/Salvador_Dali_DAS003.jpg
http://www.allartclassic.com/subj_pictures_zoom.php?p_number=&p=&number=DAS003&stt=13&forder=1

PHOTO: Male Nude known as Patroclus
David, Jacques -Louis 1748 - 1825 France, Neoclassicism
http://www.allartclassic.com/img/Jacques_Louis_David_DAJ007.jpg
http://www.allartclassic.com/subj_pictures_zoom.php?p_number=&p=&number=DAJ007&stt=13&forder=1

PHOTO: The Awakening of Psyche (Le Réveil de Psyché), Salon de 1904, by French painter Guillaume Seignac (1870-1924)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4F-U9S1vckqZKHxKaON5ZVNeGg81kxleGryA1HJK-2P94vHPHc_qN2rg3l70V-4QRmrREU-bmrsuGNPeUb-V-BOG5yoE5megIBHK9_PV7BJHPHJqlY5ROxUjteIQcipyxhXiYaU1wahVO/s640/The-Awakening-of-Psyche-by-Guillaume-Seignac.JPG
http://public-domain-images.blogspot.com/2010_06_13_archive.html

PHOTO: Lilith by John Collier
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http://public-domain-images.blogspot.com/2010_06_13_archive.html

PHOTO: The Wave by Guillaume Seignac
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PHOTO: La Vague by Guillaume Seignac
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PHOTO: L'Abandon (before 1924) by French painter Guillaume Seignac (1870-1924)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwxc3TYOmaH8pBIqu6KR6xbuICq3CyLsdhByQmQa_tbc6Ne2uUmhVtEmrHYeoxgy4yTuiQRf_Phc3i1hGsVJrxY0PgvObNjVOQIZI19lS0TI2iNd5ZsCgXfL48z8gLr5woh1ejdbmtuqY/s1600/L'Abandon-by-Guillaume-Seignac.jpg
http://public-domain-images.blogspot.com/2010_06_13_archive.html

PHOTO: ‘Woman with Seashell’ (Femme au Coquillage) is an 1885 oil painting by French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905).
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Nuta_CQvImI/TBpUceZXuGI/AAAAAAAACQg/NfAn7gMfjxY/s640/Femme-au-Coquillage-by-William-Adolphe-Bouguereau.jpg
http://public-domain-images.blogspot.com/2010_06_13_archive.html

PHOTO: Cave of the Storm Nymphs (1903) by British painter Sir Edward John Poynter (1836-1919)
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http://public-domain-images.blogspot.com/2010_06_13_archive.html

PHOTO: In the Tepidarium (1913) by English painter John William Godward (1861-1922) from the end of the Pre-Raphaelite/ Victorian Neoclassicism era
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PHOTO: Lot and his daughters (1616), oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Hendrik Goltzius (1558-1617), size 140 cm x 204 cm, located at Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands. A note with this digitally altered picture explains, ‘In the left, Lot is sleeping, after being seduced by his daughters. The fox behind the tree symbolizes female cunning. In the background in front of the burning city is the pillar of salt, Lots wife.’ The pillar of salt referred here is the formation of a rock figure on Mount Sodom, Israel.
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http://public-domain-images.blogspot.com/2010_06_13_archive.html