Lot 17. BARNETT NEWMAN
1905 – 1970
ONEMENT VI
signed and dated 1953 in dark blue paint on lower right corner
oil on canvas
102 x 120 in. 259.1 x 304.8 cm
Estimate; $30-40 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $39 million ($43,845,000 with the buyer’s premium) and was sold to an Italian bidder.

UPDATE: Sotheby’s pulled in more than $293 million at the evening sale of Post War & Contemporary (total reflects hammers prices plus buyers’ premiums).  Here’s a portion of the excellent coverage from Judd Tully at Artinfo.com:

NEW YORK — Fueled by a handful of outstanding offerings, the contemporary art market maintained its upwardly momentum on Tuesday at Sotheby’s, racking up $293,587,000. Impressively, 44 of the 53 lots that sold hurdled the million dollar mark. Of those, five exceeded $20 million.

Four artist records were set, including for Barnett Newman’s magisterial, electric blue hued zip painting, “Onement VI” (1953), which sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for $43,845,000 (est. $30-40 million). It eclipsed the record set in November (2012) at Christie’s New York when “Onement V,” from the same iconic series, made $22.3 million.

This example is freighted with considerable history, including a Coca-Cola spill on the surface that required expert (though now largely invisible) restoration as well as a role in a complex tax evasion case and civil lawsuit in 2003 that involved at least two art world luminaries. The baggage couldn’t deter the masterpiece from making its mark.

Eleven of the 64 lots offered failed to find buyers, making for a decent buy-in rate of 13 percent by lot and 18 percent by value. The tally rates as Sotheby’s fifth biggest contemporary art evening sale and easily exceeded last May’s $266,591,000 result.

Still, the evening felt like a mild roller coaster as two of five works by Jeff Koons were bought in, most surprisingly, the one offered by mega-collector Peter Brant, “New Hoover Celebrity IV, New Hoover Convertible, New Shelton 5 Gallon Wet/Dry, New Shelton 10 Gallon Wet/Dry Double Decker” (est. $10-15 million). Brant bought the 1981-86 sculpture, which — logically — consists of the four titular vacuum cleaners, at Sotheby’s New York in April 1991 for $137,500.

ORIGINAL POST: A big, bold, blue Barnet Newman “zip” painting, estimated at $30-40 million, leads Sotheby’s May 14 Evening Post War & Contemporary Art Sale. If you love Newman’s “zip” paintings, you’ll be all over this one – if not, you’ll wonder what the fuss is all about.  One thing is for certain, it has a third party guarantee, so it will definitely be sold.  According to the catalogue notes: “By far the most momentous in scale of the six paintings of the Onement series, Onement VIis also one of only two of this title to be held in private hands.”

Lot 20. GERHARD RICHTER
B.1932
DOMPLATZ, MAILAND [CATHEDRAL SQUARE, MILAN]
oil on canvas
108 x 114 in. 275 x 290 cm.
Executed in 1968.
Estimate: $30-40 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $33 million ($37,125,000 with the buyer’s premium) to art collector Donald Bryant, Jr.

Source image for the present work. Courtesy Gerhard Richter Archive, Dresden

In 1968 Richter received a major commission from the Siemens Corporation for a large painting to install in its Milan offices and, working on a scale unprecedented in his photo-painting mode and anxious to deliver an outstanding feat, the artist primed two canvases so as to be ready to start over if it became necessary. Indeed, his first attempt at this scale proved a failure, and Richter was forced to cut that canvas into nine smaller paintings that thereafter became independent works. He then composed and executed Domplatz, Mailand, one of the most assured essays of his photo-painting style to date which was to hang in the Siemens Milan offices for 30 years between 1968 and 1998. Adopting as his source a composed snapshot of the famous view of the Piazza del Duomo in front of Milan’s Cathedral, Richter determinedly yet meticulously blurs the image of the bustling concourse. The composition is dominated by the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, which juts in from the left edge and recedes dramatically through the center of the canvas, leading the spectator’s eye from left to right towards the straight-on view of the Cathedral itself.

Lot 23. FRANCIS BACON
1909 – 1992
STUDY FOR PORTRAIT OF P.L.
titled and dated 1962 on the reverse
oil on canvas
78 x 57 in. 198 x 144.8 cm.
Estimate: $30-40 million. “Bidding” on this lot opened at $25 million and stopped at $27 million and it failed to sell.  No sizzle to this Bacon.

The catalogue contains this intriguing entry about the sitter and his relation to Bacon:

The first of Bacon’s posthumous homages to Peter Lacy, the present work conveys the immediate memory of the man who dominated the artist’s life for the prior decade. In 1952, having met Peter Lacy in Soho’s Colony Room, Bacon embarked on what was to become “the most exalted and most destructive love affair he was ever to know.” (Michael Peppiatt, Francis Bacon in the 1950s, London, 2006, pp. 57-58) The former Battle of Britain pilot was described by Bacon as always being “in a state of unease…this man was neurotic and almost hysterical.” Bacon had fallen in love in large part because Lacy knew how to dominate and hurt him. Tough, to the point of cruelty, Lacy’s demeanor held Bacon perpetually in an emotional and physical vice and although Lacy was the love of his life, this tempestuous affair was ultimately calamitous. Bacon later lamented in conversation with Michael Peppiatt that “Being in love in that way, being absolutely physically obsessed by someone, is like an illness.” (Ibid., p. 40).

Lot 27. JACKSON POLLOCK
1912 – 1956
THE BLUE UNCONSCIOUS
signed and dated 46
oil on canvas
84 x 56 in. 213.4 x 142.1 cm.
Estimate: $20-30 million. This lot sold for a hammer price os $18.5 million ($20,885,000 with the buyer’s premium) to art dealer David Zwirner.

The Pollock was first shown at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery, which with it curved walls reflected Guggenheim’s eccentricity. As noted in the catalogue: “The association of Pollock and Peggy Guggenheim was the engine behind this rise in prominence, and as such was essential to the history of contemporary art.”

Lot 12. YVES KLEIN
1928 – 1962
SCULPTURE ÉPONGE BLEUE SANS TITRE, SE 168
dry blue pigment in synthetic resin on natural sponges, metal stem and stone base
height: 44 3/8 in. 112.7 cm.
Executed in 1959.
Estimate upon Request (approximately $20 million). This lot sold for a hammer price of $19.5 million ($22,005,000 with the buyer’s premium) to Sandy Rower, Alexander Calder’s grandson.

The Klein, which has a third party guarantee, has an impressive provenance as noted in the catalogue: “Showcased in Iris Clert’s legendary 1959 Paris exhibition Bas-reliefs dans une forêt d’éponges, SE 168 was acquired in the year of its execution by the collectors Mr. and Mrs. Burton Tremaine, without question among the most revered connoisseurs of Modern and Contemporary art of their time.”

Below are two other notable works, a Cy Twombly from the Bolsena series and a large scale Robert Ryman painting from 2002.

Lot 13. CY TWOMBLY
1928 – 2011
UNTITLED (BOLSENA)
signed, inscribed Bolsena and dated 1969 on the reverse
oil based house paint, lead pencil and wax crayon on canvas
78 3/4 by 94 1/2 in. 200 by 240 cm.
Estimate: $10-15 million.This lot sold for a hammer price of $13.6 million ($15,397,000 with the buyer’s premium) to a telephone bidder.

Lot 11. ROBERT RYMAN
B.1930
CONVENTION
signed, titled and dated ’02 on the overlap
oil on canvas
72 x 72 in. 182.9 x 182.9 cm
Estimate: $3.5-4.5 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $6 million ($6,885,000 with the buyer’s premium) to a telephone bidder.

Lot 18. Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Number 19, 1948
signed and dated ‘Jackson Pollock 48′ (upper left)
oil and enamel on paper mounted on canvas
30 7/8 x 22 5/8 in. (78.4 x 57.4 cm.)
Painted in 1948.
Estimate: $25-35 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $52 million ($58,363,750 with the buyer’s premium)

UPDATE: Last night’s sale of Post War and Contemporary yielded a whopping $495,021,500, $200 million more than the Sotheby’s sale the night before – and broke the record for the highest total for any auction – the $491.4 million that was set at Christie’s Impressionist & Modern sale in  November 2006.  According to a Christie’s press release issued at 12:38 AM, 16 new artist records were set, 3 works sold above $40 million, 9 above $10 million, and 59 above $1 million.

The first major mega-bucks work, lot 10, Jean-Michel Baquiat’s 1982 Dustheads, estimated at $25-35 million, trounced the artist’s previous auction of $26,402,500 (set just last November), and sold for a hammer price of $43.5 million ($48,843,750 with the buyer’s premium). The Jackson Pollock, sold by Washington, DC-based collector Mitchell Rales, blew past its $25-35 million estimate and sold for a hammer price of $52 million ($58,363,750 with buyer’s premium).

Judd Tully’s Artinfo.com coverage of the sale includes this about the bidding war for the Pollock:

A dozen artist records were set, led by the ravishing cover lot, Jackson Pollock’s small but mighty “Number 19, 1948,” a stunning drip painting in oil and enamel on paper mounted on canvas, which sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for a whopping $58,363,750 (est. $25-35 million). The epic bidding battle for the Pollock began at $18 million and quickly escalated at million-dollar increments to a point where three bidders were still competing at the $40 million plus mark, including dealers Jose Mugrabi and Dominique Levy.

Described in the catalogue as the property of an American foundation, the shimmering painting, which last sold at auction at Christie’s New York in May 1993 for $2,422,500, subsequently entered the collection of Potomac, Maryland billionaire Mitchell Rales and his Glenstone Foundation. The price obliterated the mark set by “Number 4,” a 1951 canvas that made $40,402,500 at Sotheby’s New York last November.

Later in the sale, Roy Lichtenstein’s Picasso-inspired Woman with a Flowered Hat, which was begin sold by the New York-based investor Ronald Perelman, sailed through its unpublished $30-40 million estimate to sell for $50 million ($56,123,750 with the buyer’s premium) to London-based Laurence Graff, who purchased the painting as a present to himself in advance of his 75th birthday. According to Tully’s article:

“I got a masterpiece and I’m very lucky, because it’s one of four ladies Lichtenstein did and this is the best example,” said a still-elated Graff, buttonholed outside Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters. “There are fewer and fewer masterpieces coming to market and I love this painting.” Graff also cracked that it is just weeks away from his birthday, “so it’s going to be my birthday present.”

The painting mashed the previous high set a year ago at Sotheby’s New York when Lichtenstein’s “Sleeping Girl” (1964) sold for $44,882,500.

ORIGINAL POST: Christie’s May 15, 2013 evening sale of Post War and Contemporary Art features a pu-pu platter of styles among the top lots including Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Neo-Expressionism and more.  Among the sale’s 72 lots (estimated to yield some $300 million), are works by art world luminaries (and box office gold) including Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

One of the most expensive is a dazzling and wondrous silvery Jackson Pollock from 1948 (above), smack in the middle of the period when he created a series of paintings that revolutionized Post War art and helped establish New York and Abstract Expressionists as the center of the contemporary art world.  According to the catalogue notes:

Number 19, 1948, was singled out as one of the finest of Pollock’s achievements to date by the great pioneering champion of Abstract Expressionism, Clement Greenberg, when it was first shown at the artist’s second solo exhibition at the Betty Parsons Gallery in January 1949. “The general quality that emerged from such pictures,” Greenberg wrote, “especially (Number) Nineteen, seemed more than enough to justify the claim that Pollock is one of the major painters of our time” (C. Greenberg, The Nation, 19 February, 1949, reproduced in J. O’Brian (ed.), Clement Greenberg, The Collected Essays and Criticism, Vol. 2 Arrogant Purpose, 1945-1949, Chicago, 1986, pp. 285-6).

Given the auction houses’ penchant for aggressively estimating top lots, this painting’s $25-35 million estimate actually seems tame.

Lot 10. Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)
Dustheads
signed, titled and dated ‘DUSTHEADS Jean-Michel Basquiat 82′ (on the reverse)
acrylic, oilstick, spray enamel and metallic paint on canvas
72 x 84 in. (182.8 x 213.3 cm.)
Painted in 1982.
Estimate: $25-35 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $43.5 million ($48,843,750 with the buyer’s premium).

The Basquiat, which has a third party guarantee (meaning it will be sold), was created when the artist was becoming an international star.  The catalogue entry includes this about the title some context from the artist:

The title itself refers to the street slang for habitual users of angel dust, the drug also known as PCP. Abused for its psychotropic qualities, the iconography of this particular painting–the vivid colors, rapid sense of frenetic movement and even the dilated eyes on both figures–lead to the drawing of clear parallels between the hallucinogenic properties of the angel dust and Basquiat’s own unique visual aesthetic. Looking back on 1982, Basquiat himself recognized the tensions that he felt between the draw of his humble beginnings as a graffiti artist and his meteoric rise to become the wunderkind of the New York art world. “I had some money,” he recalled of that important year, “I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people (J. Basquiat, in R. Marshall (ed.), Jean-Michel Basquiat, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1992, p. 241).

Lot 34. Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997)
Woman with Flowered Hat
signed and dated ‘rf Lichtenstein ’63′ (on the reverse)
Magna on canvas
50 1/8 x 40¼ in. (127.3 x 102.2 cm.)
Painted in 1963.
Estimate on Request (approximately $30-40 million). This lot sold for a hammer price of $50 million ($56,123,750 with the buyer’s premium), to London-based Laurence Graff.

The Lichetenstein, which  also has a third party guarantee, was created only two years after the artist settled on his signature Pop style based on commercial art and comics.  According to the catalogue entry:

Between 1962-63, Lichtenstein produced four paintings based on Picasso’s portraits of women: Femme au chapeau(1962, Private Collection), Femme d’Alger, (1963, The Eli and Edyth L. Broad Collection), Femme dans un fauteuil(1963, Nationalgalerie, Berlin), and the present work. Woman with Flowered Hat was the fourth in the series, and it is based on a reproduction sent to Lichtenstein by Morton Neumann, a Chicago businessman and art collector who owned the original Picasso painting and had lately begun acquiring Pop Art as well. The subject of Woman with Flowered Hatis Dora Maar, Picasso’s muse and lover from 1936 to the mid-1940s.

…

Out of all the genres Lichtenstein turned his hand to it was Picasso who perhaps made the most natural target as his work was so well-known that it essentially was already Pop: “a Picasso has become a kind of popular object,” he stated, “one has the feeling there should be a reproduction of Picasso in every home” (R. Lichtenstein, quoted in J. Hendrickson, Roy Lichtenstein, Cologne, 2000, p. 59).

Lot 46. Francis Bacon (1909-1992)
Study for Portrait
signed, titled and dated ‘Study for Portrait 1981 Francis Bacon’ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
78 1/8 x 58 1/8 in. (198.4 x 147.6 cm.)
Painted in 1981.
Estimate: $18-25 million. This lot was withdrawn from sale.

According to the catalogue entry, this painting was acquired by the present owner from Marlborough in 1983 and presuming it hasn’t been on the market privately (and shopped out), it is fresh material and should do well.  The catalogue includes this section:

The principal image in Study for Portrait is of a seated, nude George Dyer. Variations of Dyer’s cross-legged pose had first been employed by Bacon in Portrait of George Dyer Staring at Blind-cord and Portrait of George Dyer Talking, in 1966, utilising John Deakin’s photographs of Dyer, taken in Bacon’s Reece Mews studio, circa 1965. Bacon would continue to paint variations on the theme of a nude male figure, seated and with crossed legs, up until 1990, latterly transposing the ‘sitter’s’ identity, at least facially, to John Edwards.

George Dyer had died in Paris on October 24, 1971, two days before the opening of Bacon’s major retrospective at the Grand Palais.

Here are the additional top estimates lot followed by two works by Cy Twombly:

Lot 21. Clyfford Still (1904-1980)
PH-1
signed and dated ‘Clyfford 53′ (lower left); signed again, dated again and inscribed ‘Clyfford 1953 S.F.’ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
79 x 68½ in. (200.7 x 174 cm.)
Painted in 1953.
Estimate: $15-20 million. This lot was unsold.

Lot 55. Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
Untitled (Black on Maroon)
signed and dated ‘MARK ROTHKO 1958′ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
72 x 45 in. (182.8 x 114.3 cm.)
Painted in 1958.
Estimate: $15-20 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $24 million ($27,003,750 with the buyer’s premium).

Both of the Twomblys (below) have third party guarantees.

Lot 33. Cy Twombly (1928-2011)
Untitled (Rome)
signed with initials and numbered ‘C.T. 5/6′ (on the base)
bronze
76¼ x 12 1/8 x 31 in. (193.6 x 30.7 x 78.7 cm.)
Executed in 1987. This work is number five from an edition of six.
Estimate: $6-8 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $6.8 million ($7,739,750 with the buyer’s premium).

Lot 44. Cy Twombly (1928-2011)
Untitled [Gaeta]
inscribed and dated ‘Gaeta Aug’(upper left); signed with initials and dated again ‘CT 00′ (lower left); signed, titled and dated again ‘Cy Twombly Gaeta 00′ (on the reverse)
oil based house paint, acrylic, wax crayon, lead pencil and paper collage on wooden panel
49½ x 72¾ in. (125.7 x 184.7 cm.)
Executed in 2000.
Estimate: $5-7 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $5.6 million ( $6,395,750 with the buyer’s premium).

The Getty’s newest purchase: ‘Rembrandt Laughing’ by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn, oil on copper, 8 3/4 x 6 5/8 inches. (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles / May 9, 2013)

The Getty has recently acquired, though has not yet taken possession of, a small but powerful Rembrandt van Rijn self-portrait from 1628 according to Jori Finkel at the Los Angeles Times. Also acquired, and now hanging on their walls, is a Canaletto view of the Grand Canal in Venice From Palazzo Flangini to Campo San Marcuola.  Purchase prices were not announced, but the article cites experts who speculate the price for the Rembrandt runs into the tens of millions.

From the article:

Painted on copper plate, the work the Getty is buying is tiny — not quite 9 by 7 inches. It shows the artist in his early 20s in mid-laugh, with his head thrown back.

It first came to public attention at the English country auction [in 2007], which identified it as work by “a follower of Rembrandt.” The auctioneers estimated its value at around $3,000.

But scholars suspected this joyful image was the real deal, so a bidding war erupted. The painting sold for about $5.2 million to an unidentified bidder before it was even properly authenticated.

The painting has been authenticated by “the leading Rembrandt scholar Ernst van de Wetering.”  Though not specified, it’s believed the seller was the London-based gallery Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, which means an export license will needed:

The exact price could be revealed when the Getty applies for an export license from the British government, which gives museums there a chance to match the price for an artwork of “outstanding significance” historically or artistically and keep it in the country.

…

These purchases mark the first high-profile acquisitions under Potts, who began as museum director in September 2012 with a mandate from Getty Trust President James Cuno to make ambitious purchases. Potts said of the Rembrandt that the museum “had been aware of it as something we would love to have” for some time, but that “the pursuit” began upon his arrival.

Lot 54316. A LARGE VERAGUAS GOLD PENDANT REPRESENTING AN EAGLE. c. 900 – 1200 AD
Perhaps a harpy eagle with its wings extended and its feet posed as if for landing. The eagle carries a small animal in its beak. Weight: 109 grams. Height: 4 inches
Estimate: $25,000 – $35,000.

Heritage Auction’s May 10, 2013 American Indian, Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art Signature Auction in Dallas features nearly 200 pre-Columbian with ZERO listed provenance on either the company’s Web site of the pdf version of the print catalogue.  Really? By contrast, there are numerous works in the American Indian and Tribal sections that have a dated provenance. What are we to conclude from this?

Lot 54277. A LARGE QUIMBAYA GOLD PENDANT REPRESENTING A COMPOSITE HUMAN/ANIMAL CREATURE WITH TWO HEADS c. 1200 – 1400 AD
His long tail forms an arch over his head. Six monkeys climb on the arch. Two small composite creatures cling to the waist of the main character. Weight: 159 grams. Height: 5 inches.
Estimate: $25,000 – $35,000.

Bamboo trees sprouted up around a topographical landscape of stone and water at this installation created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in Milan last month. (Click image to enlarge.)

This image, courtesy the excellent design-oriented Web site Dezeen, features the work of architect Kengo Kuma – a bamboo and stone landscape architectural installation created in concert with the annual furniture and design orgy in Milan known as the Salone del Mobile.  Hundreds of thousands of attendees turn out to see and be wowed by the latest in design.  This topographic wonderland is definitely a showstopper. Here are a couple more images – the rest at Dezeen:

One of two “Kneeling Attendants” the Metropolitan Museum of Art is returning to Cambodia.

Breaking news from the New York Times:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has agreed to return to Cambodia two 10th-century Khmer statues that Cambodian officials had declared were looted from a jungle redoubt and given to the Met in stages more than 20 years ago.

On Friday the museum confirmed accounts from Cambodian officials that it intended to repatriate the statues, known as the “Kneeling Attendants,” life-size sandstone masterpieces that flanked a doorway in the Met’s Southeast Asian galleries.

No timetable has been set, but the museum told Cambodian officials in a letter last month that it hoped to send them as soon as “appropriate arrangements for transit can be mutually established.”

Thomas P. Campbell, the director of the Met, said the agreement — one of the more significant in a recent spate of often controversial cultural repatriations — followed new documentary research by the museum that corroborated Cambodian claims that the works had been improperly removed from their site at the Koh Ker temple complex.

MISHNEH TORAH, MAIMONIDES, WITH HAGAHOT MAIMUNIYYOT AND TESHUVOT MAIMUNIYYOT, NORTHERN ITALY, CA. 1457

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Israel Museum have jointly acquired a rare 15th century Mishneh Torah from Michael and Judy Steinhardt, according to Bloomberg News.  The intricately illustrated work on leather and parchment was scheduled to be sold this morning at Sotheby’s, the top estimated lot at $4.5-6 million of 386 from the Steinhardt’s collection of Judiaca.  The Bloomberg article included this statement from Michael Steinhardt:

“The acquisition of this remarkable manuscript by the Israel Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art is poetic given Judy’s and my longstanding involvement with both institutions,” Michael Steinhardt said in an emailed statement. “It is particularly meaningful that this event marks the first significant collaboration between the two museums.”

According to the lot notes:

The groundbreaking and all-encompassing Mishneh Torah, completed in 1180 [by Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides), also known by the acronym Rambam], became the first comprehensive post-Talmudic code of Jewish law to be arranged according to subject matter. Comprising the full range of Biblical, Talmudic and Rabbinic legislation, it was organized into fourteen discrete books. So that it could provide layman and scholar alike with an authoritative compilation of normative rulings, it was written in a lucid and concise Hebrew. The Mishneh Torah functioned as the authoritative code for Jewish communities across the diaspora and served as a model for subsequent codifications of Jewish law, such as the Tur by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher and the Shulhan Arukh by Rabbi Joseph Karo. To this day, the Mishneh Torah remains a “living” text, studied and referred to by rabbis and scholars alike.

The present manuscript was originally conceived in two volumes. The first part, now in the Vatican, comprises books I-V, and is lacking book VI. The present volume consists of Books VII-XIV.

While the purchase price was not disclosed, Bloomberg did report who made the acquisition possible:

The Israel Museum acquired the volume with support from the Steinhardts, Zurich collectors Susanne and Rene Braginsky, co- founder of Incentive Asset Management AG; Renee and Lester Crown, chairman of Henry Crown & Co, Chicago-based private investment group; philanthropist Lynn Schusterman of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and one anonymous donor, the museum said in an announcement.

Lot 7. PAUL CÉZANNE
1839 – 1906
LES POMMES
Oil on canvas: 15 1/8 by 18 1/8 in.
38.5 by 46 cm
Painted in 1889-90
Estimate: $25-35 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $37 million ($41,605,000 including the buyer’s premium).

UPDATE: This sale was a bit of endurance test but it did gross $230 million (hammer prices plus buyer’s premiums).  Judd Tully at Artinfo.com provides good coverage:

Thirty-seven of the 60 lots that sold made over one million dollars and of those, four made over $15 million. Just eleven of the 71 lots offered failed to find buyers for a respectable 15.5 percent buy-in rate by lot and just percent by value. (Though brisk, the sale lagged behind last May’s $330.5-million result, super-charged by Edvard Munch‘s “The Scream,” which sold for $119.9 million.)

Two artist records were set, including Georges Braque’s stunning, color-saturated Fauve-period landscape, “Paysage a la Ciotat” (1907), which sold to New York dealer Emmanuel DiDonna of Blain DiDonna for $15,845,000 (est. $10-15 million). The work last sold at auction at Sotheby’s New York in November 2000 for $3,085,750, and tonight was one of just two works that carried so-called third-party guarantees, assuring a sale, no matter what the outcome.

…

The engine that drove the evening was a fresh-to-market group of 20 works from the estate of New York collectors Alex and Elisabeth Lewyt, whose time capsule trove of paintings primarily acquired in the 1950s made $88.6 million of the overall total, compared to pre-sale expectations of $58.9-84.7 million. (Estimates do not include the chunky buyer’s premium that is added to the so-called hammer price, after the auctioneer knocks down the lot.)

The Lewyts’ exceptional and rare cover lot, Paul Cezanne’s gravity defying and perfectly composed still life, “Les Pommes” (1889-90), sold to an otherwise anonymous telephone bidder for $41,605,000 (est. $25-35 million) and the couple’s early Amedeo Modigliani masterwork, “L’Amazone” (1909), featuring a confident woman dressed in an orange riding jacket and black gloves, made $25,925,000, selling to another telephone bidder (est. $20-30 million).

ORIGINAL POST: The Sotheby’s May 2013 Impressionist and Modern auction is packed with big names that bring big prices … along with some entertainingly boastful auction catalogue essays.  The lot notes for this simple still life with a rather aggressive estimate begin on a slightly over exuberant note: “Painted in 1889-90, Les Pommes encapsulates Cézanne’s artistic achievement, and displays the brilliance and economy which characterize his best work.”  Indeed!  I personally would want a little more “umph” in a painting estimated at $25-35 million. However, according to the provenance, this work was last sold by Wildenstein in 1953 – provided it hasn’t been offered around on the market lately, being “fresh material” makes this desirable.  Here are the remaining of the top five lots by estimate.

Lot 12. AMEDEO MODIGLIANI
1884 – 1920
L’AMAZONE
Signed Modigliani (lower left)
Oil on canvas: 36 1/4 by 25 3/4 in.
92 by 65.6 cm
Painted in 1909.
Estimate: $20-30 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $23 million ($25,925,000 including the buyer’s premium)

The Modigliani (above) is a bit more strident than the sinuous ovoid compositions from the teens, but this is an early work that has all of the artist’s hallmarks.  According to the catalogue entry:

The subject of this painting is Baroness Marguerite de Hasse de Villers, a glamorous socialite and the lover of Paul Alexandre’s younger brother Jean, who commissioned this portrait of his girlfriend in 1909.

…

One of the notable features of the present work is Modigliani’s approach to rendering the potent sensual appeal of a woman who was far removed from the artist’s own social realm.  The Baroness was introduced to the artist by her lover Jean Alexandre, the younger brother of Modigliani’s patron Paul Alexandre … who acted both as a patron and guardian figure for the wayward artist.  Jean was charged with supervising Modigliani’s progress while Paul was out of town, since Modigliani was too often distracted by drink and debauchery to complete projects by his own accord.

Lot 31. PABLO PICASSO
1881 – 1973
SYLVETTE
Painted metal: Height: 27 1/2 in.
70 cm
Executed in 1954.
Estimate: $12-18 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $12 million ($13,605,000 including the buyer’s premium). This sold to New York collector Donald Bryant.

The catalogue entry for this lot begins on a more hyperbolic note than that for the Cézanne:

Picasso’s dynamic, three-dimensional rendering of Sylvette is among his most powerful interpretations of the human face.

Admittedly, “among his most” gives the auction house some room, but there are a significant number of more “powerful interpretations of the human face” in the artist’s oeuvre. This, however, is more helpful:

19-year-old Sylvette David was Picasso’s neighbor in Vallauris who had caught his eye from afar during the spring of 1954.  When she arrived at his house one afternoon with some of her friends, he allegedly exclaimed “it’s you!” and began a series of nearly forty paintings and drawings and four sculptures, including the present work, that would occupy him for over two months.   Picasso met Sylvette at a critical period in his personal life, just when his relationship with Françoise Gilot was coming to an end.  Sylvette’s boyfriend was a constant presence when she posed at the artist’s studio between April and June, and the fact that she was unattainable perhaps fueled Picasso’s obsession with her.

Lot 23. GEORGES BRAQUE
1882 – 1963
PAYSAGE À LA CIOTAT
Signed G. Braque (lower left)
Oil on canvas: 20 1/8 by 24 3/8 in.
51 by 62 cm
Painted in the summer of 1907.
Estimate: $10-15 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $14 million ($15,845,000 including the buyer’s premium). This sold to New York dealer Emmanuel DiDonna of Blain DiDonna.

Again with the auction house oversell: “Braque’s magnificent depiction of La Ciotat in the south of France is a seminal image of the Fauve revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century.” No, those seminal images came in 1905 with the first exhibition of Fauvist works by Matisse, Derain and others.  This is a splendid picture, but not an art historic game changer. The entry does note: “In the present work, which was painted in the summer of 1907, Braque depicts the rolling hills near La Ciotat and L’Estaque – an area that figures prominently in his production through his Cubist landscapes.”

According to the provenance, the present owner purchased this painting in 2008, only five years ago.  One wonders if this has been on the market more recently.

Lot 45. AUGUSTE RODIN
1840 – 1917
LE PENSEUR, TAILLE DE LA PORTE DIT MOYEN MODÈLE
Inscribed A. Rodin and with the foundry mark Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris; additionally inscribed on a plaque affixed to the rock Le Penseur: Executé en 1906 dans mes ateliers et sous ma surveillance pour Monsieur Ralph Pulitzer, Auguste Rodin.
Bronze: Height: 28 1/8 in.
71.5 cm
Conceived in 1880, this cast executed between January and June, 1906.
Estimate: $8-12 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $13.5 million ($15,285,000 including the buyer’s premium). This sold to Oslo dealer Ben Frija of Galleri K.

The lot notes begin as follows: “Rodin’s Le Penseur has become one of the most recognizable sculptures in art history.”  This is, in fact, an iconic image – the catalogue entry includes this intriguing portion:

The figure was discussed by the artist shortly before his death, when he described his desire to personify the act of thinking:  “Nature gives me my model, life and thought; the nostrils breathe, the heart beats, the lungs inhale, the being thinks and feels, has pains and joys, ambitions, passions, emotions…  What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes” (quoted in Saturday Night, Toronto, December 1, 1917).

Lot 21. Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)
Le petit pâtissier
signed ‘Soutine’ (lower right)
oil on canvas: 30 1/8 x 27 1/8 in. (76.5 x 68.9 cm.)
Painted circa 1927
Estimate: $16–22 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $16 million ($18,043,750 with the buyer’s premium).

UPDATE: The evening totaled $158,505,000 with 44 of 47 lots sold (an additional 4 were withdrawn from sale).  Judd Tully at Artinfo.com provides good post-sale coverage including this bit about one buyer’s “on camera” moment:

Overall, the sale was 35 percent higher than last May’s tally of $117 million but lagged far behind its arch rival Sotheby’s Tuesday evening sale, which made $230 million. Of course, Sotheby’s had a big leg up thanks to choice estate property from the collection of Alex and Elisabeth Lewyt, which pumped $88.6 million into the tally. No such luck here, with just a smattering of estate property, such as Pablo Picasso’s Surrealist, index-card-sized “Composition (Figure feminine sur une plage)” (1927), which sold from the Andy Williams collection for $1,443,750 (est. $800,000-1.2 million).

Still, bidders were game for big prices, such as for a sleeper Amedeo Modigliani, the early and fetching “La Juive” (1907-08), featuring the mysterious American sitter Maud Abrantes— most likely the artist’s lover — which soared to $6,843,750 (est. $2-3 million).

The buyer, seated on the aisle towards the back of the salesroom, recorded the bidding battle with his iPhone, holding it in one hand while bidding with his other, even taking a self-portrait shot after his winning hammer bid of $6 million. Later on, he declined to give his name though he admitted he was French, living in Switzerland, and the proud owner of other Modiglianis.

ORIGINAL POST: The two works with the highest pre-sale estimates at Christie’s May 8, 2013 Impressionist & Modern Evening Sale in New York are not by the usual suspects – i.e., Modigliani, Monet, Cezanne or Picasso (though works by Picasso round out the top five).  According to the extensive lot notes, Chaim Soutine painted the top lot, a 1927 oil on canvas depiction of a Parisian pastry chef that is last of six paintings of pastry chefs the artist created during nearly a decade.  A similarly-themed earlier painting was purchased by Dr. Albert Barnes, an event that fundamentally changed the artist’s life – he went from ignored and poor to celebrated.

The Derain (below) was likely painted in August 1905 when the artist and Henri Matisse were working in Collioure.  According to the lot notes:

The products of this spectacular Collioure summer were seen in the fabled salle VII of the 1905 Salon d’Automne, on whose walls hung a group of the sun-drenched paintings by Matisse and Derain as well as some by their friends–Vlaminck, Manguin, Camoin, Marquet–and a few fellow travelers … These brash paintings–whose “colours became sticks of dynamite…primed to discharge light,” as Derain later characterized them … sorely challenged, exasperated and even outraged viewers and commentators alike. The critic Louis Vauxcelles called these hot young painters “les fauves”–”the wild beasts”–a sobriquet, or epithet depending on one’s point of view, that has withstood the test of time.

Lot 11. Andre Derain (1880-1954)
Madame Matisse au kimono
signed ‘a derain’ (lower right)
oil on canvas: 31¾ x 25 5/8 in. (80.5 x 65 cm.)
Painted in Collioure, summer 1905
Estimate: $15-20 million. Bidding on this lot opened at $11 million and stopped at $13 million and it failed to sell.

Here are the remaining lots in the top 5 (by estimate):

Lot 14. Joan Miro (1893-1983)
Peinture
signed ‘Miró’ (lower right); signed again and dated ‘Joan Miró. 29.4.33.’ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas: 57¾ x 45 in. (146.5 x 114.3 cm.)
Painted on 29 April 1933
Estimate: $10-15 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $9.7 million ($10,987,750 with the buyer’s premium).

According to the lot notes, the Miro (above) was sold at Sotheby’s (New York, 1 May 1996, lot 52) to Helly Nahmad, who was recently indicted and arrested for his role in an illegal gambling and money laundering operation.  Nahmad sold the painting to the current owner.

Lot 35. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Mandoline et portée de musique
signed and dated ‘Picasso 23′ (lower left)
oil and sand on canvas: 38¼ x 51¼ in. (97 x 130 cm.)
Executed in 1923
Estimate: $8-12 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $8.1 million ($9,195,750 with the buyer’s premium).

Lot 23. Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Femme assise en costume rouge sur fond bleu
signed ‘Picasso’ (lower left); inscribed and dated ‘Vallauris 6.3.53′ (on the reverse)
oil on panel: 36 1/8 x 28 5/8 in. (91.9 x 72.9 cm.)
Painted in Vallauris, 6 March 1953
Estimate: $7-10 million. This lot sold for a hammer price of $7.5 million ($8,523,750 with the buyer’s premium).