"Giddy Highs for Contemporary Art" @wsj

[image]Christie's

MASSIVE FLOWERS: Jeff Koons became one of the world's priciest living artists when his metal 'Tulips' sold for $33.6 million, over the $20 million estimate.

To gauge collectors' runaway confidence in the contemporary art market, consider this: A week ago, the world's major auction houses got $447 million from five Impressionist and modern art sales. On Wednesday, Christie's got nearly that much from a single sale of contemporary art.

Values for contemporary art—defined as any art created after 1945—are always in flux because art history hasn't had time to weigh its lasting merits. But the number of high prices attained during New York's fall sales proves newer art still attracts a broad group of competitive global collectors. In the past week alone, Sotheby's BID -1.04%got $75 million for a Mark Rothko abstract and $40.4 million for a Jackson Pollock drip painting. Rival Christie's sold a $43.7 million Andy Warhol silk-screen and a $40.4 million Franz Kline abstract.

As a result, Sotheby's scored its biggest-ever auction on Tuesday with a sale that topped $375 million; Christie's also made history the following night with a $412.2 million sale that represented its second-highest sale in company history after a $491 million blockbuster in 2006. This latest round—which includes a series by smaller auctioneer Phillips de Pury & Co.—concludes Friday. In February, the market will again be tested with a round of sales in London.

Why did collectors sniff at the older offerings but giddily embrace the new? Dealers say the homogenization of international art tastes may have played a role. Colorful abstracts are popular now in part because they don't require the nuanced cultural translations of Chinese scroll paintings or German Expressionist portraits. And at a time when other investment vehicles appear stagnant, collectors see a chance to profit by buying and selling newer artists whose price levels may still be rising.

A closer read of the week's results hints at something else: Collectors are finding ways within the contemporary-art arena to hedge their bets by buying older works created in the 1950s and 1960s by artists who are well-established yet still considered contemporary. Collectors are particularly bidding up the couple dozen artists who found fame right after World War II—including classic Abstract Expressionist painter Franz Kline. The Pennsylvania-born painter, known for splaying thick, feverish brush strokes atop white canvases, was overlooked during the market's last run-up. Now, Asian collectors are bidding him up. They competed heavily for Christie's untitled Kline, which on Wednesday went for $40.4 million, over the estimate. Minutes later, an Asian bidder snagged a smaller Kline from 1955 for $6.4 million, again besting the estimate.

American and European collectors also chased after rare Abstract Expressionist examples by Jackson Pollock and Hans Hofmann. Both painters have long been revered by museums but neither has seen a price spike to rival the kind attained by later favorites like Francis Bacon or Gerhard Richter. Bidders competed heavily for Hofmann's "Swamp" series from the late 1950s, examples of which sold for around $4 million apiece—above their price tags but a bargain compared with similarly candy-colored Richters. Pollock's spattered "Number 4, 1951" finally got its due, selling for $40.4 million, over its $30 million estimate and setting a new auction record for the artist.

Richter snagged a couple big prices this round—Sotheby's got $17.4 million for his "Abstract Painting" from 1990 and Christie's got $15.3 million for another example from 1992—but his momentum appears to be slowing. Several Richters in these sales found no takers, including one offered by Christie's from hedge-fund manager Steven Cohen that stalled at $8.8 million.

Jeff Koons, on the other hand, got a boost when his rainbow-colored bouquet of enormous metal "Tulips" sold for $33.6 million, over the $20 million estimate. The sale gives Mr. Koons bragging rights as the second-priciest living artist after Richter.

But it was Warhol who proved once again why he's the warhorse of contemporary art: Between the houses' regular sales and an auxiliary sale of lower-priced pieces coming directly from his namesake foundation, around 400 Warhols came onto the market last week—and nearly all of them sold. From a $3,500 Polaroid snapshot of red poinsettias to a $16.3 million silk-screen of a man leaping to his death to a $23.7 million reproduction of a Marlon Brando movie still, collectors snapped up a variety pack of Warhols spanning his Pop oeuvre.

On Monday, Christie's inaugural sale of pieces from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts totaled $17 million; a majority of the offerings sold within or above their asking prices. Michael Straus, the foundation's chairman, said the result "proves our strategy was the right thing to do" to raise funds for the foundation's charitable causes.

After Christie's $412.2 million blockbuster two days later, specialist Koji Inoue summed up the contemporary-art market's mood more succinctly: "Talk about a flight to quality."

By Kelly Crow

"Looking Out for No. 1" @wsj

By KELLY CROW

After a summer marked by uneven sales, Sotheby's in New York plans to anchor its major November auctions with a pair of brand-name stalwarts: Mark Rothko and Pablo Picasso.

In a season of art-market uncertainty, Sotheby's plans to anchor its big fall auction series in New York this November with a pair of brand-name stalwarts: Mark Rothko and Pablo Picasso. Kelly Crow has details on Lunch Break.

John Marion, a former Sotheby's president, and his wife, Anne, a Texas oil heiress and major collector of modern art, have enlisted the auction house to help them sell Mark Rothko's "No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue)," a 1954 abstract that depicts a trio of fuzzy-edged red, pink and blue rectangles stacked atop a rose background.

[image]Sotheby's

Rothko's 'No. 1' will kick off Sotheby's November auctions in New York

Sotheby's didn't name the sellers but dealers say the work is widely known to belong to the Marions. The house expects to sell it Nov. 13 for $35 million to $50 million.

Rothko is a master of Abstract Expressionism, and his midcentury meditations on color and modernism have sold well in good times and bad: At the market's last peak in 2007, one of his 1950 abstracts sold at Sotheby's for $72.8 million. Four months ago, Christie's in New York topped that record-setting price by getting $86.8 million for a 1961 Rothko, "Orange, Red, Yellow." That work was only priced to sell for up to $45 million.

Rothko created more than 800 paintings before he died in 1970. Today, the size and color of these pieces play a big role in his asking prices—the bigger and more sunset-colored the painting, the better, dealers say. The example Sotheby's is offering stands 9½ feet tall, eclipsing the current record holder by nearly 2 feet. The jewel-toned hues in "No. 1" are also saturated rather than pale. From a distance, it evokes a distilled seascape.

[image]Sotheby's

Picasso's 'Woman at the Window (Marie-Thérèse)'

In a realm where museum appearances can also alter a work's value, "No. 1" can claim to be one of eight pieces created for "Recent Paintings by Mark Rothko," a major solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1954. Other examples from that same exhibit have since changed hands at auction for as much as $17.3 million apiece. Several more now belong to museums, such as the Phillips Collection in Washington and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Abstract Expressionists like Rothko and Clyfford Still are seeing higher prices now in part because of renewed bidding from U.S. collectors, said Sotheby's specialist Tobias Meyer. Before the recession, Mr. Meyer said, these collectors mostly sat on the sidelines, unable to compete with bidders from Russia and the Middle East. But in the past year, Americans have returned. "The sticker shock is gone," he said.

Sotheby's said a highlight of its Nov. 5 sale of Impressionist and modern art will be Picasso's rainbow-hued portrait of the artist's mistress, "Woman at the Window (Marie-Thérèse)." The 1936 work, which is priced to sell for $15 million to $20 million, remained with the artist until his death in 1973. Its current seller, who remains anonymous, has owned it for the past three decades, Sotheby's said.

Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared September 21, 2012, on page D5 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Looking Out for 'No. 1'.

via online.wsj.com

"#AndyWarhol Art Trove Pops Up for Sale" in @wsj

Foundation to Auction Over 20,000 Works, Hopes to Reap More Than $100 Million

By KELLY CROW

Andy Warhol's estate is cashing out.

A quarter-century after the Pop artist died, his art foundation is about to upend the Warhol market by auctioning off the rest of his estate—including more than 20,000 works it expects to sell for a total of more than $100 million.

A quarter century after Pop artist Andy Warhol died, his art foundation is planning to auction off his estate at Christie's this fall, including hundreds of Warhol works valued at over $100 million. Kelly Crow reports on the News Hub. Photo: Reuters.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts said Wednesday that it has enlisted Christie's to help sell off its remaining inventory of silk-screen paintings, drawings, prints, collages, photographs and archival materials because it no longer wants to broker occasional sales of these objects on its own.

[image]Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Christies Images Ltd.

Highlights of the trove include Warhol's 'Self-Portrait in Fright Wig,' a 1970s Polaroid print, which Christie's expects to fetch at least $15,000.

Chairman Michael Straus said the foundation aims to use the proceeds to increase its $225 million endowment and expand the scope of its art-related grant programs. "We're converting art into money," Mr. Straus said.

Warhol is one of the art market's top commodities, and this selloff could significantly recalibrate his prices because the foundation is putting so many pieces into broader circulation for the first time. These include at least 350 paintings and 1,000 prints, plus thousands of drawings and unique photographs the artist took during his four-decade career.

Alberto Mugrabi, a New York dealer whose family owns at least 800 Warhols, said the estate has hinted for over a year that it might want to close up shop, and Mr. Mugrabi said he and a few other dealers offered to buy it, but the foundation declined. Now, he said, he worries the foundation will "dilute" the Warhol brand by flooding the market with too material at once. "It's ridiculous—they have a great product, and they're pushing it out into the market like cattle," he added.

Warhol's prolific output has long been sifted and traded on varying levels, with collectors paying a premium for the 8,000 paintings and sculptures he produced between 1952 and his death in 1987. These still turn up at auction so consistently—about 200 works a year—that they have become a bellwether for the entire $25 billion art market. Last year alone, auctions sold $346 million worth of his art, according to Artnet, a database that tracks auction sales.

image

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Christies Images Ltd.

"Three Targets," a 19-foot silk-screen showing a trio of bullet-riddled bull's eyes, is estimated to sell for at least $1 million.

Five years ago, a collector paid Christie's a record $71.7 million for a 1963 work, "Green Car Crash."

But farther down the artistic food chain, there are plenty of collectors who continue to chase the more than 100,000 photographs, prints, film negatives and drawings on sketchpads that Warhol created alongside his best-known silk-screens of Hollywood starlets. Prices for these lesser-known works can fluctuate wildly from a few thousand dollars for a photograph to more than $5 million apiece for a drawing.

Mr. Straus said the estate isn't sitting on a slew of soup-can masterworks, but what's left does cover the entire arc of the artist's career, from his early years as a commercial illustrator to his Pop art to his final days as a New York social fixture, with a Polaroid camera regularly hanging around his neck. The foundation has timed its sale on the heels of a major retrospective of the artist's work, which opens Sept. 18 at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Since none of the estate's remaining material has ever been sold—or even seen by the public—before, Christie's is preparing to market it as a treasure trove. The auction house, a unit of London-based Christie's International PLC , said it would kick off the sale by offering roughly 350 Warhol works on Nov. 12 in its New York auction room, followed by a series of online-only sales of lower-priced pieces next February and for years beyond.

Highlights include "Three Targets," a 19-foot-long silk-screen showing a trio of bullet-riddled bull's eyes, estimated to sell for at least $1 million. "Jackie," a red 1960s screen print and paper collage portrait of Jacqueline Kennedy, has an estimated sales price of at least $200,000. Among the thousands of Polaroid photographs is a late-1970s "Self Portrait," in which the artist wears black sunglasses and his signature silver wig. Christie's expects it to fetch at least $15,000.

New York dealer Paul Kasmin said Christie's plan to roll out the majority of its offerings online indicates a dearth of potentially record-setting masterpieces. "It's a clever way to get good values for less-important pieces," he said, particularly since Warhol is such a well-known art brand. "It would be pretty fatal for anyone else."

Christie's specialist Amy Cappellazzo said the auction house intends to space out its online sales over several years in order to avoid offering up too much material all at once. It also will broker some sales privately. "We know Warhol's market well, and we how to turn the tap on and off," she added.

[image]Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Christies Images Ltd.

'Jackie,' a screen print and paper collage of Jacqueline Kennedy, has an estimated price of at least $200,000.

However the works fare at auction, the huge divestiture amounts to a major reorganization of one of the art world's most powerful entities. For years, dealers and scholars have gained entry into the foundation's warehouse in New York's Chelsea neighborhood in hopes of unearthing an overlooked Warhol masterwork to buy or borrow. Plenty more have sought help from its auxiliary authentication board about other potential Warhols, a service it quit offering last fall after several of its rulings spurred costly law suits.

The foundation said it was simply time for a change. Years ago, it gave away 4,000 of its top pieces to create the permanent collection of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, where the artist grew up. It has also already donated $250 million from past art sales to cultural causes. But by selling off its remaining art assets, it can pare down its operating costs by eliminating the need to store or insure the art, and focus more on its philanthropy. "We sold works in the beginning to build up our endowment," he added, "but now we want to maximize our grant-making."

Market watchers will likely keep a close eye on the sales, in part because they could alter the value of Warhol's works on paper, which haven't seen price spikes to match his silk-screens over the years. The top price for a Warhol work on paper is the $4.2 million that Sotheby'sBID +1.90% got three years ago for his pencil drawing of a wad of money, "Untitled (Roll of Dollar Bills)." Auction sales of his prints fell by a third last year, to $25 million, according to Artnet.

Next spring's sales of Warhol works will also mark the first time Christie's offers fine art using an online-only sale format—a potential game-changer for an industry that drums up much of its buzz from theatrical saleroom auctions. Christie's CEO Steven Murphy said the company began experimenting with online-only sales last year by offering some of Elizabeth Taylor's estate pieces, followed by a series of online-only wine sales. The results—along with bidders' willingness to click and bid on pieces during live sales—encouraged him to expand with name-brand art.

"I think it's going to blow open the doors to a wider, global audience than we could reach in a traditional sale," he said. If successful, Mr. Murphy said Christie's may offer additional artists' works in online-only sales in the future.

Rival Sotheby's experimented with online-only sales over a decade ago but ended its deal with eBay Inc. in 2003 after bidders shied away.

Mr. Kasmin, the dealer, said he has been curious about the full contents of the Warhol estate for years; now, he is resigned to sorting through it online. "I would have liked to have gotten in there before everyone else," he said.

When it comes to reviving online-only sales, Warhol may have a leg up on other artists in part because his name and style are already familiar with collectors around the globe. The fact that these works come directly from his estate also helps confirm their authenticity in a realm where fakes abound, particularly in the prints marketplace.

Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared September 6, 2012, on page B1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Warhol Art Trove Pops Up for Sale.

"Art Sales: A Study in Contrasts" in @wsj

Updated July 17, 2012, 9:24 a.m. ET

Christie's Up, Sotheby's Down; Masterpieces Sell Well but Lesser Works Snubbed

By KELLY CROW

The art market appears to be entering its Uneven Period. After climbing in sync for several seasons, the world's two chief auction houses are offering differing portraits of the art market: one rosy, the other blue.

 

Christie's and Sotheby's, after climbing in sync for several seasons, offered differing portraits of the art market: one rosy, the other blue. Kelly Crow has details on The News Hub. Photo: Getty Images.

Christie's International PLC said Monday it sold $3.5 billion of fine and decorative art in the first half of the year, up 11.2% from a year earlier. Christie's total included $2.8 billion in auction sales and $661.5 million in privately brokered art sales. Its private art sales were up 50% compared with the first half of 2011.

Big 2012 Art Sales

Take a look back at some of the top-selling pieces for the auction house so far in 2012.

View Slideshow

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Christie's/Associated Press

Yves Klein's 'FC1 (Fire Color 1)'—dry pigments and synthetic resin on panel with artist's frame, 1962—sold for $36.5 million May 8 in New York.

Rival Sotheby's BID 0.00%said it auctioned off $2.44 billion of art during the same period, down 15.8% from a year earlier despite a record-setting $119.9 million for Edvard Munch's "The Scream." It said it would release its consolidated sale totals next month.

The combination reflects the increasingly unsettled state of the art market lately, as billionaire collectors chase after the world's priciest masterpieces while collectors further down the food chain sneer at second-tier material that suddenly looks overpriced. More Asian collectors, who played such a huge role in this latest run-up, are also staying home, spooked by China's cooling economy.

Asia's economy already appears to be taking a toll: Christie's sales in Asia totaled $374.6 million during the first six months of the year, down 24% from the same period last year.

Steven Murphy, Christie's CEO, said the new Asian collectors are "maturing," so they are increasingly chasing pieces that fill gaps in their collection rather than going on carefree shopping sprees. Mr. Murphy said his salesrooms in New York and London also saw a 31% uptick in registered Asian bidders this season—a sign that some Asian collectors may be migrating to Western art categories while values for Asian art recalibrate.

Mr. Murphy said the house has no plans to pare down its staff or strategies in Asia. "There are still a lot of people to serve there," he said.

On Monday, worries about Asia's chilling effect on the international art market spurred Craig-Hallum Capital Group analyst George Sutton to lower Sotheby's rating to Hold from Buy. Mr. Sutton also cut his price target on Sotheby's target share price to $35 from $40 on valuation. Sotheby's shares closed Monday at $30.39, down 5.8% from close of trading Friday.

Sotheby's declined to comment on the downgrade.

Mr. Sutton said he didn't think the market cycle had reached its peak, but he said top collectors—and auction houses—will continue to focus on acquiring trophies at the expense of everything else. "If you've got the world's best Picasso, now might be the time to sell it," he added, "but if you've only got a second-tier Picasso, maybe not."

Dealers say they are experiencing a similar bout of pickiness from collectors at all price levels. In May, dealers exhibiting contemporary art at Art HK in Hong Kong said they found buyers quickly for their best few pieces yet struggled to unload the rest.

For now, the collective portrait of the art market will likely remain as mottled as a Monet. In terms of art categories, Christie's sold $921.8 million in postwar and contemporary art, up 31% from a year ago; $676.7 million in Impressionist and modern art, up 4%; and $303.5 million in jewelry, up 26%.

Old Masters, typically a steady segment of the marketplace that includes European artists from the Renaissance era like Rembrandt and Tintoretto, enjoyed a robust season. Christie's said it sold $114.7 million worth of Old Masters and 19th century art, up 48% from a year ago.

During the first half of the year at Christie's, collectors from Europe bought $1.4 billion of art, up 11% from a year ago, while American bidders bought $1 billion in art, up 12%.

So far, Christie's biggest sales for the year include Mark Rothko's $86.9 million "Orange, Red, Yellow," and Yves Klein's $36.7 million "The Pink of Blue," along with works by Francis Bacon, Henry Moore, and Jackson Pollock.

Besides "The Scream," Sotheby's priciest pieces of the season included Joan Miró's $36.9 million "Blue Star" and Jean-Michel Basquiat's $8.7 million "Warrior."

The art market will undergo its next major test during a series of auctions in New York this fall.

Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared July 17, 2012, on page B2 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Art Sales: A Study in Contrasts.

"Art World Unnerved by China’s Detention of Two" in @nytimes

By and CLARE PENNINGTON

Published: July 16, 2012

BEIJING — The frothy contemporary-art scene here has lost some of its ebullience in the three and a half months since a German art handler and a Chinese associate were detained on charges that they undervalued imported art to avoid customs duties.

Gallery openings are a bit more subdued, anxious art dealers have been keeping a low profile, and several wealthy collectors have been barred from leaving China while the investigation continues. Auction house giants like Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been asked to cooperate with the authorities in what has become a wide-ranging investigation.

“Lots of people here are not going into work, or they are only using junior staff at their offices and galleries,” said a Beijing gallery director who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the tension surrounding the issue. “They can’t arrest everybody, but everyone is still nervous.”

In the meantime Nils Jennrich and Lydia Chu, employees of the art-handling company Integrated Fine Art Solutions, languish in a Beijing jail on suspicion of smuggling, a crime normally associated with the illegal importation of drugs or arms. The charges carry a maximum of a life sentence.

Mr. Jennrich, 31, the company’s general manager and a German citizen, was taken away on the evening of March 30 during a raid of the business’s Beijing offices; hours later Ms. Chu, 29, its operations manager, was summoned for questioning. Mr. Jennrich’s family and colleagues have expressed concern for his health, saying he has been forced to share a cell with 11 others. During the first days of his detention, they added, he was interrogated for 36 hours straight, a violation of Chinese law.

“It’s a living nightmare,” said Mr. Jennrich’s fiancée, Jenny Dam, who said the couple had planned to marry in May.

No trial date has been set.

The detentions have put a spotlight on the mercurial Chinese legal system and raised questions among collectors and industry executives about the potential pitfalls of China’s fast-growing art and antiques market, which last year surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest, according to the European Fine Art Foundation. The crackdown, industry professionals have warned, could dissuade Chinese collectors from bringing home art purchased abroad.

Some have privately questioned the government’s motivation, noting that Integrated Fine Art Solutions has handled the work of Ai Weiwei, the maverick artist who has earned the government’s wrath for his criticism of the ruling Communist Party. Others have suggested that the case is aimed at taking down a foreign-owned company to clear the way for a well-connected domestic player that recently began lavishly investing in the art-handling business.

“China is supposed to be a lot more integrated with the world economy,” said Jonathan Schwartz, chief executive of Atelier 4, an art logistics company based in New York. “The decision to throw someone in jail tells you that China is not really playing by similar rules as the other large nations that are dealing with culture and transit.”

The Foreign Ministry has declined to comment on the case.

Speaking from Hong Kong, the chief executive of Integrated Fine Art Solutions, Torsten Hendricks, dismissed the allegations — that the accused tried to help buyers avoid $1.6 million in import duties — saying his company does not get involved in art valuation.

“We forward, store and install artwork, that is all,” said Mr. Hendricks, who was also questioned in Beijing by the authorities but was later allowed to leave the mainland. “Determination of value, the statement of this value, is not our responsibility.”

Legal experts said that art handling firms simply work with the values provided by their clients, but that Chinese law is murky on whether individuals employed by shipping companies can be held liable for undervaluing a work.

Nancy M. Murphy, a lawyer at the Beijing firm Jincheng, Tongda & Neal, who is advising Mr. Jennrich’s family, said she hoped that the authorities would take into consideration whether the accused personally profited from undervaluing the work in question.

Ms. Chu’s fiancé, Benoit Granier, said he found the accusations hard to fathom, given Ms. Chu’s modest life, including sharing an apartment with five others. “She’s just trying to find a way in her life,” he said.

Setting aside questions of Mr. Jennrich’s and Ms. Chu’s culpability, several industry experts say the practice of undervaluing art and antiques on Chinese customs forms is widespread. The International Convention of Exhibition and Fine Art Transporters, a trade organization, noted the problem last year in a newsletter and suggested that the practice was harmful to all involved. “There is no way around these regulations without breaking the law,” it wrote.

In China imported art is often levied with duties that can reach 35 percent of an object’s value. Many industry veterans complain of a customs process that is notoriously onerous.

International art experts acknowledge the difficulty of valuing contemporary art, noting that a wild jump in price at auction after a piece passes through customs does not necessarily suggest undervaluing at the border.

Ms. Murphy, the lawyer, said it took an experienced appraiser to know the difference between fraud and the vagaries of a white-hot art market.

She suggested that the arrests were aimed at sending a message to bigger players in the international art scene. “Kill the chicken to scare the monkey,” as she put it.

The crackdown has touched other companies and individuals. Officials have detained three Chinese citizens, including the editor of an art magazine and the chairman of an art investment company. A Chinese transport company, Noah Fine Art Shipping Agency, was forced to turn over a list of its clients, according to The Oriental Morning Post.

Given how lucrative the art market has become, Chinese authorities have a keen interest in reducing tax dodging. Last year China accounted for 41 percent of worldwide auction revenues and about 30 percent of the overall art and antiques market, according to artprice.com and the European Fine Art Foundation.

Karen Sanig, the head of art law at Mishcon de Reya, a firm based in London, said that customs authorities around the world often impose fines after accusations of undervaluing art but that they rarely use their full powers to detain suspects. “It is unusual for two agents from a shipping firm to be arrested,” she said.

Integrated Fine Art Solutions is a relatively small player in art shipping but it has high-profile clients, including the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art — one of China’s best-known museums — and it handles major international art fairs in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

A number of art professionals, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of drawing unwanted attention from the authorities, have suggested that the government may simply be trying to remove the competition as it prepares to enter the lucrative art-handling business.

Two weeks before the detentions, the state-owned Beijing Gehua Cultural Development Group presided over the groundbreaking for a free-trade zone in the capital that will include an advanced art-handling warehouse. According to the state news media, Gehua is investing $785 million in the venture.

There is little precedent for the case against Ms. Chu and Mr. Jennrich, although if the recent prosecution of a Belgian Sinologist accused of smuggling an ancient sarcophagus out of China is any indication, the punishment may be stiff. In 2008 the Belgian, Kurt de Raedemaeker, was convicted of illegally exporting the relic, despite his insistence that he had obtained the necessary government permits.

He received a life sentence, but after spending some time in prison he was allowed to serve his sentence in a Beijing hotel. The former Belgian ambassador, citing Mr. de Raedemaeker’s heart problems, called the punishment a “slow death sentence.” Mr. Raedemaeker, who was 48, died in March in his hotel room.

 

via nytimes.com

 

"Records Set at Christie's Contemporary Sale in London" in @nytimes

LONDON – At Christie’s post-war and contemporary art auction here on Wednesday evening – an event aptly described by the super dealer Larry Gagosian as “Masterpiece Theatre’’ – collectors from around the world dropped millions of dollars on works by many of the major names of the 20th century, and record prices were set for two of them: Yves Klein and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Hoping to capture the attention of both established collectors and new-rich ones from places like the Middle East, Russia and Asia, Christie’s had marshaled its international connections, pulling in exceptionally strong artworks for an evening auction like few others London has seen. The sale totaled $207.3 million, against an estimate of $160.1 million to $216.9 million, the highest total of any auction in the category that Christie’s has held in Europe.

Unlike Sotheby’s, whose auction on Tuesday evening made $108 million with more works of lower value, Christie’s reached for the stars.

Three bidders wanted Klein’s “Le Rose du Bleu (RE 22),’’ an organic landscape of pink sponges and pebbles that was bought by a telephone bidder for $36.7 million, a record price for the artist at auction and well above its high estimate of $31.2 million. (Final prices include the buyer’s commission to Christie’s: 25 percent of the first $50,000; 20 percent of the next $50,000 to $1 million and 12 percent of the rest. Estimates do not reflect commissions.) The painting, which was being sold by an anonymous collector, was one of the earliest of just 12 such sponge reliefs that the artist produced in pink rather than his trademark ultramarine blue.

The other record was achieved for a 1981 Basquiat canvas of a primitive figure with clenched teeth, his oversized hands held high in the air. It had been estimated to bring $15.6 million to $23.4 million, but was purchased by a telephone bidder for $20.1 million. (The painting had last been up for sale at Sotheby’s in New York in 2007, when it brought $14.6 million.) Brett Gorvy, chairman of Christie’s post-war and contemporary art worldwide, who took the winning bid, described the buyer as “a seasoned European collector who had been looking for the right Basquiat for years.”

“There was strong American buying tonight,’’ Mr. Gorvy said after the sale. “But Europeans were even stronger.’’ (Surprisingly, he added, there was little action from either Asian or Russian buyers, in contrast to many recent sales.)

Another hefty price was paid for Francis Bacon’s “Study for Self-Portrait,’’ a 1964 full length painting of the artistperched on a bed, which was expected to sell for between $23.4 million and $31.2 million. After it failed to sell at auction at Christie’s in New York in 2008 it was the subject of a law suit, in which the owner, a family trust led by the Connecticut collector George A. Weiss, claimed that Christie’s had reneged on a $40 million guarantee (a sum promised the seller regardless of a sale’s outcome). That suit was settled in July of last year, with Christie’s agreeing to pay the trust an undisclosed.

On Wednesday night William Acquavella, the Manhattan dealer, bid for the work by phone in what became a protracted battle against Christopher van der Weghe, another Manhattan dealer. Mr. van der Weghe won, paying $33.6 million. “We knew we would have to fight for it,’’ Mr. van der Weghe said after the sale, describing the client he had bid for only as an international collector. “Quality is more important these days than ever.’’

Gerhard Richter has been a consistent winner over the past few years and on Wednesday night “Strutur (2),’’ a richly painted 1989 canvas of alabaster whites and gunmetal grays, sold to a telephone bidder for $19.8 million. It had been estimated to bring $14 million to $18 million.
Lucian Freud, who died a year ago, has a loyal following too, especially after the recent exhibitions here and in New York. Two works by him both brought strong prices. “Naked Portrait II,’’ a 1974 painting of the artist’s lover Jacquetta Eliot curled up asleep, had been expected to sell for $5.8 million to $6.8 million; it made $6.7 million. And “Head of a Greek Man,’’ a 1946 portrait, fetched $5.3 million, well above its estimate of $2.3 million to $3 million. Both paintings were purchased by telephone bidders.

Not everything sold high. Jeff Koons’s monumental stainless steel sculpture “Baroque Egg with Bow (Blue/Turquoise),’’ from 1994-2008, was snapped up by Ivor Braka, a London dealer, for $4 million, just under its low estimate. “Koons is one of the truly ground-breaking artists of the 20th and 21st centuries,’’ Mr. Braka said after the sale, “and to buy something like this at this level, especially given the elevated prices for other artists, was great. Some days you just get lucky.’’

via artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com