Lot 1888. A MAGNIFICENT AND HIGHLY IMPORTANT MASSIVE BRONZE RITUAL WINE VESSEL, FANGLEI
LATE SHANG/EARLY WESTERN ZHOU DYNASTY, 12TH/11TH CENTURY BC
The decoration on each of the four sides of the broad, tapering body is arranged in horizontal registers divided by vertical hooked flanges which are repeated at the corners. The lowest and widest register is cast in relief with large taotie masks, one of which is centered by a D-shaped handle surmounted by a horned dragon mask cast on the underside of the upturned lower jaw with a cicada. In the register above a smaller taotie mask is flanked by a pair of birds, which are repeated on the rectangular neck and on the flared pedestal foot where they flank a short, hooked flange. The rounded shoulder is cast with pairs of dragons separated on two sides by a horned dragon mask with curved tusks cast in high relief, and on the other two, narrower sides, with a pair of dragon-mask-surmounted, D-shaped handles that suspend loose rings cast with abstract, attenuated dragons with large eyes. All of the decoration is cast in crisp relief and reserved on leiwen grounds. A six-character inscription, min, followed by Fu Ji zuo zun yi (Father Ji made (i.e., commissioned) this sacred vessel), is cast inside the neck. The vessel has an olive-toned patina with some areas of malachite encrustation.
25 in. (63.6 cm.) high
92.5 lbs. (41.9 kg.)
Estimate on Request (approximately $15 million).

ArtNet.com‘s Eileen Kinsella reports the “Min” Fanglei, a massive ancient Chinese bronze vessel, was just sold at Christie’s in a private transaction for more than $20 million, and that tomorrow’s scheduled auction of the work has been cancelled.  The bronze had been estimated to sell for approximately $15 million and ealier in the day ArtNet.com‘s Ben Genocchio wrote the work might make $40 million.  According to the more recent report: “A group of private collectors from China’s Hunan provence bought the  famed “Min” Fanglei,  a massive bronze ritual vessel that dates from the Late Shang/Early Western Zhou dynasty (12th–11th century BC), and agreed to donate the object to the Hunan Provincial Museum where the cover of the object is currently located.” This is the second major ancient Chinese bronze vessel at auction during Asia Week 2014 – the first, wine vessel with an owl head, failed to sell at Sotheby’s.

In his earlier article, Genocchio wrote:

Christie’s New York offered the work in March 2001, when it sold for US$9 million and set a then–world record for an Asian artwork. This remains a world auction record for any archaic Chinese bronze sold at auction. Who won it? Christie’s is not saying, but a New York Asian art dealer told me privately it was an Italian man, who just died, and his wife has put it back up for sale.

[…]

I can’t confirm these details, but this work was the talk of many Asia Week dinners and receptions over the weekend. I was told the vessel is well known in China and that several prominent Chinese museums want it back. Shanghai Museum has sent a delegation to attend the auction and presumably bid on items.

[…]

The vessel is missing its lid, or cover, which may be in the Hunan Provincial Museum, Changsha, in China. I have been in touch with the museum to verify, but have not received confirmation. The Christie’s sale catalog mentions this possibility as well. If this is indeed true, then it is a fair bet that the Hunan Museum will be bidding on it.

Here’s a selection from the lot notes and there’s also a three-minute video:

Bronze ritual vessels produced in China in the late Shang and Early Western Zhou periods-in the twelfth and eleventh centuries BC-rank among the most beautiful, most accomplished, and most technically sophisticated examples of bronze casting ever seen. The ritual vessels’ bold forms, brilliant designs, and perfect casting reflect both the sophisticated aesthetic sensibilities and the technological prowess of early China, just as they also convey insight into the culture that produced them.

Arguably the largest wine storage jar known from ancient China, the present magnificent fanglei embodies all of the characteristics associated with the finest and most impressive bronzes from the late Shang and early Western Zhou periods. Its massive scale, robust, tapering form, forceful decoration with clearly defined motifs and superbly articulated details, combined with casting so flawless as to demonstrate consummate mastery of the bronze caster’s art produce a truly phenomenal display of aesthetic inventiveness and casting proficiency.

Bronze casting came fully into its own during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 BC- c. 1050 BC) with the production of sacral vessels intended for use in ceremonies honoring the spirits of deceased ancestors. These include vessels for food and wine as well as vessels for water; those for food and wine, the types most frequently encountered, group themselves into storage and presentation vessels, heating and cooking vessels, and serving vessels. Vessels for storage and presentation, such as this majestic fanglei wine vessel, typically assume one of a variety of jar forms.

Lot 1888. Detail.

Lot 1600. AN IMPORTANT AND IMPRESSIVE GREY SCHIST FIGURE OF A BODHISATTVA
GANDHARA, 2ND/3RD CENTURY
The bodhisattva is standing in a relaxed pose, with his weight resting on his right leg and his left slightly bent. He is clad in a dhoti tied at the waist and a sanghati with cascading folds of drapery. The bodhisattva is adorned with a close-fitting torque and braided necklace with a crescent-shaped amulet. His handsome face is very finely carved with a bow-shaped mouth, aquiline nose and almond-shaped eyes, the forehead centered by a raised urna. The hair is arranged in thick, wavy locks and tied over the ushnisha.
38¼ in. (97 cm.) high
Estimate: $600,000-800,000
Provenance
Private collection, Japan, by 1985.
Private collection, New York, acquired at Christie’s New York, 17 October 2001, lot 4.

There’s some big news coming out of the Asia Week auctions in New York, including the sale of the “Min” Fanglei, a massive ancient Chinese bronze vessel, at Christie’s in a private transaction for more than $20 million.  That was followed this morning by The Sublime and the Beautiful: Asian Masterpieces of Devotion, which did include some sublime works – including several with no pre-1970 provenance.   The “pre-1970″ refers to the date of an international UNESCO convention aimed at halting the looting of antiquities. As the New York Times reported: ‘In 2004 the Association of Art Museum Directors declared “member museums should not acquire” any undocumented works “that were removed after November 1970, regardless of any applicable statutes of limitation.”’ Numerous American museums – including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Boston’s Museum of Fine Art and the Getty in Los Angeles – have been forced to return looted antiquities to their host countries.”

Shouldn’t private collectors adhere to the same standards? Apparently not as today’s sale and others demonstrate.  Collectors are still willing to take a chance, ignore international news reports about looting in Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Italy, Greece, Egypt and elsewhere and hope/assume/pretend the poorly-provenanced work they own is OK.

The sale made a hair under $19 million ($18,985,250), with 21 lots sold from 33 offered.  Here are four items that sold despite having no pre-1970 provenance, or in one case no published provenance whatsoever, beginning with the first item, an elegant Gandhara Bodhisattva estimated at $600,000-800,000.  Despite a provenance that only goes back to 1985, a US private collector bidding by telephone paid $840,000 ($1,103,000 with the buyer’s premium).

Lot 1600. Detail.

From the lot notes:

The ancient region of Gandhara, straddling the Khyber Pass in what is now eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, was for centuries an important center of trade and commerce. Its position at the crossroads of Central Asia meant that it was exposed to the goods and ideas from India, China, and the Mediterranean world. In the centuries before the beginning of the Common Era, the region came under Hellenistic control after Alexander the Great annexed Gandhara to his expansive empire; following his death, the region was controlled by a succession of kings of mixed Greek and Central Asian descent. Buddhism was already well established during this time, with the Indo-Greek King Menander and the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka both noted proponents of the faith.
It was not until the reign of the Kushans in the first centuries CE, however, that profound changes in the religious art of the region were realized. The Kushans were nomadic horsemen from the steppes of Central Asia. Sometime around 160 BCE, they were pushed out of their homeland in Western China, and after more than a century of migration ended up seizing power in the regions of Gandhara and Northern India. Astute rulers, the Kushans allowed religious freedom for their subjects and adopted local Hellenistic and Indian traditions, including the Buddhist faith. Prior to their rule, the presence of Buddha was depicted in art through conspicuous symbols such as the dharmachakra (wheel of law) or his footprints; upon their ascension to power, however, the first images of Buddha in anthropomorphic form began to appear.
In Gandhara, the sculptural tradition was still heavily influenced by the earlier Hellenistic style. Local artisans favored the principles of figural naturalism, in particular the athletic and heroic idealized body. The depiction of the Indiandhoti and sanghati, like that of the Greek chiton and himation, offered the artisans an opportunity to reproduce voluminous folds of drapery with wondrous aplomb, as is evident in the present work. The deeply carved locks of curly hair are a further indication of the artisan’s sculptural élan.

Lot 1608. A RARE AND IMPORTANT STONE FIGURE OF A MOTHER GODDESS
NORTH INDIA, ALMORA, 9TH CENTURY
This exquisitely carved and finely detailed sculpture depicts a goddess with her attendant. She is an idealized beauty with lotus-shaped eyes framed by delicately arched brows and centered by an incised spiral. Her lips are full and bow-shaped. Her finely incised hair is arranged in a simple twist above her left shoulder, with small curls escaping at her temples. She wears a tiara centered by a foliate element and with pendants terminating in floral buds and peepul leaves, both of which are echoed in her jewelry elsewhere. Her ample curves are highlighted by the multiple necklaces swaying over her breasts and belly, and a pendant girdle that encircles her hips. She stands with her weight on her right leg and her left turned out, causing her hip to sway to the right. She wears a long striated dhoti incised with flowers. A sash with floral motifs still encircles her upper right arm and shoulders. The attendant wears her hair in an identical manner and is clad in a dhoti and scarf with corresponding motifs. She holds a water pot and what appears to be a flower bud, flywhisk or small club in her raised hand.
26¾ in. (68 cms.) high
Estimate: $800,000-1,000,000.
Provenance
An important and distinguished private collection, Switzerland, before 1985.

A few minutes later the story repeated itself with lot 1608, also with a provenance that goes back to c. 1985, hammered at $850,000 to a European private collector bidding by telephone ($1,025,000 with the buyer’s premium).

Lot 1608. Detail.

From the lot notes:

This superbly carved sculpture evolves from the Gupta stylistic tradition, with flowing lines, well-rounded forms, and sensuous expression of the lips. The jewelry of the goddess is particularly noteworthy in identifying the date and region from which the sculpture comes. In addition to the armbands, anklets and multiple necklaces, she wears two different earrings, a hoop made of flower buds in her right ear and a thick foliate circle in her left. Her girdle is composed of a floral belt with two lion or kirttimukha masks at front issuing loops from their mouths, and two chains hanging straight down over her thighs, both terminating in corresponding peepul leaves as found in her tiara. The contrast within her jewelry of the soft, floral elements on her right and the bolder, more rugged motifs on her left could indicate that she is a matrika, a Hindu goddess who is the counterpart to a male figure and embodies both male and female aspects within herself.

Lot 1616. A POLYCHROME- AND GILDED-WOOD FIGURE OF NYOIRIN KANNON, “THE BODHISATTVA WHO GRANTS DESIRES”
JAPAN, KAMAKURA PERIOD, WITH DOCUMENTATION DATED 1304 CE
The “bodhisattva who grants desires” (Sanskrit, Cintamani-chakra-Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva) is carved from a single block of wood, for the body, and six separately carved and inserted partially replaced arms on a separately assembled lotiform throne. The figure is shown seated in the posture of “royal ease” with the left leg folded horizontally to expose the sole of the foot, on which the right foot rests.The right thigh supports the elbow of the one of the deity’s six arms, the hand touching the right cheek of the inclined head in a gesture of contemplation. The lower of the three right arms holds a rosary and the upper cups, as if to extend, a lotus jewel, the nyoi hoju (cintamani) that bestows wishes. The main left arm steadies the figure on the lotus throne. The raised left arm bent at the elbow has a hand with four clasped fingers and index finger pointed upward, which supports another attribute, the Wheel of the Law, or rin, forming a syllable of the deity’s name. The third left hand clasps the stalk of a blossoming lotus, symbolic of spontaneous generation (the lotus reproduces from its matrix not soil), the purity and perfection of the Buddha and the mercy and compassion associated with Kannon (Avalokiteshvara). The delicate features of the face, painted black with gold overlayer, have a black mustache and forehead scallop above the inlaid glass urna between the arched brows. The glass eyes are white with black pupils. Pendulous earlobes and elaborate black coiffure frame the face. The hair on the back of the head is carved in narrow vertical lobes. The figure is clothed in a skirt that ripples onto the lap and legs in gentle pleats and in a shoulder scarf, carved to the middle of the back in a series of wide, U-shaped pleats. The drapery shows areas of meticulous gilded diaperwork, particularly evident on the edges of the scarf, central fold and over the knees of the robe. The arms are black with slight traces of gold coloration. The lotus throne is comprised of a bracket-footed double plinth in the outline of a lotus flower that is embellished on the edges with flower reserves in red, black and gold pigment below a support of lotus lappets applied with black lacquer. The uppermost plinth supporting the figure is carved with overlapping green lotus leaves detailed with gold veins. The reverses of the central lacquered support and upper green lotus support are carved smooth and the back surface of the lotus support is cut with a small rectangle to accommodate the peg of a separate mandorla.
Figure 8 1/8 in. (20.5cm.) high; figure with pedestal 14½ in. (36.9 cm.) high
With accompanying shari (interior relics of stones wrapped in paper symbolizing the cremated remains of the Buddha) and votive documentation mounted on two handscrolls and with later mandorla and lacquered-wood shrine.
Estimate: $200,000-300,000.
NO PROVENANCE

Even with no published provenance, Lot 1616, a 14th century Japanese Bodhisattva, pulled down a hammer price of $280,000 ($341,000 with the buyer’s premium) to a telephone bidder.

Lot 1622. A RARE AND SUPERBLY CAST GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF AVALOKITESHVARA
CHINA, MING DYNASTY, YONGLE SIX-CHARACTER MARK INSCRIBED IN A LINE AND OF THE PERIOD (1403-1425)
The bodhisattva is shown seated in lalitasana with the right foot supported on a lotus stem that projects from the front of the double-lotus base just above a rare, additional narrow band of circle-centered leaves. The right hand, which rests on the edge of the base, holds one of the two stems that rise to the shoulders from the sides of the base, while the raised left hand holds the Book of Wisdom. The graceful figure wears an elegantly draped dhoti secured with a beaded, festoon-hung sash, beaded necklaces, armlets, large circular earrings and a ribbon-tied tiara with eight foliate points that surrounds a seated figure of Amitabha Buddha and the artfully arranged chignon. The reign mark, Da Ming Yongle nian shi, “Bestowed in the Great Ming Yongle reign,” is inscribed in a line at the front of the base. The figure is richly gilded, and the base is sealed with a plate inscribed with a double vajra.
8¾ in. (22.3 cm.) high
Estimate: $600,000-800,000.
Provenance
Christie’s New York, 21 March 2001, lot 88.

Lot 1622 a Ming Dynasty Avalokiteshvara, with a provenance that only dates to 2001,  topped its $800,000 high estimate and hammered for $2.2 million ($$2,629,000 with the buyer’s premium) to a US private collector bidding in the room (true same bidder also purchased Lot 1611, a gilt-bronze Buddha Amitabha from China for $1,565,000 with the buyer’s premium).

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Number 5 (Elegant Lady), 1951
Estimate: US$ 15-20 Million.
© 2014 Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

It’s time to start chumming the waters for the mega-million dollar evening sales of Post-War and Contemporary art this coming May in New York.  Christie’s has just announced they’ll be offering a 1951 Jackson Pollock painting from the collection of E.ON, the German power and gas company.  Number 5 (Elegant Lady) is estimated to bring $15-20 million, which a Christie’s press release states, E.ON plans to use “to continue their art and culture activities as well as their commitment to Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf.”

Additionally from the release:

―The sale of Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) offers the rare opportunity for collectors to acquire a late Jackson Pollock masterpiece with exceptional provenance. This work has been owned by two legendary dealers from both sides of the Atlantic – the celebrated New York dealer Martha Jackson and one of the most powerful gallerists of Post-War Germany Alfred Schmela. It‘s an honor for Christie‘s to support E.ON to continue pursuing its outstanding dedication to the arts by facilitating this sale‖, commented Robert Manley, International Director Post-War and Contemporary Art New York and Herrad Schorn, Director Post-War and Contemporary Art Düsseldorf. 

―We do not part with Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) easily, but this sale will allow us to secure E.ON‘s engagement with art and culture for years to come‖ explained Dr. Johannes Teyssen, CEO E.ON SE and Dorothee Gräfin von Posadowsky-Wehner, Head of Arts & Culture E.ON SE.

Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) found its way into the E.ON art collection in 1980. The corporation known then as VEBA acquired the painting on the advice of the legendary art dealer Alfred Schmela (1918-1980). For the next twenty years, the painting hung in VEBA‘s headquarters in Düsseldorf. In 2001, after VEBA merged with VIAG to become E.ON, the company moved into its new headquarters in Düsseldorf, neighboring the Museum Kunstpalast. To share the work with the wider public, Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) was exhibited in the museum from then on. At Museum Kunstpalast Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) was part of the widely acknowledged exhibition Le grand geste! (April – August 2010), which traced the development of Art Informel and Abstract Expressionism. Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) was also shown in the equally bespoke exhibition Jorn & Pollock: Revolutionary Roads (November 2013 – February 2014) at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk north of Copenhagen.

The outstanding exhibition history of Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) spans back to 1956, when the legendary New York art dealer Martha Jackson (1907-1969) presented it in the opening show of her new space at 32 East 69th Street. In 1954, Martha Jackson had traded this work with Pollock — along with another painting from the same period (Number 23, 1951/Frogman currently in the collection of the Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia) – for her green 1950s Oldsmobile. A move which would have tragic circumstances two years later when Pollock crashed this car into a tree near his home on Long Island killing himself and Edith Metzger. As was the practice at the time Pollock only titled his work with a number and the verbal titles of these two pieces were assigned by Martha Jackson herself. It is not difficult to see how she come up with this particular moniker as the curvaceous line that spills down the right hand portion of the canvas recalls the seductive outline of a female figure along with the sultry form of two eyes suggested by the bold form that emerges in the upper left corner. Both paintings, Elegant Lady and Frogman are from Pollock‘s celebrated series of black enamel paintings, which he started in late 1950s and of which examples can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London as well as the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. 1951 marks the most productive and significant moment in Pollock‘s career as a draughtsman and the black enamel paintings articulate a new and more sophisticated approach to his famed dripped technique.

In the months prior to 1951, Pollock began to work on a series of drawings using black enamel dripped directly onto his chosen support. In a letter to his friend and mentor Alfonso Ossorio in January 1951, Pollock announced, ―I‘ve had a period of drawing on canvas in black — with some of my early images coming thru — think the non-objectivists will find them disturbing — and the kids who think it‘s simple to splash a Pollock out‖. Following his radical intervention into the artistic canon with his iconic ‗drip‘ paintings, this return to his earlier interest in automatic drawing provided the artist with a new approach to the drip. In works such as Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951), Pollock reduced its means to the bare minimum: colors are expelled in favor of black, and lines are used sparsely. Although not properly figurative, these paintings began to move away from the abstract, atmospheric feeling of the drip paintings, in which lines, colors and space fuse into wholeness. As Kirk Varnedoe suggests, Pollock disliked being thought of as a ‗known quantity‘ and with these new works he relished the opportunity to surprise people again by revisiting some long abandoned habits of the hand.

Following its exhibition debut at Martha Jackson Gallery in 1956 Number 5 (Elegant Lady, 1951) was included in a number of early museum exhibitions for the artist, including the influential New Images of Man show curated by Peter Selz at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1959. The exhibition included works by artists such as Francis Bacon, Alberto Giacometti and Willem de Kooning. In his essay for the exhibition catalogue, Frank O‘Hara extolled the virtues of Pollock‘s work, particularly its originality and richness: ―One of the dramas of these paintings is the intolerable conflict between an artistic intent of unerring articulateness and a medium which is seeking to devour its meaning. In the traditional sense, there is no surface, as there is no color. There is simply the hand of the artist, in mid-air, awaiting the confirmation of form.

Lot 86. Carlos Schwabe Altona-Hambourg, 1866 – Avon, 1926
La Vague
Mine de plomb
Monogrammé en bas à droite
‘THE WAVE’, PENCIL, MONOGRAMMED, BY C. SCHWABE
h: 29 w: 21 cm
Estimate: €6,000-8,000.

Tajan’s March 26, 2014 sale of Old Master & 19th Century Paintings & Drawings contains a number of works amid the 157-lot sale worth pondering. Among the more entertaining is The Wave, a work on paper by the German Symbolist artist Carlos Schwabe, whose style suggests Gustav Doré meets Edvard Munch. According to the lot notes, this image was used to illustrate The Words of a Believer by the upstart French priest Félicité de Lamennais (1782-1854). According to Answers.com, in the work Lamennais “denounced all authority, civil as well as ecclesiastical. In the next decade his thinking moved further and further to the left. He believed in the moral superiority of the working class and foresaw a time when governments would be overthrown and the workers would rule. During his last years he spent time in prison and was also elected to the Chamber of Deputies. After his death in Paris on Feb. 27, 1854, Lamennais was buried without funeral rites, mourned by thousands of intellectual and political sympathizers around the world.” As the lot notes indicate, “Stormy waters are the metaphor of angry people described in this Catholic social manifesto.”

Lot 41. Charles-Joseph Natoire Nîmes, 1700 – Castel Gandolfo, 1777
L’arrivée de Cléopâtre à Tarse
Aquarelle gouachée sur trait de crayon
Signée et datée ‘C.H NATOIRE / 1774′ en bas à droite
(Restaurations, traces d’humidité en partie supérieure)
‘CLEOPATRA ARRIVING IN TARSUS’, WATERCOLOUR AND GOUACHE, SIGNED AND DATED, BY C.-J. NATOIRE
h: 37 w: 64,50 cm
Estimate: €60,000-80,000. Click on image to enlarge.

This watercolor of 1774 is an autograph copy of the artist’s original tapestry cartoon of 1756, itself one of seven scenes from the life of Marc Antony created between 1740 and 1757 that would be rendered as Gobelin tapestries.  If the Google translation of the lot notes is correct, only three of the tapestries were realized.  The scene, which follows Caesar’s assassination, depicts the meeting of Cleopatra and Marc Antony in 41 BC. The imagery is based on a 1559 translation of Plutarch; according to the catalogue:

The text provides many details on the wealth of the … Queen of Egypt['s ship] “whose stern was gold, the sails of purple, silver oars” and the splendor of his suite, consisting of “small children dressed more or less as painters are wont to portray the Amours “and” women and ladies similarly the most beautiful …dressed as nymphs Nereids, which are the fairy waters, and as the Graces , some resting on the pole, the other on the cables and ropes of the boat, which he left wonderfully soft and sweet smells of perfume …

Lot 42. Noël Hallé Paris, 1711 – 1781
Scilurus, roi des Scythes, faisant rassembler ses enfants
Crayon noir, sanguine et rehauts de blancs
‘SCILURUS’, BLACK AND RED CHALK, WHITE HIGHLIGHTS, BY N. HALLE
h: 87 w: 57 cm.
Estimate: €30,000-40,000.

This highly finished work has an equally interesting story.  First, there is the stated provenance: “Mentioned in the will of the artist and bequeathed to his wife: “Madame Hallé … the grand design of the Scythians from the table made ​​for the King of Poland” … Thence by descent.”  Second, the drawing is based on a suite of four paintings created for Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland from 1764 to 1795, which depict good governance.  They are still preserved in the Royal Castle in Warsaw. According to the lot notes: 

The monarch had a very clear idea of the iconographic program he wanted and gave his instructions. Painters mission was to illustrate the essential to good government moral virtues: Magnanimity, Concorde [Agreement/Harmony], Emulation and Justice. After the death of Carle Van Loo in 1765 and the defection of François Boucher, the achievement of these four large paintings … was entrusted to Louis Lagrenée (The head of Pompey delivered to Caesar), Joseph-Marie Vien (Caesar at the foot of the statue of Alexander and The Continence of Scipio), and Noël Hallé (Scilurus, king of the Scythians). Our artist in charge of the allegory of the Concorde, represented a rare episode in the life of Scilurus king of the Scythians.

The supposed tomb of Scilurus in Scythian Neapolis.

From Wikipedia, Scilurus “was the best known king of Scythia in the 2nd century BC. He was the son of a king and the father of a king, but the relation of his dynasty to the previous one is disputed. His realm included the lower reaches of the Borysthenes and Hypanis, as well as the northern part of Crimea, where his capital, Scythian Neapolis, was situated.”

This specific scene in Scilurus’ life is drawn from Plutarch’s Sayings of Kings and Commanders: “Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave eighty sons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade them break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily broke them; thus teaching them that, if they held together, they would continue strong, but if they fell out and were divided, they would become weak.”

Lot 42. Detail. Click on image to enlarge.

Lot 103. Pays-Bas, début du XVIe siècle
Le Christ et les apôtres dans la tempête
Huile sur panneau de chêne, une planche
‘CHRIST AND THE APOSTLES IN THE STORM’, OIL ON PANEL, NETHERLANDS, BEGINNING OF THE 16TH CENTURY
h: 24,50 w: 36 cm
Estimate: €20,000-30,000. Click on image to enlarge.

Lot 105. Le Maître de 1518 Actif à Anvers au XVIe siècle
L’Adoration des Mages, entre La Nativité et La Présentation au temple
Trois huiles sur panneaux de forme chantournée formant triptyque
Panneau central : 101 x 70 cm (39,80 x 27,60 in.)
Volets latéraux : 101 x 35 cm (39,80 x 13,80 in.)
Dimensions totales du triptyque ouvert : 101 x 139,50 cm
(39,80 x 54,90 in.)
‘THE NATIVITY’, ‘THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI’ AND ‘THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE’, OIL ON PANEL, A TRIPTYCH, BY THE MASTER OF 1518
Estimate: €60,000-80,000. Click on image to enlarge.

The Antwerp Mannerists of the first part of the 16th century, which includes the Master of 1518, produced congested images within daffy architectural settings – they never fail to entertain. According to the lot notes, Max J. Friedländer was the first to identify the artist and his moniker is based on a Life of the Virgin in the church of St. Mary in Lübeck and dated 1518. There are currently seem 40 works attributed to the artist.

Lot 106. Pieter Brueghel le Jeune Bruxelles, vers 1564 – Anvers, vers 1637/38
La danse de noces en plein air
Huile sur panneau, deux planches, parqueté
Signé et daté ‘BREVGHEL. 1624.’ en bas à gauche
(Fente horizontale en partie supérieure, signature partiellement effacée)
‘THE WEDDING DANCE’, OIL ON PANEL, CRADLED, SIGNED AND DATED, BY P. BRUEGHEL THE YOUNGER
h: 37,50 w: 52 cm
Estimate: €800,000-1,200,000. Click on image to enlarge.

It almost goes without saying that no Old Master sale is complete without a Brueghel or two.  According to the provenance, this has been in the same family collection since the early 20th century, implying that it’s fresh to the market. This work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger is presumably based on a similar work by his father in the Detroit Museum of Art.  Pieter the Younger made a career out reproducing compositions his father created.  This work from 1624 is one of more than 30 versions produced between 1607 and 1626. In an entertaining bit of French snark, the lot notes bemoan the “cruel news about the potential sale of some masterpieces” from the museum, so satisfy Detroit’s debt, including the Elder’s Wedding Dance, valued at $100-200 million. Mon dieu.

Lot 109. Jan Brueghel l’Ancien Bruxelles, 1568 – Anvers, 1625
Scènes de la vie de la Vierge et du Christ
Seize gouaches et or sur vélin (réparties en quatre montages)
- Joachim chassé du temple
- La Rencontre d’Anne et Joachim à la Porte dorée
- La Naissance de la Vierge
- La Présentation de la Vierge au temple
- Le Mariage de la Vierge
- Le Massacre des Innocents
- L’Enfance du Christ
- La Circoncision
- Le Christ parmi les docteurs
- Le Lavement des pieds
- Le Christ au Mont des Oliviers
- L’Arrestation du Christ
- Le Christ recollant l’oreille de Malchus
- La Flagellation du Christ
- L’Ascension
- L’Assomption
Sans cadres
‘SCENES OF THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN AND THE PASSION OF CHRIST’, SIXTEEN GOUACHES ON VELLUM, BY J. BRUEGHEL THE ELDER
h: 7,50 w: 4,70 cm
Estimate: €400,000-600,000.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s brother, Jan the Elder (also know as the Velvet Brueghel), is the author of this remarkable set of miniature gouaches.  According to the lot notes, Jan the Elder was “famous both for his religious and mythological painting[s,] … his landscapes, still lifes and genre scenes. Although well documented, one aspect of [his] production, however, is too little mentioned … his work as a miniaturist.”  It continues: “Originally, our sixteen scenes from the life of the Virgin and Christ were probably part of a Book of Hours lavishly illuminated manuscript of great value …” The works date to Jan’s stay in Italy from 1590-1596.

Lot 109. Showing all sixteen works.

Lot 112. J. Boets Actif en Flandres, avant 1635 – après 1660
Allégorie de la Vue et de l’Odorat
Huile sur toile
Signée et datée ‘J. BOETS fecit / 1660′ en bas au milieu (signature reprise)
‘ALLEGORY OF THE SENSES OF VIEW AND SMELL’, OIL ON CANVAS, SIGNED AND DATED, BY J. BOETS
h: 135 w: 200 cm
Estimate: €150,000-200,000. Click on image to enlarge.

The genre of the collector’s cabinet painting, with intent and studious figures surrounded by paintings, drawings, sculpture, scientific objects and other ephemera, probably started with Frans Francken II, according to the lot notes.  It certainly became a popular reflection and representation of Netherlandish prosperity.   There are two variants, one shows the wealthy and preening well-dressed collector amidst his prized possessions, frequently showing them off to others. The second, developed by Peter Paul Reubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, artists who periodically worked together, are allegories of the senses, from which this present composition is derived.  Part of the enjoyment these works provide is identifying the paintings depicted. Fortunately, the cataloguers took care of that, see below.

Lot 112. Detail. Click on image to enlarge.

Lot 112. Decoded. Click on image to enlarge.

Identifications and proposed identifications for some of the works:

1 . Frans Francken II (?) The Meal at Simon
2 . Peter Paul Rubens Satyrs and Leopards (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts)
3 . Peter Paul Rubens  Drunken Silenus (Moscow, Pushkin Museum)
4 . Peter Paul Rubens Hunting Tigers (Rennes, Musée des Beaux- Arts)
5 . Giambologna Hercules and the Centaur
6 . According to the Antique The Laocoon
7 . Peter Paul Rubens The Judgment of Paris (Vienna, Dorotheum, April 16, 2008 , No. 302)
8 . Lambert van Noort (?) The Healing of the Blind
9 . Joos de Momper Animated characters Rocky Landscape
10 . Andries von Eertvelt (?) Marine
11 . Frans Francken II (?) Croesus showing Solon his Treasures
12 . Hendrick van Balen The Adoration of the Shepherds
13 . Peter Paul Rubens Portrait of Charles the Bold (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum)
14 . Pieter Brueghel the Elder The Preaching of Saint John the Baptist
15 . Sebastian Vrancx Scene looting
16 . Gaspar de Grayer Portraits of the Archduke Albert and Archduchess Isabella (Althorp, Spencer collection and Chrysler Museum Collection, Norfolk, VA)
17 . Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder ( ?) Virgin and Child in a Garland of Flowers
18 . Hieronymus Bosch (?) The Temptation of St. Antony

Lot 24. Important Sitting Person
Culture Jama – Coaque, Manabí, Ecuador
500 BC to AD 500
H. 40,5 cm – L. 23 cm
Estimate: €20,000-30,000.
Provenance – Private French Collection

The 158-lot Pre-Columbian art auction by Binoche et Giquello at Drouot in Paris on March 28, 2014, is stocked largely with artifacts that lack a published pre-1970 provenance, and more than 50% of the work in this sale has no published provenance at all (download the catalogue and see for yourself). The “pre-1970″ refers to the date of an international UNESCO convention aimed at halting the looting of antiquities. As the New York Times reported: ‘In 2004 the Association of Art Museum Directors declared “member museums should not acquire” any undocumented works “that were removed after November 1970, regardless of any applicable statutes of limitation.”’ Numerous American museums – including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Boston’s Museum of Fine Art and the Getty in Los Angeles – have been forced to return looted antiquities to their host countries.” It’s a standard I believe should apply to private collectors as well as museums and other institutions.

Of the 158 lots, 86 have no published provenance, an additional 54 do not have a published pre-1970 provenance (such as Lot 24 above), 13 do have a published pre-1970 provenance, and five more are unclear.  Here are a few more works without published pre-1970 provenance.

Lot 111. Anthropomorphic Figure.
Culture Veracruz, Remojadas style, Mexico
Classic, 450-650 AD
H. 50 cm – L. 24 cm
Estimate: €12,000-14,000.
Provenance: Galerie Mermoz, Paris, 1982.

Lot 112. Yoke/collar
Culture Veracruz, Gulf Coast, Mexico
Classic, 450-650 AD
H. 12 cm – L. 32,5 cm
Estimate: €35,000-40,000.
Provenance: None published.

Lot 121. STATUE OF TYPE “SMILEY”
Culture Veracruz, Mexico
Classic, 450-650 AD
H. 40 cm – L. 25,5 cm
Estimate: 8,000-10,000.
Provenance: French Private Collection.

The Gulf state of Qatar is providing $135 million in funding for Sudan’s archaeological heritage, according to a report from Agence France Presse. According to the article:

The money will support 29 projects including the rehabilitation of ancient relics, construction of museums and study of the Meroitic language, said Salahaddin Mohammed Ahmed, the project coordinator.

He said the funds will support archaeological work by several Western nations as well as Sudan over five years.

“This is the biggest amount of money for Sudanese antiquities in their entire history,” Abdurrahman Ali, head of the country’s museums, told reporters, adding that the project will lay the foundation for “archaeological tourism”.

Sudan’s remote and relatively undiscovered pyramids, north of Khartoum, contrast with their grander and better-known cousins in Egypt, which occupied northern Sudan for about 500 years until roughly 1,000 BC.

Two Sudanese sites are on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

These are Gebel Barkal and surrounding tombs, temples and other relics from the Napatan and Meroitic periods that followed Egyptian rule.

Also listed are the pyramids of Meroe and nearby sites including Naqa and Musawwarat es Sufra.

The first archaeological digs in Sudan took place only about 100 years ago, much later than in Egypt or Greece.

French, Polish, German and other foreign teams are working on various sites in northern Sudan and will benefit from the Qatari funding.

Claude Rilly, director of the French archaeological mission in Sedeinga, says sponsors are hard to come by in his profession.

Qatar’s funds “will give a new start, I hope, to archaeology” in Sudan.

The money will be used to help protect the sites, develop small local museums and tourism booklets, restore the National Museum in Khartoum, and build two presentation and conference centres at the UNESCO sites, he told AFP.

Some of the funds will also help to excavate and restore the monuments themselves, including at Sedeinga where the French team is digging about 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the Egyptian border.

Rilly said work has begun with Qatar’s assistance to reinforce the sandstone blocks of a temple there.

Tourists at the Sudanese pyramids and other relics often have the attractions to themselves, though the few visitors have still managed to leave litter behind.

The stonework of some monuments has collapsed, they are poorly guarded and there are no explanatory signs.

Giovanni Lanfranco
(Parma 1582 – Rome 1647)
Rinaldo’s Farewell to Armida
Oil on Canvas, 43 x 70 In.
Signed and dated on the hull of the ship: «IOA.S LANFRANCUS PARM/1614»
Click on image to enlarge.

At the recently concluded TEFAF (The European Fine Art Fair) in Maastricht, the Netherlands, Paris-based Galerie Canesso sold Rinaldo’s Farewell to Armida by Giovanni Lanfranco to the Kunsthaus Zurich, according to the Art Tribune.  The work has been on the market for a couple of years and was seen at Didier Aaron in New York in May 2012.

According to Canesso:

The painting illustrates an episode from canto XVI (stanzas 60-63) of [Torquato] Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata. The artist’s focus is on the defining moment of pathos as Rinaldo takes his final leave of Armida, with the hero caught between guilt for abandoning the unconscious Armida and the pressing need to follow his destiny, placed in the hands of Fortune, who is depicted holding the tiller. Lanfranco has imagined the scene described in stanza 62: “What should he do? Leave on the naked sand / This woful lady, half alive, half dead? / Kindness forbade, pity did that withstand; / But hard constraint, alas! Did thence him lead. / Away he went, the west wind blew from land / ‘Mongst the rich tresses of their pilot’s head’” (Fair-fax translation, 1600). The narrative spreads across the foreground like a frieze, while the background is filled entirely by a landscape that also faithfully reflects the description by Tasso. Armida’s palace, “proudly built [...] on top of yonder mountain’s height” (XV, st. 44), is further described in the next canto as “builded rich and round” (XVI, st. 1). Mellini has identified the ancient édifice that inspired this depiction as the Theatrum Marcelli reproduced in Bartolomeo Marliani’s Urbis Romae Topographia.

The artist depicts the two messengers Carlo and Ubaldo, whom the Christians have sent to Rinaldo to recall him to martial duty. Having arrived by sea, they ready themselves to set sail again, accompanied by the champion “of Christ’s true faith” (xv, st. 44) and thus return victorious in their mission. Several pentimenti in this figure group are visible to the naked eye, which are confirmed by X-radiography. The placement of the two warriors originally had two alternatives: another head can be perceived behind and above the head of the messenger with a shield, and the silhouette of another figure is clearly visible between Rinaldo and the seated warrior – perhaps that of Rinaldo himself – which the artist subsequently moved to the left – or perhaps the right – and then shifted forward. A few revised details, such as the thumb of Rinaldo’s right hand or the left knee of the seated messenger, display occasional tentative moments during the execution of the painting. Lanfranco constructs the narrative with painstaking detail, and the immense landscape, empty and desolate, bristling with menacing peaks, lends even greater poignancy to the abandoned Armida, seemingly shipwrecked in the foreground. Only the warm tones of the drapery sing out here, run through with shot silk effects and animated by the marine breeze. X-radiography shows that the figure of Armida was painted without any revision, since not one pentimento betrays the slightest hesitation of the painter’s hand.
The canvas was painted with a light touch and its surface occasionally reveals the brown preparation, especially in the area around the rocks. Elsewhere, numerous passages of the artist’s own overpainting are visible, allowing us to assess the relatively thin paint layer. Examples of this include the light strip of earth in the foreground that covers a little of Armida’s yellow drapery, Rinaldo’s hand over the shield, and the mast and sail painted over the intense blue of the sea and sky.

Pieter BRUEGHEL II (Anvers 1564-1637/38)
et Joos de MOMPER II (Anvers 1564-1635)
Le dénombrement de Bethléem
Panneau parqueté
88,5 x 121,5 cm
Estimate: €500,000-600,000.
Click on image to enlarge.

A newly rediscovered Census at Bethlehem by Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Joos de Momper II is the prize lot of Piasa’s upcoming sale of Old Master Drawings and Paintings in Paris on March 31, 2014.  As with so many of Pieter the Younger’s work, this picture is based on the 1566 original by his father, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, which is in the Musées Royaux Des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium. The scene is taken from the Bible:

And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered … So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. — Luke 2:1-5

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1566
The Census at Bethlehem
Oil on panel: 116 cm × 164.5 cm (46 in × 64.8 in)
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
Click on image to enlarge.

Slightly more than a dozen versions of this painting exist – another was discovered in Africa last year and had been part of the same private English collection since the descendants bought it from Brueghel’s studio in 1611.  That picture, which compositionally is much more faithful to Elder’s original, was discovered by the London-based Old Master painting dealer Johnny van Haeften and was featured at Frieze Masters in October 2013 with an asking price of £6 million, according to the Financial Times (illustrated below). The work did sell. The work at Piasa is estimated at  €500,000-600,000.

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, 1611
The Census at Bethlehem.
Featured at Johnny van Haeften’s Frieze Masters Booth, London, October 2013.
Asking price £6 million.

The Piasa version is more closely focused on the gathering in front of the inn and the Holy Family. The ancillary figures along the right hand side and all the immediately adjacent additional buildings and nearly all of the additional figures are absent. There is only a cityscape in the background. According to the catalogue entry, Brueghel scholar Dr. Klaus Ertz has confirmed the attribution and in a certificate of authenticity dated December 4, 2013 says that Brueghel is responsible for the “animated scene” in the foreground, while Joos de Momper II is responsible for the background.  Moreover, he dates the work to 1610-1620, which makes it a later version. 

In the November 2008 Harper’s article Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts, author Scott Horton wrote:

But is this painting really a religious work? Other artists portraying the dangerous trip by Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem for the census show the nativity itself, focusing on the adoration of the Christ child or the wondrous visit of the Magi. One could almost overlook that aspect of the painting. Indeed, it is not of the Holy Land, but of a village in Flanders, filled with the life and scenes that Brueghel knew so well. Children play on a frozen stream. A butcher prepared to slaughter a hog, furnishing the meat that the census-taker will offer to those who subscribe. And in the single scene that most commands the viewer’s attention, a crowd gathers at the census-taker’s house, pressing to declare themselves, to pay their taxes, to claim their share of the feast which is offered to those who have traveled far to fulfill a social duty. That house bears an official seal near its door: the double-headed eagle in black on an golden field, the insignia of the Hapsburg Empire. In Brueghel’s day Flemish attitudes towards the Hapsburgs were frankly hostile—they were associated with relentless war-making and heavy taxation. So is Brueghel’s message political, and not religious? Or could it not be both at the same time?

Lot 149. Detail of the scene at the inn.

Horton’s article continues:

But there in the center of the painting is Mary, and a short distance ahead of her, Joseph. The villagers are, all of them, busy about their affairs. None seems to stop to notice the arrival of the Holy Family; their focus is elsewhere. Auden writes “passionately waiting/For the miraculous birth,” but I think he misdescribes the painting on this point. Brueghel is driven by irony. In fact they are consumed by their quotidian lives, they anticipate nothing. A miracle is being played before them, and they don’t stop to notice it. But this is the special genius of Brueghel—he casts a sharp eye on the life of a village. He misses nothing. And in everything he sees the misery and harshness of human existence, but also the potential for something better. His images are remarkably precise, they are unforgiving, they seem quickly executed. But there is always something of the spirit of the moment and of the person captured in them.

Lot 140. Detail of the Holy Family.

Can we really say that about the carefully staged graciousness of the Renaissance masters of Italy? Brueghel disregards the rules of form that the church would have him obey: the religious images should be central, and all attention should be dedicated to them. The divine status of the Virgin Mary should be signaled. But for Brueghel, the Holy Family is marked by its normalcy; they are a part of the village scene. The activities of the village swirl about them, not sensitive to the miracle about to unfold. This is Brueghel’s inner message–that we rush through our lives, attached to our needful things, accomplishing the roadmarkers of our careers, unconscious of the miracles of life that unfold about us. “The Census at Bethlehem” is a masterwork because of this message, quite apart from the technical skill and vision of its physical execution.

John Constable (1776-1837), “Beaching a Boat, Brighton” (1824)
Oil paint on paper on canvas: 248 x 294 mm
Clink on image to enlarge.

A UK panel has concluded a John Constable painting in the collection of the Tate Museum in London was stolen by the Nazis in 1944 and should be returned to the heirs of the owner from whom it was taken.  In a new report, the Spoliation Advisory Panel determined that the claim by heirs of the Hatvany family “was sufficiently strong to warrant a return of the painting by the Tate in accordance with the provisions of the Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009.

“The Panel concluded that it is likely that the Painting was in the ownership of a Hungarian art collector in 1944 at the time when the Germans invaded Hungary and that it was taken in the course of antisemitic persecution of the collector and his family by the German occupying forces.”

According to the Tate’s Web site, the painting, which is not currently on view, was given to the museum by Mrs. P.M. Rainsford in 1986.

According to the report:

The task of the Panel is to consider claims from anyone, or from their heirs, who lost possession of a cultural object during the Nazi era (1933-1945) where such an object is now in the possession of a UK national collection, or in the possession of another UK museum or gallery established for the public benefit; and to advise the claimant, the institution, and, where it considers it appropriate, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on what action should be taken in relation to the claim (see the Panel’s Constitution and Terms of Reference in the Appendix). If the Panel recommends the transfer of an object from a collection belonging to one of the bodies named in Section 1 of The Holocaust (Return of Cultural Objects) Act 2009 to the claimant and the Secretary of State approves the Panel’s recommendation, the Museum is empowered to return the objects in question to the claimant. Section 1 of the Act applies to the Board of Trustees of the Tate.

The fate of hundreds of artifacts on loan from four Crimean museums currently on view at the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam is up in the air following Russia’s recent annexation of the former Ukranian peninsula, according to Agence France-Presse.  The works were created between the 2nd century BC and the late medieval era.  ”In the [loan] agreement it states that these items are part of the national state fund of Ukraine,” said Andrei Malgin, director of the Tavrida museum in Simferopol.

The article notes:

Now curators in both Amsterdam and Crimea have been left wringing their hands over the political dilemma facing them: do the artefacts go to Kiev or Moscow once the exhibition ends?

[…]

The [Tavrida] museum is one of five from Ukraine taking part in the exhibit, four of which are situated in the now-Russian peninsula of Crimea.

The absorption — which is not recognised by Western states — has left the museum with a “very complex legal issue,” said Yasha Lange, spokeswoman for Amsterdam University which owns the museum.

“Who owns the objects?” Lange asked. “The art objects will remain in the Netherlands until the exhibition ends, but given the political changes, we’re now checking to whom we should give them.”

The Allard Pierson has now turned to the Dutch foreign ministry for advice, Lange said, adding the museum was in “constant contact” with Kiev and Moscow on the issue.

He highlighted that the museum “considers it extremely important to exercise care in this situation”.

The exhibits include a scabbard and a ceremonial Scythian helmet made from gold, as well as a lacquered box, originally from China, which in Roman times found its way to Crimea via the Silk Road.

According to the museum’s Web site: “Never before has Ukraine made so many prize archaeological exhibits available on loan: stunning artefacts made of gold, including a scabbard and a ceremonial helmet, and countless precious gems. These objects and other archaeological discoveries reveal the rich history of the peninsula colonised by the Greeks since the seventh century BC.”

The AFP article continues:

The ambiguity over the artefacts’ future worries Crimea’s museums, Malgin told AFP.

“I don’t see why political events should threaten these items,” he said in his office in central Simferopol.

“Probably there are people in Kiev who would be interested in these items not making it back to the Crimea,” but the museums will put maximum effort into getting them back, he said, adding that the Russian culture ministry had already been informed about the potential conflict.

Malgin said the Scythian brass and ceramic items on loan were the symbol of his museum.

“They are beautiful items that would be a great loss.”

Crimea was at the crossroads of ancient trade routes and the shores of the Black Sea peninsula have long been excavated by archeologists, yielding fantastic treasures.

“Never before has Ukraine made so many prize archaeological exhibits available on loan,” a press release for the exhibit said.

“The exhibition casts new light on the Scythians, Goths and Huns, for centuries dismissed as little more than ‘barbarians’.”

The exhibition ends in August.

Lot 36. Artemisia Gentileschi (Rome 1593-1654 Naples)
Self-Portrait as a Lute Player
oil on canvas
30½ x 28¼ in. (77.5 x 71.8 cm.)
Estimate: $3-5 million. Bidding on this lot stopped at $2.0 million and it failed to sell.

One of the star paintings at Christie’s Old Master sales in New York this past January was this Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait done when the artist was about 25. It carried an aggressive $3-5 million estimate and went unsold. Now, the New York Times reports, the painting, “from estate of Myron Kunin, a Minneapolis philanthropist, collector and founder of the hair salon chain Regis Corp., who died in November at the age of 85″  has been acquired by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, CT, joining a work by her father, Orazio, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (below).

The Wadsworth had not bid on the painting because the estimate was too high, according to the article:

“We didn’t bid on it at auction because it was well beyond our means,” said Susan L. Talbott, director of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford. But as frequently happens, when a painting doesn’t sell at auction, experts try to sell it privately at a lower price. Knowing the Wadsworth has one of the top collections of Baroque art in the country, Nicholas Hall, co-chairman of old master and 19th-century art at Christie’s, called that museum to see if it would be interested in buying the painting.

“We were bowled over by it,” Ms. Talbott said. “We have a great masterpiece by Artemisia’s father, Orazio Gentileschi, but none by her, so this was a real gap. And that it was a self-portrait also added to the importance of the story.”

While Ms. Talbott declined to say what the museum paid for the painting, she did hint that it was purchased for well under the estimate, bought with funds from a recent bequest from the Charles H. Schwartz Fund for European art.

“Self-Portrait as a Lute Player” will go on view as part of the reopening of the Wadsworth’s Morgan Memorial Building in 2015.

For some background on the painting, the Christie’s sale catalogue include the following:

Lost to notice until its discovery in a private European collection in 1998, this beautiful Self-Portrait as a Lute Player is by Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the leading painters of the Baroque age and among the boldest and most powerfully expressive woman painters in history. Born in Rome, Artemisia studied with her father, the prominent artist Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), who introduced her to the dramatic realism of Caravaggio and the practice of painting from live models. In 1611, when she was 17, she was sexually assaulted by her father’s business associate and fellow artist Agostino Tassi, a crime against the family’s honor. When Tassi reneged on his promise to marry Artemisia, Orazio brought charges against him, and at the end of a protracted trial, Tassi was convicted and sentenced to a 5-year banishment from Rome. To minimize the scandal which the trial had engendered, Orazio arranged for Artemisia to marry the minor Florentine painter, Pierantonio Stiattesi, and at the end of 1612, the couple moved to Florence, where they would live until 1620.

Orazio Gentileschi, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes, 1621-24, oil on canvas, 53 3/4 x 62 5/8 in., The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1949.52

Lot 67. A Roman marble portrait head of the Emperor Septimius Severus, Circa 194 A.D.
Slightly over-lifesized, depicted with his head turned to his right, his thick curling hair and beard with drilled detail, the beard characteristically full and long with ringlets at the chin and a thick moustache at the upper lip, his eyebrows incised above large eyes with articulated pupils gazing upward, the strong neck designed to be set into a composite statue, 16¼in (41.3cm) high, mounted
Provenance:
American private collection, California.
Christie’s New York, 11 December 2003, lot 232.
European private collection, acquired in the 1980s.
Estimate: £120,000-150,000 ($200,000-250,000).

Bonham’s April 3, 2014 Antiquities sale in London has more than a handful of works that lack a pre-1970 provenance (I know … it’s this issue again).  Among them, according to ARCA, are some found in the archives of looted works of “two art dealers, Giacomo Medici and Gianfranco Becchina, [that were] confiscated by Italian and Greek police who have used them to identify objects looted and smuggled from at least 1972 until 2006.”

The “pre-1970″ refers to the date of an international UNESCO convention aimed at halting the looting of antiquities. As the New York Times reported: ‘In 2004 the Association of Art Museum Directors declared “member museums should not acquire” any undocumented works “that were removed after November 1970, regardless of any applicable statutes of limitation.”’ Numerous American museums – including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Boston’s Museum of Fine Art and the Getty in Los Angeles – have been forced to return looted antiquities to their host countries.” It’s a standard I believe should apply to private collectors as well as museums and other institutions.

UPDATE: A reader has indicated that another lot has come under question, a Neo-Assyrian Black Basalt Stele.

Lot 99. A monumental Neo-Assyrian black basalt royal stele of Adad-nerari III of Assyria, Circa 805-797 B.C.
Comprising the lower two-thirds of the stele of rectangular cross-section, the front carved in high relief with a standing figure of the king in prayer, depicted in profile from the waist down, shown wearing a long fringed robe, with bare feet, holding a staff before him, the neat regular cuneiform text inscribed across the body of the king is preserved with the beginnings of lines 9-10 and lines 11-20 in their entirety, each line separated by horizontal rulings, with several lines continuing onto the raised border. 54in (137.5cm) high; 29½in (75cm) wide; 10½in (27cm) deep
Provenance:
Private collection, Geneva, Switzerland, given as a gift from father to son in the 1960s.
The top section of this stele fragment, now in the British Museum, was discovered in May 1879 by a close friend of Sir Austen Henry Layard, the renowned archaeologist Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910), following reports of its existence from different Arab travellers. The round-topped section was found to have been hurled down the mound by Arabs as this effigy was considered idolatrous and the site itself was sacred to the spirit of Sheikh Hamad, to whom various cures of ailments and afflictions had been attributed. Rassam believed the remainder of the stele was buried at the top of the mound, see H. Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod, being an account of the discoveries made in the ancient ruins of Nineveh, Asshur, Sepharvaim, Calah, etc, Cininnati & New York, 1897, p.312. The top of the stele was removed with some difficulty to the coast and eventually arrived at the British Museum where it entered the Museums’ collections in 1881 (Inv. No. BM 131124; 1881,0721.1).
Rassam had dug some test trenches at Tell Sheikh Hamad (ancient Dur-Katlimmu) but was unable to return to the site and continue his excavations after failing to receive the necessary permit. It was in 1978 that Hartmut Kühne directed the German excavations in Tell Sheikh Hamad but he found no evidence of the lower half the stele that Rassam had believed to be at the top of the mound. So it seems this lower stele section, forming the larger part of the monument must have been removed prior to this date and likely prior to 1975 [emphasis added] when Kühne began surveying the site.
Estimate: £600,000-800,000 ($1-1.3 million).

Potentially looted relief up for sale at Bonhams

• According to a recent article in Al-Akhbar (17 March 2014), a new lot at Bonhams Auction House, due to be sold on the 3rd April in London, may have been looted. The article publishes a video entitled “Stop the Theft and Sale of Antiquities in Syria”, by the Saadeh Cultural Foundation. The video is addressed to UNESCO, the Syrian Government and Bonhams. The video claims that Auction Lot 99, which is apparently from Tell Shiekh Hamad, in Haseke province, is looted, despite Bonhams claim is was excavated in the 1970s. The upper section of the stele was discovered in 1879 by Hormuzd Rassam, and is now in the British Museum. Rassam’s notes comment he was unable to fund [sic] the lower half. There is also no evidence that Layard, who also excavated the site, found it. The site was excavated by Kuhne in 1975, but his excavation records also do not mention it. Therefore, the foundation argues, it must be looted. [emphasis added}.

Looting has certainly been reported at the site since at least September 2012.
To read the full article (in arabic) and see the video (arabic with English subtitles) in Al-Akhbar, click here.

Here are several more works with problematic/hazy/incomplete provenance (I'm always amazed/amused by the number of works that come out of private Swiss collections):

Lot 5. A Greek bronze Illyrian helmet, Circa 6th-5th Century B.C.
The domed helmet with a pair of raised double parallel ridges, each with smaller ridges at the outer edge, with a central frontal tang and loop at the back for attachment of a crest, with an everted rear flange and long pointed cheekpieces perforated at the forward tip, edged with a border of studs, 9in (23cm) high
Provenance:
English private collection, acquired in the early 1990s on the UK art market.
Estimate: £10,000-15,000 ($17,000-25,000).

Lot 107. A Sasanian silver-gilt royal hunting scene plate, Iran, circa early 4th Century A.D.
The interior decorated in relief, the figural scene with gilding and finely incised details, depicting a king, thought to be Hormizd II, riding a horse at flying gallop to right, the king wearing a crown in the form of a winged eagle surmounted with a globe, with three rippling streamers flying out behind, wearing a chest halter over a belted tunic, and trousers with pleated edging, wearing a quiver at his right hip, decorated with a wavy palmette tendril and a rosette above, a beribboned sword hilt on his left, seated astride the horse with a dotted cross-hatched saddle blanket, a pair of incised balloons fly out behind, a rippling ribbon attached to its bridle with a ribbed globe above, wearing a harness ornamented with large bosses, its tail elaborately tied, the king drawing a bow, taking aim at a fleeing ostrich or great bustard in front, two shot birds below, one collapsed with an arrow through its turned neck, the other shot through its breast, the plate on a ring foot, the base with a dotted Pahlavi inscription mentioning the weight, and two monograms (23.3cm) diameter; 791.9g weight
Provenance:
Private collection, Switzerland, acquired between 2002-2005.
European private collection, UK and Switzerland, formed in the 1970s and 1980s.
Estimate: £150,000-250,000 ($250,000-420,000).

Lot 177. An Egyptian bronze Horus falcon sarcophagus, Late Period, circa 664-30 B.C.
The falcon deity wearing the double crown, perched with closed wings crossing over the tail feathers, with finely incised details on the feathers and claws, standing with arched talons on a corniced hollow sarcophagus, 6¾in (17cm) high, 7in (18cm) long
Provenance:
French private collection, Normandy, acquired in the 1970s.
Estimate: £12,000-15,000 ($20,000-25,000).

Lot 19. A Greek red-figure hydra, Apulia, attributed to the Baltimore Painter, circa 320-310 B.C.
Decorated with added white, ochre and crimson slip, the upper frieze depicting a wedding scene, the bride seated on a chair beneath a parasol, unveiling herself to the groom standing in front, leaning on a basin, flanked by three attendants, the lower frieze with a naiskos flanked by female figures carrying caskets and situlae, 26¼in (66.7cm) high
Provenance:
T.L. Collection, Berne, Switzerland.
V.L. Collection, Nyon, Switzerland, acquired in the 1990s.
Estimate: £20,000-30,000 ($33,000-50,000).

ART expert Antonio Garcia has produced a 60-page report that states the 16th century painting Lady in a Fur Wrap (above), usually displayed in Glasgow’s Pollok House, was not created by the artist El Greco.

Lady in a Fur Wrap, a painting long believed to be an early portrait by El Greco – the Spanish-based Greek artist Domenikos Theotokopoulos – painted in Toledo, Spain, has been declared a fake by Antonio Garcia in a 60-page report, according to Scotland’s Daily Record and other media outlets.  Garcia  was culture editor for Spain’s El Mundo newspaper for 20 years and spent two years investigating the painting.

The work is “part of the Glasgow Museums collection and is usually displayed at the city’s Pollok House,” but is currently “on loan to the Museo de Santa Cruz in the Spanish city of Toledo for an exhibition marking the 400th anniversary of the artist’s death.”

Garcia is very pointed in his criticism and “has accused Glasgow council chiefs of blocking scientific tests, which were requested a decade ago, to find out the truth.” According to the article, Garcia said: “Anyone – no matter how few of El Greco’s works they may have seen and without being in any way an art expert – can see that the colours used and the perfect facial features in the portrait of this enigmatic lady have nothing to do with the style of El Greco.”

By way of background:

The painting was bought by Sir William Stirling Maxwell for £1857 in 1853 and gifted to the city in 1966.

[…]

The painting was discovered in Paris 300 years after the death of El Greco …

Garcia said: “It was the first time this work had ever been seen.

“It had never been exhibited anywhere and had never been listed as part of any collection. It was a mysterious appearance that captured the people of Paris.

“At that time, there were probably five or six artists in Spain who could have painted it but none of them were famous.

“I am not in a position to say that whoever painted this work was involved in any deceit. He may well have acted in good faith.”

In a rebuttal:

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council culture body Glasgow Life said: “Within the art world, there are many debates between scholars and academics over the provenance of works and we welcome this contribution as part of that debate.”

Professor Fernando Marias, curator of the current exhibition in Toldeo said,  “This could be a restoration and to a certain extent was possibly changed. More a restorer than a faker, but that’s speculation.” He added, “What I can say is that we are having this painting at the Toledo exhibition and we are accepting it as an El Greco.”

Garcia says event though the portrait is not by El Greco, it’s an excellent painting: “Whoever painted it, the Lady in a Fur Wrap is a great work of art and that’s the first thing that should matter, not who signed the picture or its economic value.”

Lot 29. ADRIEN SACQUESPEE (CAUDEBEC-EN-CAUX 1629-1692)
Christ en croix
signé et daté ‘Sacquespe pinxit./.1656′ (sur le pied de la croix)
huile sur toile: 83 x 49 cm.
Estimate: €15,000-20,000 ($20,642-27,523). This lot sold for a hammer price of €14,000 (or €17,500 with the buyer’s premium – $24,091).

Rouen’s Musée des Beaux-Arts today purchased Adrien Sacquespee’s Mannerist Christ on the Cross at Christie’s sale of Old Master paintings in Paris, according to the Art Tribune. It’s a striking and dramatic work, believed to be one of the artist’s earliest 20 or so known works (some signed). In the 1640′s he was a pupil of François Garnier, but he returned to Normandy and made his career in Rouen.  Most of his work is found in Norman churches and the museum.

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

This work joins six others in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, including the Martyrdom of St. Adrian (below), The Apparition of Christ to St. Peter (1667), Christ mourned by the Virgin and St. John (formerly known Descent from the Cross - c.1670-80), Chartreux buried under the snow (c.1670-75), Saint Bruno in prayer (1671), and Eternal Father (before 1692).

Martyrdom of St. Adrian, 1659.

Although he’s considered “provincial” he does have a flair for the dramatic – just look at Saint Mathurin exorcising the Empress Theodora, Abbey Saint-Ouen in Rouen (below) – who doesn’t like a good exorcism?

Saint Mathurin exorcising the Empress Theodora, Abbey Saint-Ouen in Rouen

Alfons Mucha – Summer

According to the Prague Post, Businessman Richard Fuxa has bought a very valuable collection of 116 posters by Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha (1860–1939) from legendary tennis player Ivan Lendl … Fuxa refused to release the price of the posters, but the daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD) writes today that Lendl sold his collection of Mucha’s posters for 3.5 million dollars.”

The collection was shown in Prague last year and attracted more than 185,000 people, “the second-highest attendance at Prague exhibitions and one of the highest in Czech history.”

The article continued:

“Fuxa, whose BigMedia firm organized the exhibition in Prague, bought the collection.”

“This was part of my contract with Ivan Lendl,” Fuxa told Czech Radio and said he would like to display Mucha’s posters again.

“We are considering further projects with this collection,” he said.

Fuxa is negotiating about the conditions of such a display, for instance, in China, Japan and the United States, and he also plans to open his own gallery for the collection in Prague.

MfD writes that art exhibitions in the Czech Republic usually make a loss; however, Fuxa and his fund are trying to bring art closer to ordinary people and he has scored a success.

BigMedia will open an exhibition of Czech poet and graphic artist Bohuslav Reynek (1892–1971) in Prague this week. Fuxa told MfD a spacecraft would land during the exhibition.

 

Fuxa has also bought some 80 graphic sheets by Reynek, he told the radio.

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Untitled
acrylic and oil stick on canvas: 68 x 103 in. (172.7 x 261.6 cm.)
Executed in 1981
Estimate: $20-30 million. Click on image to enlarge.

Christie’s has just announced that on May 13, 2014, as part of the evening sale of Post War and Contemporary Art, they will be auctioning a large Jean-Michel Basquiat painting that has been in the same collection since 1982 – it carries a pre-sale estimate of $20-30 million.  According to a press release, it comes from the Reiner Family Collection.

The release notes:

The year 1981 marked Jean-Michel Basquiat’s transcendence from the leading figure on the underground art scene, SAMO, to the established world of international art stardom. Untitled, 1981 is an emblem to this success, created at this precise moment in Basquiat’s career when he was channeling the raw energy of his street art into the medium of fine art. Executed on canvas and on a scale akin to the wall expanses he had previously utilized on the street of downtown New York City, Basquiat’s menacing warrior basks in a vibrant orange and crimson backdrop built up from broad swathes of acrylic paint. Laid down on peach ground, the anatomical makeup of Basquiat’s warrior emerges from scrawls of black, white and brown oilstick. Illuminating the figure from within, this haloed aura along with punctuations of yellow and black paint as well as metallic spra-paint come together to form a mandorla of sorts, a typical motif found in the rendering of Christ in Majesty. Fierce and intimidating, Basquiat’s regal warrior with glowing red eyes and bared teeth embodies the artist’s own feelings of triumph after his sudden rise to international art world fame. Just as Basquiat, the “king of the streets” had conquered the art world, his warrior too has been crowned king victorious. Replete with the graffiti-inspired text and imagery that first garnered Basquiat attention during his SAMO days, Untitled reinforces Basquiat’s street heritage and revels in it with the framing of this work with crowns, a motif that, along with the copyright sign and comic book seal, signifies Basquiat’s own personal emblem and seal of approval. Untitled has been held in the same collection since it was first seen in the artist’s studio in the basement of Annina Nosei’s gallery in 1982.

Cornelis van Cleve, Flemish, 1520-1567, Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist and Angels
Oil on panel: 22 3/8 x 20 1/8 in. (56.8 x 51.1 cm)

The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, VA, last covered by this blog in a December 2013 posting, has received the Irene Leache Memorial Foundation’s entire collection of European Old Master paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts, according to a museum press release:

On long-term loan to the Museum since within a year of its 1933 opening, the Irene Leache Memorial collection comprises 27 works of art dating from the 14th through 19th centuries. Many of the works were among the earliest art on gallery view in the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, the genesis of the Chrysler Museum.

Accompanying the gifts of art is another substantial bequest—an endowed curatorship. The Foundation has created the Irene Leache Curator of European Art, a position currently held by Jeff Harrison, who is also the Museum’s chief curator. The named curatorship is designed both to memorialize and perpetuate the symbiotic 80-year history between the Irene Leache Memorial and the Museum, giving both a more active and ongoing influence in the future of the arts in Hampton Roads.

The Memorial also will transfer a trove of books and historical materials to the Jean Outland Chrysler Library for cataloging, conservation, and community access. The archival documents, photographs, and memorabilia provide solid research background into the early collections and history of the Museum.

Here are a couple of other works in the bequest.

Francesco Botticini, Italian, 1446-1497, Adoration of the Magi in a Landscape
Tempera on wood: 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (80 x 80 cm). Click on image to enlarge.

Museum object label:

Francesco Botticini Italian, Florence (1446-1497) Adoration of the Magi in a Landscape, 15th century Tempera on panel, 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA Gift of the Irene Leache Memorial Foundation 2014.3.2 Botticini’s sweeping, “world-view” landscape is enlivened by a host of holy figures. The Adoration of the Magi unfolds in the foreground, as the three kings pay homage to the infant Christ and proclaim his dominion over all earthly rulers. Behind them the angel Gabriel announces Christ’s birth to shepherds in the field. Encircling these biblical narratives, from left to right, we see Saint Jerome in the wilderness, Saint Christopher carrying the infant Christ, Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, and the journey of Tobias and the angel. Three more saints-Catherine, Roch, and Sebastian-kneel before the holy family at the lower left. And at the bottom, a somber meditative image of Christ as Man of Sorrows alludes to his future sacrifice for mankind. Scholars have puzzled over the meaning of this “holy landscape” with its disparate array of figures. Yet all have acknowledged the charm of the painting itself. With its jewel-like colors and minutely crafted detail, the painting fully reveals Botticini’s deft and delicate Late Gothic style.

Attributed to Naddo Ceccarelli, Italian, active ca. 1347, Madonna and Child Flanked by Four Saints
Tempera and Gold leaf on Panel: Overall: 22 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. Click on image to enlarge.

Museum object label:

The intimate scale of this triptych-a three-part altarpiece topped with pointed Gothic arches-suggests that it was not a public, church commission, but a work meant for private worship. So, too, do the saints appearing on its shutters. Three of them-Eligius, Bartholomew, and Nicholas-served as patron saints of medieval craft guilds, those of blacksmiths, butchers, and sailors, respectively. The altarpiece may well have been ordered by a wealthy Italian merchant for an altar in his home. The figures’ placement and varying sizes are dictated by their hierarchical importance, an artistic device used throughout the Middle Ages. The Virgin and Child assume center stage, where they tower over the saints who attend them. At left are Saint Eligius, who holds as his attributes the tools of the blacksmith’s forge, and Saint Bartholomew, who displays the knife with which he was martyred. At right are Saint Anthony Abbot, with his book and staff, and Saint Nicholas of Bari, who holds the three golden balls he gave to enrich the dowries of an impoverished nobleman’s daughters. Crowning the shutters is a two-part Annunciation to the Virgin. The painter here is believed to be Naddo Ceccarelli, who was active in Siena, a city steeped in the decorative traditions of medieval art. The artist’s roots are clearly traced in the painting’s luminous colors, richly patterned garments, and delicate floral banding of the gold-leaf background.

Lot 5. AMEDEO MODIGLIANI (1884-1920), Jeune homme roux assis, signed ‘modigliani’ (upper left)
oil on canvas: 39½ x 25 5/8 in. (100.5 x 65 cm.), Painted in 1919
Estimate: $8-12 million.

The art auction world kicks into high gear with the sales in New York of Impressionist and Modern works the week of May 6 followed by Post War and Contemporary works the week of the May 13. For their May 6 sale, Christie’s has scored works from the estate of Huguette Clark (the reclusive heiress who dies in May 2011 at the age of 104 with an estate worth hundreds of millions and no direct heirs).  Among them are a Monet (lot 8) and a Renoir (lot 10), below.  These works have not been on the market for more than a half century and should do well. There are also works from the collections of Viktor and Marianne Langen, including a Braque (lot 14), a boldly colored 1909 Kandinsky (lot 17), and a 1942 Picasso portrait of Dora Maar (lot 29 ), below; and the estate of Edgar Bronfman, including a large, late 1965 Picasso (lot 21), below. Here are 10 works from the sale.

The Modigliani (above) is listed as coming from a private American collection:

Immensely authoritative in its hieratic elegance and strict economy of palette, this sophisticated painting of a russet-haired young man–dated to 1919, just months before Modigliani fell victim to the ravages of tuberculosis and alcoholism–displays the consummate realization of the signature portrait style that the painter had developed during the previous three years, which represents his most powerful legacy to the history of art … The sitter is slender young man, past adolescence but still on the brink of adulthood, his clothing understated but elegant, his hair carefully parted and coiffed, his gaze inscrutable, his posture upright and confident. His head and hands, painted in warm orange tones, stand out in vivid contrast against the muted gray-green that otherwise dominates the painting, his handsome visage emerging from the cool stillness of the background like the sun burning through a lifting morning fog. “To do any work, I must have a living person. I must be able to see him opposite me,” Modigliani proclaimed (quoted in Modigliani and His Models, exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2006, p. 31).

Lot 8. CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926), Nymphéas, signed ‘Claude Monet’ (lower right)
oil on canvas: 39 3/8 x 32 in. (100.1 x 81.2 cm.), Painted in 1907
Estimate: $25-35 million. Click on image to enlarge.

The Monet, as reportedly earlier this year, was sold to the Clarks in 1930 and hasn’t been seen publicly since:

Monet and his family moved to Giverny in April 1883. Situated at the confluence of the Seine and the Epte about forty miles northwest of Paris, Giverny was at that time a quiet, picturesque farming community of just 279 residents. Upon his arrival there, Monet rented a large, pink stucco house on two acres of land. When the property came up for sale in 1890, Monet purchased it at the asking price of 22,000 francs, “certain of never finding a better situation or more beautiful countryside,” as he wrote to Durand-Ruel (quoted in P. Tucker, Monet: Life and Art, New Haven, 1995, p. 175).

[…]

Monet was sixty-six years old when he painted this Nymphéas in 1907. He was arguably France’s most acclaimed artist. Together with Renoir and Degas, he was the last surviving member of the legendary Impressionist group, whose work–once disparaged and denounced for the challenge it posed to Salon norms–the French public had by then come to understand and venerate; the following generation of painters acknowledged their status as founding fathers of the modern movement. All of the Impressionists were represented by this time in the Musée du Luxembourg, France’s national museum for living artists; Renoir had been awarded the Légion d’Honneur, the highest honor in the nation, and Monet is said to have been offered the accolade but to have refused it.

Lot 10. PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (1841-1919), Jeunes flles jouant au volant, signed ‘Renoir.’ (lower right)
oil on canvas: 21½ x 25 5/8 in. (54.6 x 65.2 cm.), Painted circa 1887
Estimate: $10-15 million. Click on image to enlarge.

From the catalogue:

“A sort of break came in my work about 1883,” Renoir told Ambroise Vollard late in his life. “I had wrung Impressionism dry, and I finally came to the conclusion that I knew neither how to paint nor draw” (quoted in J. House, Renoir in the Barnes Foundation, New Haven, 2012, p. 113). This realization sparked a three-year period of intense questioning and experimentation, during which Renoir wholly re-ordered his goals as a painter. Dissatisfied with the seeming spontaneity and imprecision of Impressionism, with its loose brushwork and patchy light, he reintroduced traditional notions of draftsmanship into his art, adopting the crisp edges, uniform illumination, and dry, controlled brushstroke of Ingres. Seeking to give the human form a more monumental presence, he focused increasingly on contour, which he used to silhouette his figures sharply against the background. John House has written, “In technique, composition, and subject matter Renoir was deliberately moving away from any suggestion of the fleeting or the contingent, away from the Impressionist preoccupation with the captured instant, towards a more timeless vision of woman” (Renoir, exh. cat., Hayward Gallery, London, 1985, p. 242).

Lot 14. GEORGES BRAQUE (1882-1963), Le Modcle, signed and dated ‘G Braque 39’ (lower left)
oil and sand on canvas: 39 3/8 x 39½ in. (100.1 x 100.3 cm.), Painted in 1939
Estimate: $8-12 million. Click on image to enlarge.

From the catalogue:

n Le Modèle and other works of this period, Braque displayed an evolving preference for orchestrating a virtual pictorial symphony, a canvas that is a world in itself, brimming with multiple themes, in which figure and still-life elements dovetail and intertwine within their setting like the polyphonic lines in the music of the high Baroque.

[…]

Pursuing his dedication to the formal and contextual aspects of the still-life genre, Braque tapped into a tradition that was profoundly French. He was certainly the most devoted and conscientious of heirs among the great modern painters to the legacy of Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, the father of the French nature morte, who was also a contemporary of the musicians whom Braque most admired. While painting Le Modèle, Braque was surely acknowledging the gentle and humble human presence in Chardin’s figure paintings.

Lot 17. WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944), Strandszene, signed and dated ‘KANDINSKY 1909’ (lower left)
oil on board: 20¾ x 26 3/8 in. (52.8 x 67 cm.), Painted in 1909
Estimate: $16-22 million. Click on image to enlarge.

Christie’s has recorded an informative if slightly fulsome video about the Kandinsky. Excerpts from the catalogue:

By the late summer and fall of 1909, around the time Kandinsky painted Strandszene, the initial shock wave of Fauvism had passed through the art world, its reverberations having fanned the fires of expressionism in Germany and continuing to embolden new youthful movements in Russia.

[…]

The transformation in Kandinsky’s own art during the years 1908-1910 was radical and unprecedented, and had come largely from within, stemming from the imperatives of his own “internal necessity.” There were no guideposts to mark the path as Kandinsky edged his way toward abstraction. By 1909 he could sense where his destination might lie, but it was not until two years later, when the text of On the Spiritual in Art was given its final revisions and first published in December 1911 (dated January 1912 on the title page), that he could look back on his recent work and assess the means that had taken him this far. “Today I can see many things more freely, with a broader horizon,” he wrote in the foreword to the second edition, published in April 1912.

Lot 21. PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973), Mangeuse de pastèque et homme écrivant
signed ‘Picasso’ (lower left); dated ‘13.5.65.’ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas: 51 1/8 x 63 5/8 in. (129.8 x 161.7 cm.), Painted on 13 May 1965
Estimate: $7-10 million. Click on image to enlarge.

From the lot notes:

13 May 1965, the day Picasso painted Mangeuse de pastèque et homme écrivant, was only a few weeks shy of the mid-point of an already bountifully productive decade. Two years previously he had commenced his series of atelier paintings, which usually featured the artist and his model, both together, or less frequently she nude and alone, and occasionally only the artist by himself. On the face of it, one might suspect that this working arrangement, as intensely intimate as it would seem, may not promise much in the way of variety. But in fact the artist and model series within a few years spawned numerous corollary groups, most frequently in the manner of los mosqueteros, a term which, as John Richardson has pointed out, includes not only Picasso’s celebrated Alexandre Dumas-style cavaliermousquetaires, but also a wider assortment of their camp followers–servants, musicians, girlfriends, prostitutes, procurers and other hangers-on.

Lot 29. PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973), Portrait de femme (Dora Maar), signed ‘Picasso’ (upper left)
oil on panel: 39 1/8 x 31¾ in. (99.4 x 80.8 cm.), Painted in Paris, 5 August 1942
Estimate: $25-35 million. Click on image to enlarge.

From the catalogue:

Elegantly adorned in a silk dress of regal purple and a tricorne hat to match, embellished with a fan-tailed feather, the woman portrayed here is Dora Maar, Picasso’s mistress and the muse who most significantly inspired his art during the years 1936 through 1944. Picasso painted this imposing portrait of Dora on 5 August 1942. Among his wartime pictures, “Those of Picasso’s works done between 1939 and 1942 are probably the most powerful,” Brigitte Baer has declared, “obviously with some failures, but the most beautiful” (Picasso and The War Years, exh. cat., Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1998, p. 85). Their remarkable qualities originate, of course, in the very hand of the artist, but also in large part from the presence of Dora herself as his subject.

Lot 33. ALBERTO GIACOMETTI (1901-1966), Femme de Venise IV
signed and numbered ‘Alberto Giacometti 2/6’ (on the left side of the base);
inscribed with foundry mark ‘Susse Fond. Paris’ (on the back of the base)
bronze with dark brown and green patina and hand-painted by the artist
Height: 45½ in. (115.5 cm.), Conceived in 1956 and cast in 1957
Estimate: $10-18 million.

From the lots notes:

The Femmes de Venise … constitute a central peak in Giacometti’s career as a sculptor. They stem from the unprecedented attenuated and visionary works of 1947-1948, on the basis of which Giacometti initially achieved international renown in his first post-war solo exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, in 1948, includingGrande figure (fig. 1) and the first version of L’homme qui marche. At the same time, the Venetian women anticipate the monumental final project of Giacometti’s lifetime, the figures he conceived for Chase Manhattan Plaza in New York during 1959-1960, including L’homme qui marche I and II and Grandes femmes debout I-IV (fig. 2). These were the largest figures he would ever model, which he intended to cast in an even more greatly enlarged scale for the Plaza site, at huge heights of around 25 feet or more. The Chase Manhattan project remained sadly unrealized at Giacometti’s death; it is impossible to walk through this downtown space today, tall modern buildings on every side, without imagining the impact such awesomely towering giants, maintaining their silent vigil, might have had on passersby.

Lot 34. JOAN MIRÓ (1893-1983), Le serpent à coquelicots traînant sur un champ de violettes
peuplé par des lézards en deuil
signed, dated and titled ‘Miró. 1947 LE SERPENT À COQUELICOTS TRAÎNANT SUR
UN CHAMP DE VIOLETTES PEUPLÉ PAR DES LÉZARDS EN DEUIL’ (on the reverse)
oil and mixed media on board: 41¼ x 29½ in. (105 x 75 cm.), Painted in 1947
Estimate: $12-18 million.

Lot 42. PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973), Deux femmes et enfant, signed ‘Picasso’ (lower left)
oil on canvas: 74 3/8 x 50 7/8 in. (189 x 129.2 cm.), Painted in Paris, winter 1922
Estimate: $12-16 million.

Lot 8. HENRI MATISSE, 1869 – 1954, LA SÉANCE DU MATIN
Signed Henri Matisse (lower right)
Oil on canvas: 29 1/8 by 24 in. or 74 by 61 cm, Painted in 1924.
Estimate: $20-30 million.

The Evening Sale of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby’s on May 7, 2014 is top heavy with works by Picasso, thirteen all total including four of the top ten lots by estimate. The lead work, however, is a 1924 Nice-period Matisse showing the artist’s studio assistant Henriette Darricarrère painting. A companion work is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting has a third party guarantee, so it will sell – the estimate is $20-30 million. The Matisse and the Picasso beach scene (lot 24, below) are the subject of a video.

According to the catalogue:

Matisse completed the canvas at his studio at Place Charles-Félix in Nice, where Henriette posed for him under a variety of pretexts, including playing the piano or violin, reading, playing checkers and painting at an easel.  In most of these compositions Matisse positions his model against the large French window, either partially-shuttered, curtained or completely unobstructed, in order to explore the properties of light and its interplay with the objects and occupants of the studio.   Light in this picture has a clear physical presence and affects everything that crosses its path.  In her essay on Matisse’s use of windows, Shirley Neilsen Blum has noted that “although he sought to represent an overall illumination in his work, it was not that of the momentary effects of sunlight so loved by the Impressionists.  Whether as an undefined slice of colour or as an iridescence seeming to radiate from the canvas itself, Matisse represented light through the intensity of his palette and through splinters of exposed white canvas.  The reoccuring primed surface enhanced both the sense of illumination arising from within the painting and the two dimensionality of the subject”  (S. Neilsen Blum, Henri Matisse, Rooms with a View, London, 2010, p. 14).

Lot 37. PABLO PICASSO, 1881 – 1973, TÊTE DE MARIE-THÉRÈSE
Dated Boisgeloup 4 juin XXXII (upper right) and dated mars XXXIV (upper left)
Oil on canvas: 18 1/4 by 18 1/4 in. or 46.4 by 46.4 cm
Painted June 4, 1932 – March 1934.
Estimate: $15-20 million.

First up among the Picassos is a thickly painted portrait of Marie-Thérèse Walter, his mistress in the early 1930s, coiling with energy.  According to the catalogue notes:

Picasso began work on the picture on June 4, 1932 and completed it in March 1934, revisiting and retooling to its richly-painted surface over the course of two years.  Thickly impastoed, it is also one of the most daring renderings of his lover, depicted with a swirling assembly of vibrantly colored panes reminiscent of stained glass. It bears mentioning that he completed these works at the height of the Surrealist movement, when his palette was at its most vibrant and when Freudian psycho-sexual symbolism played a defining role in the imagery of the avant-garde. But the present composition, with the deconstructed bust positioned confrontationally at the forefront of the picture plane, is a decidedly forthright example of the artist’s individualism, even incorporating elements of his groundbreaking Cubist compositions of the 1910s. Indeed, more than any other model, Marie-Thérèse inspired Picasso’s creative genius, and her very image conjured a creative synthesis of the most radical aspects of Picasso’s production. 

Lot 24. PABLO PICASSO, 1881-1973, LE SAUVETAGE, Signed Picasso (upper right)
Oil on canvas: 38 1/4 by 51 1/4 in. or 97.2 by 130 cm, Painted in November 1932.
Estimate: $14-18 million. Click on image to enlarge.

As with the Matisse, this work carries a third party guarantee so it will sell. From the catalogue:

Pablo Picasso
 Marie-Thérèse Walter, Juan-les-Pins, 27 July, 1932, Archives Maya Widmaier Picasso

The dramatic seaside rescue of Marie-Thérèse is the subject of Le Sauvetage, Picasso’s vibrant canvas from November 1932.  The scene depicts the acrobatics of beach activity while the languid body of a bather is hoisted from the water.  All of the figures bear the unmistakable phenotype of Picasso’s lover Marie-Thérèse as she had come to be defined in his other legendary compositions from earlier in the year.  But for this work, created at the height of the artist’s obsession with the young woman, Marie-Thérèse is omnipresent - occupying land, sea and air and playing both victim and savior in Picasso’s narrative. 

Lot 18. ALBERTO GIACOMETTI, 1901 – 1966, LA PLACE
Inscribed with the signature A. Giacometti, with the foundry mark Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris and numbered 4/6
Bronze - Length: 24 1/2 in. or 62.2 cm, Conceived and cast in 1948.
Estimate: $12-18 million. Click on image to enlarge.

This work is also the subject of a video. According to the catalogue:

La Place [is] Giacometti’s first multi-figural sculpture …  In the years after the war Giacometti became fascinated by spatial relationships and the concept of movement within a single work.  He began to create sculptures that employed multiple figures on a common base, all existing as independent entities during a moment in time.  Without question, La Place is the most provocative of Giacometti’s sculptural interpretations of this concept and was the font of inspiration that he would draw upon for the rest of his life.

Lot 18. Detail.

La Place was conceived in an urban context.  The platform on which the figures are positioned relates to a city square, and the juxtaposition of figures suggests the way in which isolated city dwellers pass without stopping or interacting.  The male figures appear to stride forward, while the female figure stands still.  “A bit like ants, each one seems to move of its own accord, alone, in a direction ignored by the rest”  is how Giacometti described the urban phenomenon portrayed in his sculpture.

[…]

Walking men and motionless women became the main characters in his drama of humanity, and his identity as an artist became inextricably linked with these images.  The scale of his figures in La Place, unlike those in his sculptures from the 1950s or 1960s, is said to be a result of his experience transporting his belongings in a matchbox following the war and his fascination with perspective as shaped by cinematic experiences.

Lot 28. CLAUDE MONET, 1840 – 1926, LE PONT JAPONAIS, Stamped with the signature (lower right)
Oil on canvas: 35 1/2 by 45 3/4 in. or 90 by 116.3 cm, Painted 1918-24.
Estimate: $12-18 million. Click on image to enlarge.

The last of the top five lots by estimate is a very late Monet, The Japanese Bridge, which depicts a scene from his lily pond at Giverny.  According to the lot notes:

Monet constructed his Japanese bridge in the summer of 1893 on a newly-acquired plot of land where he was creating a pond irrigated by the Epte river.  Daniel Wildenstein noted that just a few days before purchasing the land, Monet had viewed a collection of prints by Utamaro and Hiroshige at Durand-Ruel’s gallery and this Asian aesthetic was clearly on his mind.   He first painted the bridge in 1895, but it was not until 1899 that he turned to the pond and bridge in a series of eighteen views, twelve examples of which were exhibited at Durand-Ruel in 1900.  Nearly two decades later, Monet returned to this subject again.  Between 1918 and 1924 he completed twenty-five views of the bridge, now radically abstracted amidst layers of paint.

The Sotheby’s sale, like the Christie’s sale, includes a Giacometti Femmes de Venise sculpture, though this one is V in the series, and slightly shorter than the Christie’s work, which is IV in the series, and at $6-8 million, a good deal less expensive than the Christie’s version, estimated at $10-18 million.

Lot 2. Christopher Wool (b. 1955), Untitled, signed and dated ‘WOOL 1990′ (on the reverse)
alkyd and graphite on paper: 32 3/8 x 22 in. (82.2 x 55.8 cm.), Painted in 1990.
Estimate: $1-1.5 million. Click on image to enlarge.

The night before its traditional sale of Post War and Contemporary Art, Christie’s is holding a separate sale of contemporary art from the past 30 years – the niche that Phillips has been mining with varying degrees of success. At 36 lots, the sale – If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday… - is half the size of the one that follows the next evening.  According to a Christie’s press release: “Carefully assembled by International Specialist, Loïc Gouzer, the sale … encapsulates the gritty and underbelly-esq side of Contemporary Art. Tough, controversial, and beautiful, this sale will bring together established names along with a  new generation of artists. Built around a mood and an atmosphere, Loïc Gouzer sought to convey the darker side of what art can be.” The sale’s title comes from the Richard Prince painting below, though I’m not sure, save for a couple of dystopic works, what makes this selection dark.  Splitting this off from the following evening sale prevents the latter from being an exhausting marathon cum hostage crisis.  However, for attendees, it means two successive trips to midtown, which is dark in its own way. In addition to the works illustrated here, artists represented include Joe Bradley, Cady Nolan, John Baldessari, Wade Guyton, Mike Kelley, and many others.

Lot 6. Richard Prince (b. 1949), If I Die, signed, titled and dated ‘”IF I DIE” R Price 1990′ (on the overlap)
acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas: 96 x 75 in. (243.8 x 190.5 cm.), Painted in 1990.
Estiamte: $3.5-4.5 million.

This work carries a third party guarantee, so it will be sold. From the catalogue:

Painted in 1990, If I Die is one of Richard Prince’s celebrated series of monochromatic joke paintings; the deadpan, visual expressions of humor that have been the mainstay of the American artist’s career. Picking out the two lines of the joke in a deep blue, anonymous sans serif font, and setting it within a vast field of flatly painted cardinal red, Prince has created a work that resounds on abstract, conceptual and prosaic levels … Following in the footsteps of Marcel Duchamp, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns, Prince’s use or appropriation of jokes present us with snippets of contemporary subcultures that hint at complex, specific social understandings. With characteristic iconoclasm, Prince has taken the esteemed legacy of some of the most serious schools of painting and subverted it, resulting in a picture that is disarmingly resonant despite the simplicity and understated elegance of its execution.

Lot 6. Detail. Click on image to enlarge.

Lot 7. Jeff Koons (B. 1955), Two Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Spalding Dr. J Silver Series)
glass, steel, sodium chloride reagent, distilled water and two basketballs: 62¾ x 36¾ x 13¼ in. (159.4 x 93.3 x 33.7 cm.)
Executed in 1985. This work is number two from an edition of two.
Estimate: $4-6 million. Click on image to enlarge.

I’m still not sure where I fall on Jeff Koons, but his his examination of total equilibrium via basketballs is brilliant:

Metaphysically conceived and scientifically engineered, this work is part of an important early series created under the heading Equilibrium for Koons’ first solo gallery exhibition in 1985, examples of which now reside in the Tate Modern, London, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Astrup Fearnley Collection, Oslo and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. These pristine tanks, featuring varying combinations of one, two and three basketballs in different-sized containers, were developed in consultation with the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard P. Feynman, who guided Koons in his attempt to achieve perfect equilibrium.

Lot 11. Richard Prince (b. 1949), Nurse of Greenmeadow
signed, titled and dated ‘R Prince “NURSE OF Greenmeadows 2002′ (on the overlap)
inkjet print and acrylic on canvas: 78 x 58¼ in. (198.2 x 147.5 cm.), Painted in 2002.
Estimate: $7-9 million.

It is remarkable how Prince’s Nurse Paintings shot price-wise into the stratosphere, considering when they were first shown they received mixed responses, not all selling at the asking prices of $50,000 to $60,000 – this work carries a third party guarantee, so it will sell:

First debuted to the public in 2003, the Nurse series extends Richard Prince’s signature strategy of appropriation developed in the 1970s as part of the Pictures Generation, challenging notions of authorship, authenticity and the vectors that combine to create identity. In Nurse of Greenmeadow, the artist creates the work through a process of scanning and copying of an original book cover, authored by Jane Gorby. This, however, is not the cover of the book by the same title. Instead Prince complicates the visual associations by using the cover art of another contemporary title, not readily identified-here an innocent nurse is transposed into an eerily confident brutish blonde. Prince uses an inkjet printer to mechanically transpose this image, swiftly stripping the original of its background until it features just the single, isolated woman. Scaled up to heroic, life-size proportions, Prince affixes his new image to the canvas, soon after beginning his process of painterly manipulation. A consummate collector of genre fiction, Prince himself has amassed a large collection of nurse-romance novels over time. These books, published in the 1950s and 1960s as small, portable, softback novels often involved a female heroine embroiled in an impossible love dilemma. In Nurse of Greenmeadow the original cover spells out the steamy plot: “A beautiful nurse finds danger and thrilling romance in a mysterious mansion,” (J. Gorby, Nurse of Greenmeadow, 1965). The titles of Prince’s other works including Man-Crazy Nurse, Park Avenue Nurse, Nympho Nurse and Tender Nurse all suggest similar stories, and reveal additional facets to the entrenched female stereotype. They also describe the extent to which women in a caring and healing capacity have become sexualized and fetishized objects in parts of the popular imaginary.

Lot 12. David Hammons (b. 1942), Untitled, signed and dated ‘Hammons 78′ (on one record fragment)
bamboo, phonograph record fragments, colored string & hair: 29 x 49 x 11 in. (73.6 x 124.4 x 27.9 cm.) Executed in 1978.
Estimate: $3-4 million. Click on image to enlarge.

This work carries a third party guarantee, so it will sell. From the catalogue:

“Old dirty bags, grease, bones, hair…it’s about us, it’s about me. It isn’t negative. We should look at these images and see how positive they are, how strong, how powerful. Our hair is positive, it’s powerful, look what it can do. There’s nothing negative about our images, it all depends on who is seeing it and we’ve been depending on someone else’s sight….We need to look again and decide.” – David Hammons Like a starburst erupting from the traditional position of the easel picture, Untitled, 1978, releases a fusillade of “spear heads” from its central crown, wittily, yet mordantly, surging outward into the space of the viewer with all the energy and force of a threatened adversary. That the “spears” are poised in a liminal space, yet restrained by their support, in no way diminishes the impact of their directional force. Related to a series of works from the 1970s, such as Flight Fantasy, 1978, employing wire and hair, Untitled, 1978, also incorporates vinyl shards and bamboo to address the African American body, identity, and its relation to the Western art canon. Challenging white modernist notions of the separation of art from its social and political contexts, Hammons appropriates artifacts associated both with pop culture and African traditions, manipulating – in the manner of Marcel Duchamp’s readymades and the Italian Arte Povera artists – his materials in an effort to break down the traditional opposition between art and life.

Lot 13. Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997), Untitled
oil on canvas: 79 3/8 x 95¼ in. (201.5 x 242 cm.), Painted in 1988.
Estimate: $9-12 million. Click on image to enlarge.

This work carries a third party guarantee, so it will be sold:

Straddling the line between self-depiction and self-debasement, Martin Kippenberger’s Untitled from 1988 is a paunchy and pugnacious antithesis of the revered genre of self-portraiture. Remembered for his conceptual and expressive transformation of the 1980s and 1990s art scene, Kippenberger waged a one-man attack against the art world’s status quo in an earnest effort to destabilize the post-War German paradigm. At the heart of his prodigious output lies the artist’s own ebullient and exuberant character, most powerfully and famously articulated in his self-portraits. For Kippenberger, the self-portrait was no exercise in hubris; instead it offered an inglorious pathetic tool, launching an assault on the artistic institution.

Lot 15. Jeff Koons (B. 1955), Aqualung
bronze: 27 x 17½ x 17½ in. (68.6 x 44.5 x 44.5 cm.)
Executed in 1985. This work is the artist’s proof aside from an edition of three.
Estimate: $9-12 million. Click on image to enlarge.

This work carries a third party guarantee, so it will sell:

A seminal sculpture from Jeff Koons’ pivotal Equilibrium series, Aqualung is an intricate bronze cast of a scuba device. Created using various molds to ensure perfect execution, the work is a tantalizingly detailed simulacrum in which every crevice, crease and curve proclaims Koons’ trademark pursuit of technical precision. Executed in 1985, the work was exhibited at the artist’s landmark solo gallery debut during the same year, alongside its Equilibrium counterparts. Transcending his earlier practice through an increased focus on immaculate artistic engineering, Koons’ Equilibriumseries has come to be recognized as a critical turning point in his stellar career. In its dramatic visualization of the thin divide between floating and drowning, soaring and plummeting, swimming and sinking, it constitutes one of the artist’s most powerful conceptual projects. Aqualung occupies a central position within this groundbreaking series, and has been widely exhibited in important retrospectives, notably at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples and Liebieghaus Skulpturensammlung, Frankfurt. Exquisitely hyperreal yet disarmingly alien, it is a compelling symbol of life, discovery and exploration.

Lot 26. Thomas Schütte (b. 1954) Untitled (Große Geist Nr. 6)
incised with artist’s name and date ‘SCHÜTTE 1996′ (near the bottom of the right foot)
bronze with green patina: 116 x 53 x 38 in. (294.6 x 134.6 x 96.5 cm.), Executed in 1996.
Estimate: $3.5-4.5 million. Click on image to enlarge.

From the catalogue:

Standing at two and a half meters tall, with its steel body arched towards the sky, Thomas Schütte’s Untitled (Großer Geist No. 6) is a monumental vision of the human form. Strange and alluring in its startling physiognomy, Schütte’s outsized sculptural being is frozen in a powerful yet unknowable stance: poised on the brink of collapse, petrified in fearful surrender or perhaps captured in a moment of ecstatic praise. The work belongs to the renowned series ofGroße Geister (Big Spirits) that occupied Schütte’s output between 1995 and 2004. The sixth of seventeen different characters, each with its own definitive posture, the present sculpture has an aluminium twin held in the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, along with two other works from the series.

Lot 31. Peter Doig (b. 1959), Road House
oil on canvas: 76 x 98 in. (193 x 248.9 cm.), Painted in 1991.
Estimate: $9.5-11.5 million. Click on image to enlarge.

This work carries a third party guarantee, so it will sell:

“Roadhouse is one of a series of canvases in which a bleak mental landscape-abandoned buildings, telegraph wires, lowering skies- is sandwiched between abstract panels which function as surrogate sky and ground. The arrangement was inspired by the words of a 19th Century settler in Canada’s western prairies, quoted in a book on ice-hockey: Man is a grasshopper here, a mere insect making way between the enormous discs of Heaven and Earth.” – Gareth Jones