Sotheby’s kicked off the November marquee public sale season yesterday (18 November) with a double header. The night started with the white glove, single-owner assortment sale of the late magnificence product mogul and philanthropist Sydell Miller, billed as “A Legacy of Magnificence”, earlier than shifting onto its Fashionable sale, which yielded extra tepid outcomes.
The 49 tons bought throughout each gross sales introduced in a complete of $268.6m ($309m with charges). Sotheby’s press workplace states that is an “over 30%” enhance from final yr’s outcomes, however this calculation seems to solely keep in mind the Fashionable night sale it held in November 2023, which netted $190m ($223.6m with charges) from 33 tons. Factoring in Sotheby’s November 2023 night sale from the Emily Fisher Landau assortment, which made $351.6m ($406.4m with charges), tonight’s whole represents a 42.9% drop from the $541.9m (with charges) the home remodeled these two 2023 gross sales.
The Sydell Miller sale realised $189.5m ($215.9m with charges) from 25 tons, falling halfway between the pre-sale estimate of $170m to $205m (all estimates are calculated with out charges). Seven tons have been backed by third-party ensures.
The sale received off to a flying begin due to Edgar Degas’s swish bronze dancer, Nice arabesque, third beat from a 1919 forged, that made $1.3m ($1.6m with charges) towards an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000.
Francois-Xavier Lalanne’s Troupeau d’Éléphants dans les Arbres desk from 2001
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
There was nice passion for a number of the sale’s richly ornamental choices, together with Francois-Xavier Lalanne’s extraordinary Troupeau d’Éléphants dans les Arbres desk from 2001. This cluster of sculpted elephants, forged in gold, patinated bronze and glass, was acquired straight from the artist by way of the tremendous decorator-architect Peter Marino and as soon as graced Miller’s ocean entrance Palm Seaside mansion La Rèverie. It fetched $10m ($11.6m with charges), towards an estimate of $4m to $6m.
Yves Klein’s iconic Untitled Blue Sponge Reduction (RE 28) (1961), comprised of dry pigment within the artist’s patented Yves Klein Blue (YKB) hue and artificial resin, pure sponges and pebbles on panel, floated to $13.4m ($14.2m with charges) towards an $8m to $12m estimate. The New York personal seller Andrew Fabricant was the profitable bidder; the Klein got here to market backed by an irrevocable bid.
5 bidders chased Henri Matisse’s hanging Jeune fille en gown rose (1942) to $8.3m ($9.7 with charges). Reaching greater nonetheless was Pablo Picasso’s neoclassical interval La Statuaire (1925), that includes a girl sculptor seated in entrance of her white male bust creation, which realised $22m ($24.8m with charges) towards an unpublished estimate within the area of $30m. The adviser Patti Wong was the underbidder. Miller acquired it for $11.8m (with charges) at Sotheby’s in November 1999, the place it was the featured cowl lot from the Eleanore and Daniel Saidenberg single proprietor sale.
One other Picasso, Tête de femme (Francoise), a bronze discovered object from 1951 and forged in an version of two, celebrating his relationship along with his younger muse Francois Gilot, introduced a tame $5.75m ($6.9m with charges) towards an estimate of $7m to $10m. In sharp distinction to the figurative strains of the Picassos, Wassily Kandinsky’s dynamic abstraction Weisses Oval (White Oval, 1921), which was acquired by Miller in 2000 from Landau High-quality Artwork in Montreal, made $19.1m ($21.6m with charges). It got here backed by an irrevocable bid.
Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1914-17)
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
The celebrated topper of the night was Claude Monet’s lushly hued and swirling portray from his famed late Giverny sequence Nymphéas (1914-17). Grandly scaled at 175cm by 136cm, it hammered at $59m, to make $65.5m with charges, going to an Asian bidder by way of Sotheby’s Asia deputy chair Jen Hua. The lot’s unpublished estimate was within the area of $60m. Monet’s signature was stamped, which meant it by no means left his studio in his lifetime, and in some connoisseur quarters that will have lessened its attraction. Fortunately for Sotheby’s—and Miller’s heirs—the rarity of the article trumped that conceit.
“This was only a kicker,” stated David Norman, the previous Sotheby’s specialist who introduced the Miller bounty to Sotheby’s. “It was her story and the best way Sotheby’s put it collectively that stamped an imprimatur on the sale.”
After a short intermission and alter of auctioneers on the agency’s York Avenue salesroom, the Fashionable night sale of 33 tons jogged to the end line at a slower tempo and delivered a extra laboured outcome $79.1m ($92.9 with charges). The tally registered shy of the pre-sale expectations, pegged at $92.3m to $135m, after two tons have been withdrawn on the eleventh hour. Seven of the 31 tons provided did not promote, leading to a strained buy-in charge by lot of 25.6%.
Twelve tons got here to market backed by home ensures and an additional 12 had third-party ensures, in accordance with Sotheby’s. One report was made on this sale, for a Tiffany Studios glass work.
A trio of girls Surrealist artists sparked a number of the early motion with Remedios Varo’s fantasy determine of a bicycle bodied girl, Los caminos tortuosos (1958) in gouache, brush and ink and charcoal on card that introduced $1.7m ($2m with charges). And Leonora Carrington’s statuesque La Grande Dame (The Cat Girl, 1951) in oil on wooden, standing at 200cm excessive, bought to the Argentine collector Eduardo Costantini, and founding father of the Museum of Latin American Artwork of Buenos Aires, for $9.8m ($11.3m with charges) towards an estimate of $5m to $7m. It made the public sale report for a sculpture by Carrington. Lastly, Leonore Fini’s pantheon of goddesses, Les Stylites (The Stylists, 1976) rose to $600,000 ($720,000 with charges).
The femme fatale theme continued with Picasso’s vibrant and charged Buste de femme (1949), depicting the noble visage of Gilot, which bought for $8.5m ($9.9m with charges), towards an estimate of $9m to $12m. The esteemed and late Chicago collector Morton G. Neumann, who was Picasso’s favourite American purchaser, acquired the portray in 1951 and the Neumann household are the consignors.
Franz Marc, Das Lange Gelbe Pferd (1913)
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
A serious disappointment final evening was Franz Marc’s uncommon to public sale Das Lange Gelbe Pferd (The Lengthy Yellow Horse, 1913), standing tall towards a symbolic, rainbow-saturated sky and at one time housed within the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York. It was purchased in from a chandelier bid of $3.6m towards an estimate of $8m to $12m. Fortunately for the home, the work was not assured.
The same and dearer destiny awaited Henri Matisse’s assured nude odalisque, Torse de jeune fille (1921-22) that did not promote at $11.5m towards a $12m to $18m estimate.
Alberto Giacometti’s recognisable Buste (Tête tranchante) (Diego), a bronze from a 1954 forged that includes the acquainted head of his brother Diego made $11.5m ($13.2m with charges), inside its $10 to 15m estimate and was bought by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Basis, of the eponymous diplomat and aviator founder.
Of the comparatively scarce entries of Impressionist and Put up-Impressionist works, the shimmering and mosaic-like portray by Paul Signac, Antibes, La Pointe de Bacon (1917) went for $8.5m ($9.9m with charges), above its $6m to 8m estimate.
As an outlier to the European dominated entries, The Danner Memorial Window from Tiffany Studios, grandly scaled in leaded Favrile glass at 4.8m and dated to 1913, introduced a report $10.8m ($12.4m with charges). It final bought at Christie’s New York in 2000 for $1.9m. Late within the sale, a second Surrealist work by Carrington, Temple of the Phrase (1954) bought to a bidder on the entrance of the gross sales room for $3.8m ($4.5m with charges). “I reside in Switzerland,” stated the customer of that Carrington, “and I really like my privateness”.
The night motion resumes tonight at Christie’s with the hotly anticipated single-owner assortment of Mica Ertegun.
