Sotheby's

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Spring Art Auctions Surrounded by Crash Talk
Spring Art Auctions Surrounded by Crash Talk
analysis
Apr 29, 2008 10:25 AM CDT

Spring Art Auctions Surrounded by Crash Talk

Writers keep predicting implosion, but it might never come

(Newser) - It's auction season again in the art world, and Sotheby's and Christie's have put record estimates on dozens of paintings. Despite warnings in the media of an imminent crash, prices of fine art seem to be impervious to the global economic downturn. It's enough to make one writer at Slate ...

Lincoln Letter Sells for $3.4M

Letter contains Lincoln's reply to kids' plea to free slave children

(Newser) - An 1864 letter from Abraham Lincoln to Massachusetts schoolchildren fetched a record $3.4 million at auction yesterday, a record for an American manuscript, CNN reports. In the letter, Lincoln responded to a petition from 195 youngsters asking him to "free all the little slave children of this country"...

Sonic Youth's Album Art for Sale
Sonic Youth's Album Art for Sale
Feb 21, 2008 11:25 AM CST

Sonic Youth's Album Art for Sale

Painting that graced classic Daydream Nation cover goes up for auction

(Newser) - Music fans for whom Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation is an all-time classic will get a chance next week to bid on the painting that served as album-cover art, the Independent reports. Kerze (Candle), a 1983 work by German Gerhard Richter, is one in a series of still lifes based on...

Russians Smash Records at Sotheby's Sale

Recession-defying London art auction brings in $230M

(Newser) - Sotheby's held its most successful sale ever of modern and impressionist art in London last night, with Russian collectors leading a buying frenzy on a day stock markets tumbled. The auction house sold 67 lots worth $230 million—topping high estimate, Bloomberg reports. "There was a lot of buying...

Contemporary Art Scores for Auction Houses

Sales swelled 36% in 2007; some fear houses too invested in the new

(Newser) - Contemporary art has been very good to Sotheby’s, fueling a 46% boost in sales for the world’s second-largest auctioneer this year over last, Bloomberg says. A crop of new collectors from the US, Russia and Asia brought new records for artists like Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons, for...

Art Market Sails Over Turmoil
Art Market Sails Over Turmoil
Dec 26, 2007 6:01 AM CST

Art Market Sails Over Turmoil

Weak dollar, overseas buyers help keep prices high

(Newser) - US financial markets were in chaos this year, but the art market certainly wasn't. The expanding ranks of the super-rich, the weak dollar, and emerging connoisseurs from Russia, China, India, and the Middle East kept auction houses in fine form, the AP reports, with postwar and contemporary works—including a...

Magna Carta Sells for $21.3M
Magna Carta Sells for $21.3M
Dec 19, 2007 9:00 AM CST

Magna Carta Sells for $21.3M

Purchaser says he'll lend it to National Archives

(Newser) - A 1297 copy of the Magna Carta, the founding document of constitutional law, sold at auction for $21.3 million last night. Ross Perot's foundation put the document up for sale at Sotheby's in New York, where it was bought by David Rubenstein, a private equity magnate who served in...

JK Rowling Book Sells for $4M
JK Rowling Book Sells for $4M
Dec 13, 2007 12:15 PM CST

JK Rowling Book Sells for $4M

Only 7 copies of the Tales of Beedle the Bard exist

(Newser) - Sotheby’s figured The Tales of Beedle the Bard would fetch about $100,000 at auction—in retrospect, about 40 times too low. The book, a one-of-a-kind piece of the Harry Potter canon hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling herself, fetched $3.98 million for charity today, Reuters reports. “...

Anonymous Painting Is by Caravaggio
Anonymous Painting Is by Caravaggio
Dec 12, 2007 12:37 PM CST

Anonymous Painting Is by Caravaggio

'Copy' of Card Sharps turns out to be earlier version worth $100M

(Newser) - A British art historian who bought a misattributed painting at auction last year has demonstrated it is the work of Caravaggio. The Telegraph reports that Sotheby's sold what it thought was a copy of The Card Sharps, one of Caravaggio's most famous works that currently hangs at the Kimbell Museum...

Lion Sculpture Fetches Record Price at Auction

3¼-inch Guennol Lioness goes for $57M, nearly double last mark

(Newser) - A limestone sculpture of a lioness standing at only 3¼ inches sold at auction in New York yesterday for $57 million, smashing the record price for a sculpture, the BBC reports. The Guennol Lioness, believed to have been carved 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Iran), topped...

Mama Mia! 400-Year-Old Table Found in Pizzeria

Expected to fetch $2M at upcoming auction

(Newser) - A 17th-century cabinet expected to fetch up to $2 million at auction has an unlikely provenance: its long-missing bottom half was discovered outside the bathrooms at a pizza parlor. The Telegraph reports that the cabinet, which depicts St. Peter's Square and other images of Rome, was missing the carved wooden...

Trashed Painting Fetches $1M
Trashed Painting Fetches $1M
Nov 21, 2007 8:00 AM CST

Trashed Painting Fetches $1M

Canvas found in garbage sells for seven figures at Sotheby's

(Newser) - A painting by the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo rescued from the trash sold at Sotheby's last night for over $1 million, the BBC reports. A New York woman spotted the 1970 work in a pile of garbage awaiting pick-up on the curb in her upper West Side neighborhood. She took...

The Man Behind the Smile
The Man Behind the Smile
Nov 14, 2007 5:38 PM CST

The Man Behind the Smile

Chinese artist takes New York with his signature troubling grin

(Newser) - It's contemporary Chinese art's most indelible image—the smile so huge it becomes false, accusatory—and it belongs to Yue Minjun, the artist who uses the grinning self-portraits, often many of them, in his paintings. The New York Times chats with Yue, who is enjoying his first US show in...

Art Market Defies Crash Fears With Record Sale

Christie's contemporary evening shatters 16 records

(Newser) - So much for a correction: at last night's sale of modern and contemporary art at Christie's in New York, 16 artists achieved record prices and 61 out of 66 lots sold. Dealers were in shock as collectors continued to snatch up works at astronomical prices. Even a lesser work such...

Matisse Pulls Impressive $33.6M
Matisse Pulls Impressive $33.6M
Nov 7, 2007 7:20 AM CST

Matisse Pulls Impressive $33.6M

Art world breathes easier after first night of stellar sales

(Newser) - A nervous New York art world breathed a sigh of relief on the first night of the fall auctions yesterday when a Matisse painting fetched a whopping $33.6 million, far above its high estimate. Collectors and dealers are watching November's sales at Sotheby's and Christie's with anxiety, reports the...

New JK Rowling Book Headed to Auction Block

Handwritten volume one of just seven from Harry Potter author

(Newser) - JK Rowling is about to redefine the meaning of "limited edition," publishing only 7 handwritten and hand-illustrated copies of her new book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the Daily Telegraph reports. Six copies of the fairy tale collection by the Harry Potter author will go to friends;...

Chinese Art Booms at London Sales
Chinese Art Booms at London Sales
Oct 16, 2007 9:40 AM CDT

Chinese Art Booms at London Sales

But prices for Western art shaky as buyers get credit-crisis jitters

(Newser) - Could turmoil in the financial world trigger an art market crash? That was the question on everyone's mind in London over the weekend during the Frieze Art Fair and the first major sales at Christie's and Sotheby's since the credit crisis. Though the fairs and auctions had all the energy...

$7.9M Sale Smashes Record
$7.9M Sale Smashes Record
Oct 8, 2007 7:53 PM CDT

$7.9M Sale Smashes Record

Rare blue diamond commands $7.98M at auction

(Newser) - A flawless gem has sold for $7.98 million in Hong Kong and broken the old per-carat sale record, Sotheby's announced today. London's Moussaieff Jewellers snapped up the 6.04 carat diamond at $1.32 million per carat, breaking the last record of $926,000 per carat, set in 1987...

Magna Carta Up for Sale
Magna Carta Up for Sale
Sep 25, 2007 4:34 PM CDT

Magna Carta Up for Sale

Document expected to command at least $20M

(Newser) - A 1297 copy of the Magna Carta owned by Ross Perot will go on the auction block in December, Sotheby's announced today. The document, one of 17 left in existence, is expected to sell for 20 million to $30 million, the Times reports. It had been on display at the...

Bonds' #756 Ball Fetches $752K
Bonds' #756 Ball Fetches $752K
Sep 16, 2007 12:25 PM CDT

Bonds' #756 Ball Fetches $752K

Despite steroid scandal, record-breaking ball sells for more than $750,000

(Newser) - Barry Bonds beat expectations again, as his record-breaking ball sold for well above industry estimates. Bonds’ 756th homerun ball netted $752,467, while the ball that helped him tie Hank Aaron’s career record sold for $186,750. Some naysayers thought Bonds’ steroid scandal and sharp personality would dampen demand,...

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