It was Sotheby’s turn to shine in June. While Christie’s seems to take all the plaudits for Modern and contemporary art in New York, London’s Impressionist and Modern auctions have historically been dominated by its rival—and June’s evening sales season was no exception.
Christie’s made a total of £71.5m (£58.7m-£85.2m) on 23 June, while Sotheby’s equivalent sale made £178.6m (est £140.3m-£203.1m). Both offered 50 lots.
Sotheby’s simply had the better works. Seven sold for more than £10m on 24 June, including its highest priced lot (and the highest of the week): Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Gertrud Loew–Gertha Felsovanyi (1902). This sold for £24.8m (est £12m-£18m). The work, commissioned by the 19-year-old sitter’s father in Vienna, was left in Austria after Gertha fled the Nazis in 1939 and emigrated to the US. The work’s “history and poignancy” added to its value, says Helena Newman, Sotheby’s chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, Europe.
The lure of a backstory
The Klimt was one of three significant restituted paintings sold at Sotheby’s on 24 June. One other—Max Liebermann’s Two Riders on the Beach to the Left (1901)—was the first work to be sold out of the hoard of Cornelius Gurlitt, whose father was a Nazi-era art dealer. While a decent work by Liebermann with a market-pleasing subject matter, it was its interesting backstory that helped it sell far ahead of its £350,000 to £550,000 estimate, for £1.9m.
Chris Marinello, the founder of Art Recovery International who represented the painting’s rightful owners, says that, during the Sotheby’s preview, he overheard a visitor describe the Liebermann as “the Gurlitt picture”. He interjected with “No, this is the David Friedmann picture,” referring to the original owner of the work, who had bought it in 1901 but had it confiscated by the Nazis during the Second World War. Friedmann died of natural causes in 1942, though much of his family was killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. “The sensationalism over Gurlitt is wrong,” Marinello says. “This was a good result for something that was taken away from a family before they were murdered.”
From museums to market
The pace at which paintings move from museum exhibitions to market shows no sign of abating. On 24 June, Sotheby’s sold Kazimir Malevich’s Suprematism, 18th Construction (1915), which had been in the Tate Modern retrospective until October 2014, for £21.4m, and Edouard Manet’s Le Bar aux Folies-Bergère (1881) for £16.9m; the latter was included in the National Gallery’s Inventing Impressionism exhibition until 31 May, less than a month before the auction (the painting had not been committed to the Philadelphia Museum of Art leg of the exhibition, which runs until 13 September).
Despite the eight-figure sums, neither generated as much enthusiasm as had been expected as the price of securing such works may have had an impact on their performance. Both carried irrevocable bids, meaning that, before the auction, a third party had already committed to buy each of them, at an unspecified price. “The market doesn’t like guarantees,” says the London and New York dealer Daniella Luxembourg.
Modern British gets the international treatment
“I love Modern British art,” said Jussi Pylkkänen, the global president of Christie’s, in June. And so, for the second year in a row, Christie’s added a dedicated evening auction to its Impressionist and Modern sales schedule. This time around, the auction coincided with London’s Modern British fever: the Barbara Hepworth exhibition opened at Tate Britain in the same week.
The auction was the week’s only evening sale to beat its estimates with a total of £19m (est £11.7m-£17.4m), though starting from a lower base helps. Record prices were made for four Modern British artists: Peter Blake, Mark Gertler, Claude Barry and Eric Gill, whose St Joan of Arc sculpture (1932) sold for £2.2m (est £300,000-£500,000), soundly beating his previous auction record of £278,500 set in 2013.
Hepworth had a varied auction performance during the week. Her late New Penwith (1974) marble pair went unsold at Sotheby’s on 24 June, where its £600,000 to £800,000 estimate was set too high. But she was the star of Christie’s auction the following evening where her Two Forms with White (Greek) (cast in 1969) sold for £3.1m (est £1.3m-£1.8m), the highest price of the evening.
Beyond the headlines: other stand-out works from the auction season René Magritte, Le Baiser (around 1957)
Sold for £2m (est £1.2m-£1.8m)
Christie’s, 23 June
It was refreshing to see small but perfectly formed works make their mark this season—at least in the Impressionist and Modern week. Christie’s fielded four tiny Magritte gouaches at its evening sale, including this one, which sold for above its estimate. As witnessed in February’s auction season, Chinese buyers are attracted to Surrealism, adding to the demand. “The fundamental points of Surrealism—which goes straight to the mind, with no religious or anecdotal attachments—appeal to everybody,” says Olivier Camu, the deputy chairman of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern department. This work is a commercial favourite and shows the steady growth of the Surrealism market. It has now sold three times through Christie’s, London: for £590,400 in 2005; for £1.2m in 2010; and for £2m in June. According to the Baer Faxt trade newsletter, David Benrimon, a New York dealer, was the buyer this time around.
Henry Moore, Two Women and Child (1948)
Sold for £2.2m (est £300,000-£400,000)
Sotheby’s, 24 June
Sotheby’s evening auction came alive when this Henry Moore gouache came up for sale. Dealers and specialists from across genres (notably those more associated with contemporary works) added to the interest to propel the sale price to £2.2m. As with the Magrittes on sale this week, the reaction to this work shows that the market’s general view of works on paper as a lesser medium is not always the case, particularly when they are in such good condition—and this sale marked an auction record for a work by Moore on paper. Never at auction before, in intense colours and with a market-pleasing subject matter, “this work ticked every box,” says Simon Stock, a senior specialist in Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern art department. Dealers agreed: “Super commercial and with a low estimate,” was Nick Maclean’s verdict after the sale.
Erika Giovanna Klien, Lokomotive (1926)
Sold for £545,000 (est £500,000-£700,000)
Sotheby’s, 24 June
Erika Giovanna Klien is a rarity at auction—only 53 of her works have ever sold on the public market, according to the Artnet database. Born in Italy before moving to Austria, Klien studied art under the pioneering Franz Cizek in the early 1920s. This work is a prime example of the lesser-known Viennese Kineticism movement that Cizek founded and was a highlight of the acclaimed exhibition Dynamics! Cubism/Futurism/Kineticism at Vienna’s Belvedere museum in 2011, where it showed alongside works by artists including Fernand Léger and Robert Delaunay. According to Bernhard Brandstaetter, a Sotheby’s specialist, Russian collectors show an affinity to Klien’s Kineticism, which in part revives the Constructivist art that developed in their country. In the end, however, the work sold to just one bid—though now a new price precedent has been set (her previous record was €160,000).
Evening auction results, London, 23-25 June Christie’s, Impressionist and Modern art, 23 June
Sale total: £71.5m (est £58.7m-£85.2m)
Lots offered: 50
Sold by lot: 84%
Sotheby’s, Impressionist and Modern art, 24 June
Sale total: £178.6m (est £140.3m-£203.1m)
Lots offered: 50
Sold by lot: 84%
Christie’s, Modern British and Irish art, 25 June
Sale total: £19m (est £11.7m-£17.4m)
Lots offered: 40
Sold by lot: 80%
Please note: Results include buyers’ premium; estimates do not. In London, Sotheby’s buyers’ premium rates are 25% on the first £100,000 ($200,000 in New York); 20% between £100,000 and £1.8m ($200,000 and $3m) and 12% above this. Christie’s rates are 25% on the first £50,000 ($100,000); 20% between £50,000 and £1m ($100,000 and $2m) and 12% above this.