FRANCIS BACON Triptych, 1976 oil and pastel on canvas, 78 x 58.1 inches sold for US$86.2 million
Quality, Market Freshness and Visual Power Carry the Day at the New York Sales
Despite the global economy's problems, the May sales in New York
produced strong results with collectors and dealers spending more
than $1.2 billion in four evening sales at Sotheby's and Christie's.
The works that performed best were strong iconic images new to the
market with post Second World War works and modern sculpture leading
the way. Here we examine why some lots left their estimates far
behind while others failed to sell in a complex market where auction
successes and failures are very public and the latter can affect the
future sale prospects of a work of art.
Francis Bacon, Triptych, 1976, at Sotheby's Contemporary
Sale. The record $86.2 million paid, reportedly by the Russian
billionaire Roman Abramovich, made it the most expensive post war
artwork ever auctioned. Three telephone bidders chased the painting
sold by the Moueix family, producers of Château Pétrus wines. The
picture had everything going for it. Regarded as one of Bacon's most
important works and one of the few large triptychs remaining in
private hands, it was fresh to the market having been bought by the
vendors from the Marlborough Gallery in 1977. Next year is the
centenary of Bacon's birth, which will be marked by a major
retrospective at Tate Britain in London, and this may be
contributing to soaring prices for his best works. The night before
Triptych, 1976, broke the record at Sotheby's another Bacon,
Three Studies for Self-Portrait, fetched $28 million at
Christie's.
In June 1999 it sold for $2.9 million at Christie's and in November
2005 the Seattle-based collectors Richard and Elizabeth Hedreen
acquired it for $5.1 million at Sotheby's. In just two and a half
years they got an impressive return on their investment. With
Abramovich also believed to be the buyer of Lucian Freud's Benefits
Supervisor Sleeping for $33.6 million at Christie's prices for
late 20th century British art are moving into uncharted waters.
Alberto Giacometti, Grand Femme Debout II. The Gagosian
Gallery paid a record $27.4 million for this bronze which had been
expected to fetch $18 million at Christie's Impressionist and Modern
Art Sale. Seven people competed for the 9ft high figure which, like
the Bacon, ticked all the boxes for the present art market. Modern
sculpture is popular with buyers and Christie's produced a separate
catalogue for three Giacomettis, a Rodin and a Moore, all of which
sold above their auction estimates. Grand Femme Debout II had
not been on the market for 15 years and is one of a series of four
tall standing women executed by Giacometti in 1960 which are the
largest sculptures he ever made. This one is the biggest, has
instant impact and is wonderfully expressive. No wonder it fetched
half as much again as the previous record for a Giacometti.
Mark Rothko, No 15 and Orange Red Yellow. These two
paintings enjoyed very different fortunes in the New York salerooms
but both showed how a previous big price can alter the market's
expectations. In May 2007 Rothko's White Center (Yellow, Pink
and Lavender on Rose), which had been consigned by David
Rockefeller, fetched a record $72.8 million at Sotheby's in New
York. This time both Sotheby's and Christie's had Rothkos with high
estimates doubtless encouraged by the Rockefeller picture. No
15 proved a good investment for the San Francisco collector Roger
Evans who had bought it at Sotheby's in 1999 for the then record
price of $11 million. He consigned several works to Christie's
Post War and Contemporary sale on May 13 but No 15 made the top price of
the night, $50.4 million. But, with potential buyers made cautious
by the forbidding unpublished estimate of $40 million to $50
million, only two telephone bidders competed for the painting. This
is a powerful and monumental Rothko with strong colours and 1952,
when it was painted, was his most creative year and a groundbreaking
period for the Abstract Expressionists, but Christie's were
fortunate to get such a high price for it. At Sotheby's contemporary
sale the following evening the lesser Orange Red Yellow
revealed the limitations of this market. The 1956 Rothko was
consigned by Heinz Eppler, a philanthropist and collector from New
York, with an estimate of $35 million but failed to sell. Both
paintings should have been priced at around $20 million to $30
million and although a buyer was found for the better picture there
are limits to what the market will absorb.
Claude Monet, Le Pont de chemin de fer à Argenteuil. This
high Impressionist painting with a wonderful springtime feel to it,
was one of the few such pictures left in private hands and fetched a
record $41.4 million from a telephone bidder at Christie's
Impressionist and Modern Art sale. The telephone bidder only just
edged the Monet past the hefty guarantee. This picture made $12.6
million at Christie's in 1988.
Fernand Leger, Etude Pour La Femme en Bleu and La Partie de Campagne.
As with the Rothkos the market gave very
different verdicts on two paintings by Leger, this time both of them
in the Impressionist and Modern Art sale at Sotheby's. Etude
Pour La Femme en Bleu, dating from 1912-13, is a classic Cubist
image and a milestone on the path to abstraction. Sotheby's, which
placed a $35- 45 million estimate on the picture, guaranteed the
painting for a rumoured $38 million. Because of this, although it
fetched a record $39.2 million from the Zurich dealer Doris Amman,
who was speaking to a client on a mobile phone, it may not have been
a big money- maker for the auction house. It had the advantage of
being new to the market, the vendors being the heirs of Hermann
Lange, a German silk manufacturer who had bought it in 1928. But the
demand for Leger is narrow and the air very thin at this price level
and only two people competed for the work. La Partie de
Campagne is a late Leger completed only two years before his death
in 1955 and is far less art historically important than Etude
Pour La Femme en Bleu. Impossibly burdened by a $12 million to $18
million estimate, it did not attract a single bid.
Henri Matisse, Le Géranium.
While auction houses can sometimes be accused of over-ambitious
estimates, this was certainly not the case with this rare 1910 still
life in Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art sale. The modest
prediction of $2.5 million to $3.5 million was left far behind by a
contest between six bidders that was eventually won by New York's
Acquavella Gallery, which paid $9.5 million for the picture. Owned
since 1971 by the late Catherine Gamble Curran, this lush, richly
coloured painting dates from one of the most inventive periods in
Matisse's long working life. Fresh to the market, visually stunning,
historically significant and with a low estimate of course people
wanted it.
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UK and US Tax and Law News - Points of Interest
Fractional Gifts of Artworks in the US
The Tax Technical Corrections Act 2007 (TTCA) corrects some of the
tax anomalies created by the Pensions Protection Act 2006 (PPA) when
US taxpayers make fractional gifts of artworks to US institutions.
The PPA had the effect of making a donor liable to gift or estate
tax on a secondary fractional gift where the value of the artwork
had increased after the first gift. Under the TTCA a donor will not
be liable for US gift or estate tax on a fractional gift although
the income tax deductions that were previously applicable under the
PPA still apply.
Under the PPA, a US donor may continue to deduct up to a maximum of
30% of his annual gross income by making fractional gifts of
artworks and he may retain the artwork for the same fraction of any
year as the retained fraction of ownership. However the donor will
have to give the artwork to the Institution within 10 years of the
first gift or on his death, whichever is earlier. An artwork will be
valued as at the first fractional gift and no account is taken of
any increase in value on any future fractional gift, although a
decrease in value will be.
UK Export Licensing of Cultural Goods
It was generally accepted that the UK Export Licensing regime had
not worked well for UK institutions in relation to Sir Joshua
Reynolds' Portrait of Omai, which is now on loan to the National
Gallery of Ireland in Dublin even though a matching offer was
produced to secure the painting when it was offered for sale and
export.
Following the Omai saga, the Quinquennial Review of the Reviewing
Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural
Interest produced recommendations that UK institutions should have a
binding right to purchase in certain circumstances and this was
endorsed by the Goodison Report with the proviso that the exact
nature of the commitment required of a vendor should be made totally
clear. Failure to comply with a binding offer to sell to a UK
Institution would then lead to the application for a licence being
refused and an 'indefinite stop' being imposed.
These reforms were considered at a ministerial level and in October
2007 it was decided not to implement them and that, therefore, the
existing regime will continue as usual.
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