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Art for Breakfast – European Art (Part 1)

October 31, 2018
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Hammershoi

Being that Christie’s is along my walk to work every day, I decided to spend the first bit of my morning watching the auction action in person… Part 1 of Christie’s European Art sale kicked off at 10 am and featured a curated selection of just 28 works of art (Part 2 kicked off as I started writing this – another 64 lots).

There were a handful of stellar lots featured and expectations were rather lofty… unfortunately, the market did not bite on a few of them and that greatly impacted the results. While the sale started off slowly, things started to heat up about half way through and the room began to feel a bit more lively, but by that point much of the damage was done. With that, let’s get into the numbers…

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Waterhouse

Though it was not expected to be the top lot with an estimate of just $1.5-2M, Vilhelm Hammershoi’s Interior with an Easel, Bredgade 25 pushed passed $4M. Two phone bidders and a gentleman in the room (who happened to be sitting next to me) battled it out for several minutes before the hammer fell at $4.2M ($5.03M with premium – w/p)… the gentleman in the room was the top bidder. The work was accompanied by provenance dating back to the artist himself, when it first sold in 1912… it was easy to keep track of as it remained in the same family since then. Given the freshness of the work, it is no surprise it achieved such a strong price. Just a few lots later, Waterhouse’s Thisbe sparked another bidding war which pushed the price high enough to take second in the sale – ultimately, the work hammered at $3.1M ($3.7M w/p – est. $1.8-2.5M), followed by applause from the (albeit, small) crowd in the room. Similarly to the Hammershoi, this lot had provenance dating back to the year it was painted, however this one changed hands quite a few times since 1909. It last publicly appeared on the market in 1985 at Sotheby’s London where it garnered $107K.

Rounding out the top three was a rather large work by Tissot, standing just over 7 feet tall. Keeping with the trend, the lot was accompanied by provenance dating back to the artist and last publicly appeared in 1986 at Christie’s in Monaco – at that time, the work sold for $142K. This time around, the work found a buyer at $2M ($2.4M w/p)… the bottom end of its $2-3M estimate. These three lots alone accounted for roughly 56% of the sale’s total!

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Tissot

There were no other “headline worthy” prices achieved in the bunch. Nine of the lots sold below the estimate and another 10 went unsold… on top of that, bidding started off at a very sluggish pace. Five of the first ten lots failed to sell with a few of them failing to garner a single bid – including Marine, Trouville, the first of three Courbet’s (est. $1.2-1.8M)… this one was just acquired in 2016, so not very fresh. Further, the star lot and catalog cover, Courbet’s Femme endormie aux cheveux roux, (which was fresh to the market and carried a $3.5-4.5M estimate) was also included in the unsold lots, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the overall results were less than pleasing.  Shortly after (5 lots later), the final Courbet featured in the sale, Chasseur dans la neige, was withdrawn – this one carried a $1.5-2.5M estimate. The reason I find this to be notable is that prior to the sale, the auctioneer announced that none of the lots were withdrawn.  I have to assume the seller was watching closely, and used the first two Courbet’s to gauge the market and then determine how to proceed.  Lackluster bidding coupled with the earlier BIs were enough of a reason to pull the work last minute.

By the end of the brief sale, Christie’s had found buyers for 18 of the 28 works offered for a total of $16.3M ($19.8M w/p) – the sale was expected to make $23.3-33.7M before the premiums are factored in, so they fell way (way, way) short of the target.

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