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Bonhams London – Foujita Dominates

October 15, 2018
image-foujita

Foujita

We often talk about an auction’s ability to either meet or beat its estimate.  Most times, salerooms struggle to hit the mark … often requiring the addition of the buyer’s premium to settle in range.  Then, there are those rare occasions when a sale leaves its pre-sale estimate in the dust.  Earlier this year, we experienced such a result with the Rockefeller sale in New York… and now there was a small sale in London that also crushed its pre-sale estimate!  Before you get too excited, this will be a classic example of what I have always called the ‘what a difference one painting can make’ effect. (unless otherwise noted, all prices shown are the hammer price)

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Rouault

On October 11, Bonhams presented an Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London.  On the surface, it was a nice looking sale with a number of attractive low to mid-level works of art; however, hidden among them was one which would steal the show. Lot 18 was a large painting by the Japanese/French artist Léonard Tsuguharu Foujita titled La fête d’anniversaire, which was painted in 1949, sold in 1950, and has remained in the same family’s possession since – that is what we call fresh!  Now, I am no expert on this artist… however, I have followed his market over the years and to me, the estimate (£900-1.3M / $1.2-$1.7M) seemed a bit low given that the highest price (until now) was just over $6M for a painting that sold back in 1990. More recently, his Nu au chat sold for $5.1M in 2016 (this same work sold in 2014 for $1.96M). By the time the bidding was over, La fête d’anniversaire achieved a new record for the artist – selling for £6.1M hammer ($8.06M – £7.1/$9.4M with commission). As I am sure you can guess, that one painting put them over the top … way over the top!  Now we can get back to reality.

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Miro

Coming in second was Georges Rouault’s Clown de profil at £350K/$462K (est. £350-550K) – this same painting last sold in 2014 and hammered at $468K … so the seller took a loss (that one lacked freshness).  Joan Miro’s Femme, étoile took third at £210K/$277K (est. £180K/220K) – this one sold for $346K in 2014 and generated a loss for the owner … freshness baby, freshness.  Rounding out the top five were two Chagall’s: Les amoureux à l’âne bleu at £185K/$224K (est. £80K/120K) – this one sold back in 1983 for $36,200 (fresh), and Scène de cirque at £180K/$238K (est. £180K/$220K) – another one from 2014 and sold back then for $197K (again, not very fresh, but a slight improvement).  For many years I have stressed the need for works to be fresh in order to perform well … these five works really drive home that point.

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Renoir

There were a few pricier works that failed to find buyers: Miro (est. £25-35K), Picabia (est. £350-550K), Vlaminck (est. £70-90K), and Cezanne (est. £100-150K). In addition, two works were withdrawn – a Toyen (est. £1.5-2.5K) and Renoir (est. £30-50K).  I often make fun of paintings that sell just for the signature (you know, those subpar paintings by famous artists people buy just so they can tell their friends they have a so-and-so), so I was pleased to see that the ‘subpar’ Renoir was pulled … wonder if the reason was that it had no signature?

When the action ended, of the 65 works offered, 57 sold (87.7% sell-through rate, which was pretty good) and the total take was £8.87M/ $11.7M hammer – the low end of their pre-sale estimate range was £3.71M, so they crushed it.  But, do keep in mind that this happened because of a one-hit-wonder — the Foujita accounted for 69% of the sale’s total.

Digging a little deeper, we see that 9 works sold below, 28 within, and 20 above their estimate range giving them an accuracy rate of 43% (among the best we have seen) and I am sure they were happy that 31% of the works sold above their ranges.  The top 5 works accounted for 79.2% and the top 10 took 87.2% of the sale’s total.

 

 

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