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)
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.
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.
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.