Grande tête mince by Alberto Giacometti
This past week, the New York auction houses hosted their May Marquee sales. Normally, this is the time of year when the major auction houses can flex and show off their most impressive consignments. However, that did not happen at Sotheby’s during their Modern Evening sale on Tuesday night. It was, yet again, another example of how a single lot can make or break an auction. In this case, that lot was the painted bronze bust Grande tête mince by the Italian sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
The work is a bust of the artist’s brother Diego and was used by Sotheby’s as the sale’s premium lot. Sotheby’s extensively used images of the sculpture as promotional material and even made an in-depth video on the work. There, Sotheby’s specialist referred to it as “monumental”, a “magnum opus”, “the pinnacle of his work”, and “one of the defining images of the twentieth century”. The bust was being offered at Sotheby’s by the Soloviev Foundation. The work is substantial in terms of Giacometti’s influence on sculpture. Many say that it drastically changed how sculptors and artists in general chose to represent the human form in a post-war world. Despite the work’s significance and estimated value, perhaps Sotheby’s was a bit too overconfident. The lot had no third-party guarantor. So when bidding stalled at $64.25 million, Oliver Barker brought the hammer down and announced that the work had not met its reserve and would remain unsold. Sotheby’s did not livestream the auction through YouTube but later released a video the next day of the entire sale with all unsold lots edited out, including the Giacometti.
Homme assis by Pablo Picasso
Other than that one noticeable disappointment 45 minutes into the sale, the remainder of the modern evening sale went relatively well. With the Giacometti out of the picture, it was Picasso’s 1969 painting Homme assis that took the top spot. The painting is considered part of the artist’s Mousquetaires series, consisting mainly of abstract portraits of mustachioed men. The painting was last sold at Sotheby’s in November 2014 for $11.37 million w/p. It did better this time, selling for slightly above its $12 million low estimate at $12.6 million (or $15.1 million w/p). Coming up closely behind the Picasso was a 1942 oil painting by Georgia O’Keeffe. As a vividly-colored close-up view of a plant, the work is very typical of the artist’s most well-known work. O’Keefe was originally commissioned to go to Hawaii in 1939 to paint local flora for Dole advertisements (known at the time as the Hawaiian Pineapple Company). Leaves of a Plant is not one of the two commissioned paintings but one of the paintings she created based on Hawaiian plant life after her return to New Mexico. Having been in the same private collection since 1978, buyers were anxious to get their hands on this rather unique O’Keeffe. The hammer eventually came down nicely in between its pre-sale estimate range of $8 million to $12 million, selling for $10.75 million (or $12.97 million w/p).
Leaves of a Plant by Georgia O’Keeffe
And finally, it wouldn’t be a major sale without something by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Like the other top lots, the painting La Traversée difficile has been in the same private collection for decades. Magritte created the work in 1963, and it is one of several renditions of the same theme. Meaning The Difficult Crossing, the title refers to the ship on stormy seas in the background. The suited man, one of Magritte’s favorite motifs, appears in this painting, representing the common individual. However, their head has been replaced by an enormous eyeball. Some interpret the cyclopean figure as a stand-in for a lighthouse, guiding the distressed ship to safety. It also comments on the power of perception, vision, and the everyday. Though it is a striking work, it is not as iconic of a subject as, say, the L’Empire des lumières series. Estimated to sell for at least $10 million, the Magritte fell slightly short, hammering at $8.2 million (or $10.04 million w/p).
La Traversée difficile by René Magritte
In terms of the total amount of money the sale made, the failure of the Giacometti made the auction look like a complete disappointment. In total, the sixty available lots brought in $151.7 million (or $186.4 million w/p), reaching only 65% of the way to its $230.2 million low estimate. Even if the Giacometti had reached $70 million as Sotheby’s specialists had predicted, the sale as a whole would have, regardless, fallen slightly short. This is mostly due to a few other high-value lots going unsold that evening. These include Théo van Rysselberghe’s Flottille d’Arnemuiden (est. $5 million to $7 million), Le Bras by Henri Matisse (est. $4 million to $6 million), and Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 30 juin 59 by Pierre Soulages (est. $3 million to $5 million). Another group of numbers, however, tells a slightly more optimistic story. Of the sixty lots available that evening, twenty-two sold within their estimates, giving Sotheby’s specialist a 37% accuracy rate. Twenty-one (35%) sold below their estimates, while five (8%) sold above. This left twelve lots unsold, giving Sotheby’s an 80% sell-through rate. While those numbers are quite good, they aren’t exactly typical of one of the May Marquee evening sales.
Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale
Grande tête mince by Alberto Giacometti
This past week, the New York auction houses hosted their May Marquee sales. Normally, this is the time of year when the major auction houses can flex and show off their most impressive consignments. However, that did not happen at Sotheby’s during their Modern Evening sale on Tuesday night. It was, yet again, another example of how a single lot can make or break an auction. In this case, that lot was the painted bronze bust Grande tête mince by the Italian sculptor Alberto Giacometti.
The work is a bust of the artist’s brother Diego and was used by Sotheby’s as the sale’s premium lot. Sotheby’s extensively used images of the sculpture as promotional material and even made an in-depth video on the work. There, Sotheby’s specialist referred to it as “monumental”, a “magnum opus”, “the pinnacle of his work”, and “one of the defining images of the twentieth century”. The bust was being offered at Sotheby’s by the Soloviev Foundation. The work is substantial in terms of Giacometti’s influence on sculpture. Many say that it drastically changed how sculptors and artists in general chose to represent the human form in a post-war world. Despite the work’s significance and estimated value, perhaps Sotheby’s was a bit too overconfident. The lot had no third-party guarantor. So when bidding stalled at $64.25 million, Oliver Barker brought the hammer down and announced that the work had not met its reserve and would remain unsold. Sotheby’s did not livestream the auction through YouTube but later released a video the next day of the entire sale with all unsold lots edited out, including the Giacometti.
Homme assis by Pablo Picasso
Other than that one noticeable disappointment 45 minutes into the sale, the remainder of the modern evening sale went relatively well. With the Giacometti out of the picture, it was Picasso’s 1969 painting Homme assis that took the top spot. The painting is considered part of the artist’s Mousquetaires series, consisting mainly of abstract portraits of mustachioed men. The painting was last sold at Sotheby’s in November 2014 for $11.37 million w/p. It did better this time, selling for slightly above its $12 million low estimate at $12.6 million (or $15.1 million w/p). Coming up closely behind the Picasso was a 1942 oil painting by Georgia O’Keeffe. As a vividly-colored close-up view of a plant, the work is very typical of the artist’s most well-known work. O’Keefe was originally commissioned to go to Hawaii in 1939 to paint local flora for Dole advertisements (known at the time as the Hawaiian Pineapple Company). Leaves of a Plant is not one of the two commissioned paintings but one of the paintings she created based on Hawaiian plant life after her return to New Mexico. Having been in the same private collection since 1978, buyers were anxious to get their hands on this rather unique O’Keeffe. The hammer eventually came down nicely in between its pre-sale estimate range of $8 million to $12 million, selling for $10.75 million (or $12.97 million w/p).
Leaves of a Plant by Georgia O’Keeffe
And finally, it wouldn’t be a major sale without something by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Like the other top lots, the painting La Traversée difficile has been in the same private collection for decades. Magritte created the work in 1963, and it is one of several renditions of the same theme. Meaning The Difficult Crossing, the title refers to the ship on stormy seas in the background. The suited man, one of Magritte’s favorite motifs, appears in this painting, representing the common individual. However, their head has been replaced by an enormous eyeball. Some interpret the cyclopean figure as a stand-in for a lighthouse, guiding the distressed ship to safety. It also comments on the power of perception, vision, and the everyday. Though it is a striking work, it is not as iconic of a subject as, say, the L’Empire des lumières series. Estimated to sell for at least $10 million, the Magritte fell slightly short, hammering at $8.2 million (or $10.04 million w/p).
La Traversée difficile by René Magritte
In terms of the total amount of money the sale made, the failure of the Giacometti made the auction look like a complete disappointment. In total, the sixty available lots brought in $151.7 million (or $186.4 million w/p), reaching only 65% of the way to its $230.2 million low estimate. Even if the Giacometti had reached $70 million as Sotheby’s specialists had predicted, the sale as a whole would have, regardless, fallen slightly short. This is mostly due to a few other high-value lots going unsold that evening. These include Théo van Rysselberghe’s Flottille d’Arnemuiden (est. $5 million to $7 million), Le Bras by Henri Matisse (est. $4 million to $6 million), and Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 30 juin 59 by Pierre Soulages (est. $3 million to $5 million). Another group of numbers, however, tells a slightly more optimistic story. Of the sixty lots available that evening, twenty-two sold within their estimates, giving Sotheby’s specialist a 37% accuracy rate. Twenty-one (35%) sold below their estimates, while five (8%) sold above. This left twelve lots unsold, giving Sotheby’s an 80% sell-through rate. While those numbers are quite good, they aren’t exactly typical of one of the May Marquee evening sales.