THE ART MARKET CONTINUES TO SOAR AT LONDON'S CONTEMPORARY AUCTIONS
London's summer auction week kicked off at Phillips de Pury last Sunday with new auction records established for Franz West, Ugo Rondinone, Wilhelm Sasnal, Grayson Perry, Banks Violette and Elmgreen & Dragset. Despite Patti Smith's live performance of songs from the 70s time, Franz Gertsch's 1979 portrait (lot 213, est. £1,500,000-2,000,000) failed to sell. The auction totalled £24,483,000 but 31 of the 91 lots failed to find bids.
Christie's Evening sale totalled £86,241,600 from a supply of 59 lots. A triptych of small self-portrait heads by Francis Bacon went for £17,289,250; a reclining nude by Lucian Freud fetched £11,801,250; and Jeff Koons 'Balloon Flower', from the Celebration series, went for £17,289,250.
Sotheby's evening sale of Contemporary Art realised a phenomenal £94,701,550 - from 75 lots - making it the most successful summer sale of Contemporary Art ever held in Europe. 66.2% of the works sold achieved prices in excess of high estimate. Eleven new artist's records were achieved, for works by Bridget Riley, Antony Gormley, Frank Auerbach, Rachel Whiteread, Martial Raysee, Marlene Dumas, Richard Prince, and Domenico Gnoli. Francis Bacon's 'Study for Head of George Dyer' sold for £13,761,250, well in excess of the pre-sale guide estimate in excess of £8 million. Jean- Michel Basquiat's 'Untitled (Pecho/Oreja)' - from the Collection of U2 - sold for: £5,081,250. 'Overseas Nurse' by Richard Prince sold for £4,241,250, achieving a new record for the artist at auction. Twelve works from the Lauffs Collection had a pre-sale estimate of £6,470,000-8,930,000 and achieved a total of £18,983,000 (Yves Klein's RE3 (est: £1.5-2 million) sold for £3,177,250 and Martian Raysse's 'Snack' (est:£600,000-800,000) went for £1,161,250, a record for the artist at auction. Andy Warhol's 'Portrait of John McEnroe and Tatum O'Neal' sold for £241,250. The work was consigned to the sale by John McEnroe, who will be donating proceeds to Habitat for Humanity.
NEW LONDON GALLERY
A new contemporary art gallery will open this October. Pilar Corrias, formerly of Haunch of Venison and the Lisson Gallery, will unveil her West End space, designed by Rem Koolhaas and his practice OMA, with an exhibition of new work by French artist Philippe Parreno. Corrias plans to show a mix of emerging and more established artists in the 3,800 sq ft space.
ART FAIR NEWS
A new art fair is set to open in Venice next spring. Fresh Venice! Contemporary Art Fair will take place 12-15 March at the Hotel Monaco & Grand Canal. The fair hopes to present 50 galleries, each in their own hotel room, and is inviting applications from potential exhibitors. Meanwhile, Anna Kustera has organized "The World's Smallest Art Fair," which will take place in the 72 sq ft window of her Chelsea gallery. Fifty galleries from around the world will be exhibiting works in the gallery's front window from 10 July - 1 August.
LAWSUIT OVER MURAKAMI-LOUIS VUITTON PRINTS
The LA Times reports this week that the luxury boutique in the middle of Takashi Murakami's LA MOCA show last October has provoked a lawsuit. A class action suit brought by an L.A. collector alleges that Louis Vuitton failed to take the law into account when selling limited-edition prints by Japanese Pop artist Takashi Murakami at his show at the museum's Geffen Contemporary. Since 1970, California law has required dealers who sell limited-edition prints of artists' work to disclose an array of information supporting the prints' authenticity. The suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by lead plaintiff Clint Arthur says that because Louis Vuitton North America failed to provide sufficient information, 500 Murakami prints that were on sale for an average of $8,000 lacked the ironclad certification required, making them less valuable for resale. The show - Vuitton store included - is now at the Brooklyn Museum in New York.
ARTNEWS AND MONOCOLE PUBLISH THEIR SUMMER LISTS
Tyler Brule's magazine Monopol has published a list of the top 100 influential artists, dealers, collectors, and curators, both past and present. In its top ten are Andy Warhol, Harald Szeemann, Bruce Nauman, Samuel Keller, Peggy Guggenheim, Donald Judd, Jeff Koons, Jackson Pollock, Louise Bourgeois and Charles Saatchi. Meanwhile, in its July issue ARTnews is publishing its annual list of the top 200 art collectors in the world. The top 10 collectors on the list are Debra and Leon Black; Edythe and Eli Broad; Steven Cohen; Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis; Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder; Francois Pinault; Mitchell Rales; Sheikh Saud bin Mohammad bin Ali al-Thani; Carlos Slim Helu; and Victor Pinchuk (the last two both for the first time).
TROUBLE AT THE TRETYAKOV
We reported a few months ago on 'Sots Art', an exhibition at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow which was provoking controversy and, according to the Berliner Zeitung's Christian Esch, 'was condemned six months ago by then minister of culture Alexander Sokolov as a 'disgrace for Russia'. It emerged this week that the museum has fired its curator for contemporary art, Andrei Yerofeyev. Eight coworkers in the contemporary art department have handed in their resignations. "The dismissal is yet another defeat in the struggle lead by defenders of artistic freedom against the patriotic-Orthodox powers and the church," writes Esch. According to the head of the state gallery, Valentin Rodionov, Yerofeyev was fired for a breach of his work contract. Yet Esch suggests that the reason is Yerofeyev's upcoming court case, which stems from the 2007 exhibition "Forbidden Art--2006," which was held at the private Sacharov Center and featured works censored by curators who had feared the wrath of the church and nationalists. For showing a year's worth of self-censored works, Yerofeyev was charged with spreading hatred and degrading human dignity.
EMIN'S SPARROW FLOWN ITS PERCH
Tracey Emin's 'Roman Standard' (2005), a four-inch-high bronze sparrow, has been missing from its perch at Liverpool's Anglican cathedral for two weeks. The piece was commissioned by the BBC for the city's art05 festival and Emin chose the sparrow motif as a tribute to Liverpool's famous Liver Birds. The work is reportedly valued at £60,000 ($120,000). The BBC commented this week that it 'does not own it and therefore does not have duty of care for its maintenance or welfare'. This, the BBC said, 'is covered by White Cube gallery and the artist.' A spokeswoman from the White Cube said: 'The BBC commissioned the piece they are the best people to discuss this with.'
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Pasadena's internationally acclaimed Art Center College of Design has decided not to renew the contract of its president Richard Koshalek when it expires at the end of 2009. Despite ambitious plans to expand the college and raise its profile internationally, it was felt that Koshalek was not focusing enough on education. This announcement means that the Koshalek expansion programme - including a proposed $50-million, Frank Gehry-designed high-tech library and design studio - will be put on hold.
Bloomberg reports that British Museum Director Neil MacGregor has turned down the offer to be the next head of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. At a recent press breakfast, Chairman Niall FitzGerald said that MacGregor had agreed to lead the British Museum through 2012.
Katrin Rhomberg has been appointed the curator for the 2010 Berlin Biennial.
Clara Kim has been appointed gallery director and curator at REDCAT in Los Angeles.
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