Sotheby’s kicked off the November marquee public sale season yesterday (18 November) with a double header. The night started with the white glove, single-owner assortment sale of the late magnificence product mogul and philanthropist Sydell Miller, billed as “A Legacy of Magnificence”, earlier than transferring onto its Trendy sale, which yielded extra tepid outcomes.
The 49 heaps offered throughout each gross sales introduced in a complete of $268.6m ($309m with charges). Sotheby’s press workplace states that is an “over 30%” improve from final yr’s outcomes, however this calculation seems to solely take into consideration the Trendy night sale it held in November 2023, which netted $190m ($223.6m with charges) from 33 heaps. Factoring in Sotheby’s November 2023 night sale from the Emily Fisher Landau assortment, which made $351.6m ($406.4m with charges), tonight’s whole represents a 42.9% drop from the $541.9m (with charges) the home revamped these two 2023 gross sales.
The Sydell Miller sale realised $189.5m ($215.9m with charges) from 25 heaps, falling halfway between the pre-sale estimate of $170m to $205m (all estimates are calculated with out charges). Seven heaps have been backed by third-party ensures.
The sale bought off to a flying begin because of Edgar Degas’s swish bronze dancer, Nice arabesque, third beat from a 1919 solid, that made $1.3m ($1.6m with charges) towards an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000.
Francois-Xavier Lalanne’s Troupeau d’Éléphants dans les Arbres desk from 2001
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
There was nice passion for a few of the sale’s richly ornamental choices, together with Francois-Xavier Lalanne’s extraordinary Troupeau d’Éléphants dans les Arbres desk from 2001. This cluster of sculpted elephants, solid in gold, patinated bronze and glass, was acquired instantly from the artist by way of the tremendous decorator-architect Peter Marino and as soon as graced Miller’s ocean entrance Palm Seaside mansion La Rèverie. It fetched $10m ($11.6m with charges), towards an estimate of $4m to $6m.
Yves Klein’s iconic Untitled Blue Sponge Aid (RE 28) (1961), comprised of dry pigment within the artist’s patented Yves Klein Blue (YKB) hue and artificial resin, pure sponges and pebbles on panel, floated to $13.4m ($14.2m with charges) towards an $8m to $12m estimate. The New York non-public supplier Andrew Fabricant was the profitable bidder; the Klein got here to market backed by an irrevocable bid.
5 bidders chased Henri Matisse’s putting Jeune fille en gown rose (1942) to $8.3m ($9.7 with charges). Reaching larger nonetheless was Pablo Picasso’s neoclassical interval La Statuaire (1925), that includes a lady sculptor seated in entrance of her white male bust creation, which realised $22m ($24.8m with charges) towards an unpublished estimate within the area of $30m. The adviser Patti Wong was the underbidder. Miller acquired it for $11.8m (with charges) at Sotheby’s in November 1999, the place it was the featured cowl lot from the Eleanore and Daniel Saidenberg single proprietor sale.
One other Picasso, Tête de femme (Francoise), a bronze discovered object from 1951 and solid in an version of two, celebrating his relationship along with his younger muse Francois Gilot, introduced a tame $5.75m ($6.9m with charges) towards an estimate of $7m to $10m. In sharp distinction to the figurative traces of the Picassos, Wassily Kandinsky’s dynamic abstraction Weisses Oval (White Oval, 1921), which was acquired by Miller in 2000 from Landau High quality Artwork in Montreal, made $19.1m ($21.6m with charges). It got here backed by an irrevocable bid.
Claude Monet, Nymphéas (1914-17)
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
The celebrated topper of the night was Claude Monet’s lushly hued and swirling portray from his famed late Giverny sequence Nymphéas (1914-17). Grandly scaled at 175cm by 136cm, it hammered at $59m, to make $65.5m with charges, going to an Asian bidder by way of Sotheby’s Asia deputy chair Jen Hua. The lot’s unpublished estimate was within the area of $60m. Monet’s signature was stamped, which meant it by no means left his studio in his lifetime, and in some connoisseur quarters which will have lessened its attraction. Fortunately for Sotheby’s—and Miller’s heirs—the rarity of the article trumped that conceit.
“This was only a kicker,” mentioned David Norman, the previous Sotheby’s specialist who introduced the Miller bounty to Sotheby’s. “It was her story and the best way Sotheby’s put it collectively that stamped an imprimatur on the sale.”
After a short intermission and alter of auctioneers on the agency’s York Avenue salesroom, the Trendy night sale of 33 heaps jogged to the end line at a slower tempo and delivered a extra laboured consequence $79.1m ($92.9 with charges). The tally registered shy of the pre-sale expectations, pegged at $92.3m to $135m, after two heaps have been withdrawn on the eleventh hour. Seven of the 31 heaps supplied didn’t promote, leading to a strained buy-in charge by lot of 25.6%.
Twelve heaps got here to market backed by home ensures and an extra 12 had third-party ensures, in response to Sotheby’s. One file was made on this sale, for a Tiffany Studios glass work.
A trio of ladies Surrealist artists sparked a few of the early motion with Remedios Varo’s fantasy determine of a bicycle bodied girl, Los caminos tortuosos (1958) in gouache, brush and ink and charcoal on card that introduced $1.7m ($2m with charges). And Leonora Carrington’s statuesque La Grande Dame (The Cat Girl, 1951) in oil on wooden, standing at 200cm excessive, offered to the Argentine collector Eduardo Costantini, and founding father of the Museum of Latin American Artwork of Buenos Aires, for $9.8m ($11.3m with charges) towards an estimate of $5m to $7m. It made the public sale file for a sculpture by Carrington. Lastly, Leonore Fini’s pantheon of goddesses, Les Stylites (The Stylists, 1976) rose to $600,000 ($720,000 with charges).
The femme fatale theme continued with Picasso’s vibrant and charged Buste de femme (1949), depicting the noble visage of Gilot, which offered for $8.5m ($9.9m with charges), towards an estimate of $9m to $12m. The esteemed and late Chicago collector Morton G. Neumann, who was Picasso’s favourite American purchaser, acquired the portray in 1951 and the Neumann household are the consignors.
Franz Marc, Das Lange Gelbe Pferd (1913)
Courtesy of Sotheby’s
A significant disappointment final evening was Franz Marc’s uncommon to public sale Das Lange Gelbe Pferd (The Lengthy Yellow Horse, 1913), standing tall towards a symbolic, rainbow-saturated sky and at one time housed within the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum in New York. It was purchased in from a chandelier bid of $3.6m towards an estimate of $8m to $12m. Fortunately for the home, the work was not assured.
An identical and dearer destiny awaited Henri Matisse’s assured nude odalisque, Torse de jeune fille (1921-22) that didn’t promote at $11.5m towards a $12m to $18m estimate.
Alberto Giacometti’s recognisable Buste (Tête tranchante) (Diego), a bronze from a 1954 solid that includes the acquainted head of his brother Diego made $11.5m ($13.2m with charges), inside its $10 to 15m estimate and was offered by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Basis, of the eponymous diplomat and aviator founder.
Of the comparatively scarce entries of Impressionist and Submit-Impressionist works, the shimmering and mosaic-like portray by Paul Signac, Antibes, La Pointe de Bacon (1917) went for $8.5m ($9.9m with charges), above its $6m to 8m estimate.
As an outlier to the European dominated entries, The Danner Memorial Window from Tiffany Studios, grandly scaled in leaded Favrile glass at 4.8m and dated to 1913, introduced a file $10.8m ($12.4m with charges). It final offered at Christie’s New York in 2000 for $1.9m. Late within the sale, a second Surrealist work by Carrington, Temple of the Phrase (1954) offered to a bidder on the entrance of the gross sales room for $3.8m ($4.5m with charges). “I stay in Switzerland,” mentioned the customer of that Carrington, “and I like my privateness”.
The night motion resumes tonight at Christie’s with the hotly anticipated single-owner assortment of Mica Ertegun.
