It’s good to be king.
The numbers are pretty staggering. Artprice.com has compiled a list of the top-selling artists of last year. To give you an idea of just how torrentially money rained into the art market in 2006, the total for the top ten artists alone was $1.2 billion, up from $576 million just two […]
Private sale
Jeff Koon’s Balloon Dog
Reported price: $17 million
Above: Balloon Dog belonging to the Eli Broad Foundation
Right now it’s just a rumor. But if it’s true, Steven Cohen is at it again, doing what he seems to do best: overpaying for another trophy artwork.
According to a mention in today’s Baer Faxt newsletter, several sources have […]
Sotheby’s London
Andreas Gursky, 99 Cent II, diptych
Estimate: $1.8 million–$2.4 million
Price fetched: $3.3 million
Warning to readers: I feel a rant coming on. As you may have read in an earlier post, I was incredulous when Andreas Gursky’s mural-sized 1999 photo 99 Cent sold for $2.2 million last May at Sotheby’s, nearly four times Gursky’s previous record. […]
Sotheby’s London
Peter Doig, White Canoe, 1990-91
Estimate: $1.5 million–$2.3 million
Price Fetched: $11 million
At left: Sotheby’s Tobias Meyer orchestrating the bidding on Doig’s White Canoe
Call it contemporary impressionism, at vintage impressionist prices. Or call it uninformed buyers with too much money. But will someone please tell me what inspired bidders at Sotheby’s London to drive a 1990-91 […]
Private Sale
Honus Wagner near-mint T206 tobacco card
Reported price: $2.35 million
To most people, it’s just a little piece of cardboard, only 1-1/8 x 2-5/8 inches, encased in an ugly plastic slab. A little piece of 98-year-old cardboard with a colorful picture of an old-timey baseball player.
But to serious baseball card collectors, it’s an icon worthy […]
Big artist, big painting, big bucks. Allegedly, Hollywood entertainment mogul David Geffen has sold a 4 x 8 foot drip painting by Jackson Pollock for the record-breaking price of $140 million. The previous “highest price ever paid” record was set back in June when Ronald S. Lauder purchased Gustav Klimt’s “Adele Bloch-Bauer I” […]
Woe to the Stevie’s. Who knew that an errant elbow would send a colossal art deal into the crapper?
Looked to me like a fight for bragging rights. Two of the biggest “Look at me! I can spend obscene amounts of money on art!” collectors—hotelier Steve Wynn and hedge funder Steven Cohen—appeared ready to best Ronald […]
He was rejected from art school. He declared some of this century’s most important artists “degenerate.” Oh, and….he was the architect of one of the most heinous campaigns of ethnic genocide in world history. So of course a collection of Adolph Hitler’s watercolors should sell for nearly a quarter-million dollars, right?
Last week in the […]
My jaw is still dragging on the floor from when Andreas Gursky’s supersized, 1999 photograph of bargain-store shelves sold for $2.2 million at Sotheby’s this May. Why would anyone nearly quadruple his record price ($611,000) from only four years ago? Call me a fuddy duddy, but I’m thinking that the dust of art history hasn’t […]
If toy bears could talk, Elvis Presley’s beloved teddy, a 1909 Steiff named Mabel, would have a gut-ripping tale to tell. And if they could sing, her theme song might be “You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog … and you ain’t no friend of mine.”
In case you hadn’t heard, Mabel had a […]
