Posted on 02/25/2009 11:09:33 PM PST by Sam Spade
The outpouring of money triggered by the auction of the Yves Saint Laurent-Pierre Bergé sale continued unabated as Christie's sold Old Master paintings and drawings, went on to German silver gilt of the 16th and 17th centuries and ended the day with the biggest auction ever of Art Deco furniture and objets d'art that alone added up to €59.14 million, or $75.70 million.
What gives the sessions on Tuesday their full significance is the diversity of the categories represented and the rising tide of enthusiasm that seemed to grow each time the spotlight switched to a new area. Even though there were few Old Master paintings and drawings (a mere 24, of which 18 found takers), two world records were promptly set.
In 1818, Théodore Géricault portrayed two children, a young boy and his sister, who looked strangely alike even though they were not twins. The double portrait of Alfred and Elisabeth Dedreux, helped by the weird stare of the children that gives the picture a Surreal feeling, realized €9.02 million.
A second world auction record was established when the small oval likeness of a young woman, the Comtesse de la Rue, done by Ingres in 1804, went up to €2.08 million.
"SNIP" But the Eileen Gray piece that got collectors on their tenterhooks was an elephantine armchair, unusually baroque with its wild curving arms which are terminated with dragon heads. Even though the leather upholstery is a later replacement, Art Deco specialists madly wanted it. They ran it up to €21.9 million, a price that was until now utterly unimaginable for any piece of Art Deco furniture. The winner was Robert Vallois, the Paris dealer specializing in 20th-century decorative art who had owned it in 1971.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Chapeau, Thanks to to Sam Spade for posting this addition to the original story.
Yves Saint Laurent art sells for €206 million
International Herald Tribune | February 24, 2009 | Souren Melikian
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2193510/posts
It seems that the Art Market is alive and very healthy. There is lots of money out there waiting to be spent if the items are highly desirable.
While it is most certainly true that those indivduals that can afford “art at it’s finest” is concerned, I’d say “do what you will’, I personally reject the notion of so called todays “modern” art, - I am not one of those billionaires, that look at the most disengenuinest of color patterns, or whatever, and feel I must buy it. I do base this on the fact that I could not possibly afford such doltic things, and truly, I could care less - because I think and feel that after 1960 - it’s a scam, by definition, based loosley on the fact that most of these artsy fartsy types are libs, I mean really, soak a Christian cross in piss? I mean really, I’m a nice enough guy when it comes to ‘Art’, but I draw the line when it comes to the fact that the sick and disturbed individual that made the piss cross thing, did so with my tax dollars.
Call Me Uncultured.
If it isn’t decorating my house, it ain’t art.
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