The Top Art Sales of 2009
While the art market shrank in 2009, many individual artworks achieved strong results at auction, according to Katya Kazakina, who recently listed the top ten art sales of 2009 in a report for Bloomberg.
1. Raphael’s chalk drawing “Head of a Muse” sold for 29.2 million pounds ($47.6 million at the time) at Christie’s London on Dec. 8, setting an auction record for a work of art on paper. It was bought on the telephone, dealers said, by the U.S.-based collector Leon Black, chief executive of Apollo Global Management LLC and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
2. Henri Matisse’s 1911 still life of cowslips, “Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose” from the collection of late couturier Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge fetched 35.9 million euros ($45.6 million), an artist record, at a Christie’s Paris auction on Feb. 23. The buyer was New York- based dealer Franck Giraud.
3. Andy Warhol’s 1962 silkscreen painting of 200 one-dollar bills sold for $43.8 million at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 11.
4. Constantin Brancusi’s wooden sculpture “Madame L.R. (Portrait de Mme L.R.),” dated 1914-17, raised 29.2 million euros ($37.1 million) at Christie’s Feb. 23 auction in Paris from the collection of Saint Laurent and Berge.
5. Rembrandt’s 1658 “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo” sold for 20.2 million pounds ($32.9 million) to a telephone bidder, later identified as Las Vegas casino developer Steve Wynn. The painting was sold by Johnson & Johnson heiress Barbara Piasecka Johnson at Christie’s London on Dec. 8.
6. An Art Deco armchair with lacquered wood arms shaped as dragons, by designer Eileen Gray, raised 21.9 million euros ($28.1 million), more than 10 times its low estimate at Christie’s Paris. The work from the collection of Saint Laurent and Berge established an auction record for 20th-century design.
7. Piet Mondrian’s 1922 abstract “Composition avec bleu, rouge, jaune et noir” fetched 21.6 million euros ($27.4 million) at Christie’s Paris sale from the collection of Saint Laurent and Berge.
8. The Eighteen Arhats, A Ming-dynasty scroll by Wu Bin made 170 million yuan ($25 million) at Poly International Auction Co. in Beijing in November. Shanghai-based collector and stock-investor Liu Yiqian bought the work.
9. Alberto Giacometti’s figure of a falling man, “L’Homme Qui Chavire,” sold by Conde Nast chairman S. I. Newhouse Jr., fetched $19.4 million at Sotheby’s New York on Nov. 4.
10. Edgar Degas’s bronze sculpture, “Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans” (1922) sold for 13.3 million pounds ($19.2 million) at Sotheby’s London on Feb. 3.
Further Reading: Bloomberg
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