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Christie's Modern Art Sale Falls Short (311 hits)


Christie's auctioned $65.6 million worth of Impressionist and modern art at its New York salesroom earlier tonight in a guarded sale that shows the U.S. art market is trying to recover – but it's moving at a snail's pace. The sale fell short of its pre-sale estimate of $68.6 million to $97.1 million.


Christie's top lot, "Tete de femme" by Pablo Picasso, went unsold.
.Nobody wanted the night's priciest work, a ruby-red portrait of Pablo Picasso's wartime lover Dora Maar, "Tête de femme," that was expected to sell for at least $7 million. The painting stalled at $6.4 million.

Instead, top honors went to Edgar Degas, whose 1896 peach-colored pastel of two ballerinas, "Danseuses," sold to a private Asian collector for $10.7 million, surpassing its $9 million high estimate.

The night's other hit was Auguste Rodin's bronze sculpture of a couple intertwined in an embrace, "Le Baiser, moyen modele dit 'Taille de la Porte.'" New York dealer Christopher Eykyn got it for $6.3 million, three times its high estimate. Claude Monet's 1901 village landscape, "Vétheuil, effet de soleil," sold for $5.4 million, inching over its $5 million low estimate.

Overall, 28 of the 41 artworks sold, achieving a modest 71% of the sale's potential value. (Final prices, unlike estimates, include the auction house's fee, which is 25% on the first $50,000, 20% up to $1 million and 12% over $1 million.)

Longtime New York dealers like Bob Mnuchin and Jeffrey Deitch attended the sale, but celebrities from the fashion and film worlds stayed home this time around, sapping some of the evening's typical buzz. So did the smattering of empty seats, a rare sight during the boom years.

It didn't help that Europeans, who had consigned much of the material, also did a majority of the bidding over the telephone. Thanks in part to the strong euro, 42% of the winning bidders were European, with Americans taking home 29% of the rest.

Phillips de Pury

See some of the top lots at the fall art auctions.
."You'd think the good stuff would start coming out again since the recession is ending," said New York dealer Jack Tilton after the sale, "but the smart people are probably holding onto their art as a hedge against inflation."

Collectors mainly stuck to works priced under $5 million by familiar artists . For example, at least five bidders chased a 9-inch-long portrait of a mother and child painted by Picasso in 1925. The work, "Mere et enfant," sold for $1 million, over its $800,000 high estimate. At least three collectors fought over Vincent van Gogh's dim interior of a worker at a loom, "Weaver," for several minutes before a telephone bidder got it for $818,500, doubling its low estimate.

But a spare grid painting by Piet Mondrian, "Composition II, with Red, 1926," stalled at $4.1 million and went unsold. It was expected to sell for at least $4.5 million. And a Camille Pissarro landscape, "Le pont du chemin de fer, Pontoise," also stalled at $3.2 million, just shy of its $3.5 million estimate. (After the sale, the auction house said it was fielding interest from two potential buyers for the Pissarro.)

"Confidence is beginning to return, but the market isn't recovering overnight," says Ed Dolman, Christie's chief executive.

Sotheby's holds its New York evening sale of Impressionist and modern art Wednesday, and both Christie's and Sotheby's hold sales of contemporary art next week.

By KELLY CROW
Posted By: Daniel Moss
Wednesday, November 4th 2009 at 7:04PM
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