Sotheby’s announced today that it will offer an 1895 version of Edvard Munch’s iconic work The Scream at its Impressionist and modern art sale in New York in May. Though the house did not release an estimate, its head of Impressionist and modern art, Simon Shaw, said in a statement, “The recent success of masterpieces at Sotheby’s suggests that the price could exceed $80 million.” Read More
Gerhard Richter’s Kerze (Candle) just set an artist record at Christie’s postwar and contemporary evening sale in London. This is the artist who, just about a week ago, said the art market is “impossible to understand and it’s daft.” (Mr. Richter has never exactly been known as Mr. Sunshine.) The work sold for £10,457,250 ($16.6 million), more than £1 million above its high estimate of £9 million. Read More
Though Phillips de Pury’s contemporary art evening sale in London last night stalled at £8.2 million ($12.9 million) against a minimum expectation of £9.9 million ($15.5 million)—hardly an auspicious beginning to Frieze week—works by a few promising young artists soared past their estimates. Read More
Jacob Kassay, the young artist who quickly became in demand when his canvases started fetching ten times their estimate at auction last year, continued his upward trend at Phillips de Pury’s contemporary evening sale in London yesterday. The piece in question, estimated at £50,000–£70,000 (the same range as one of his works included in Sotheby’s Contemporary auction in London happening today) sold for £163,250 ($256,000), more than twice its high estimate. Read More
