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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: Sotheby's

Sotheby's stories: 40 news summaries

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Russians Smash Records at Sotheby's Sale

Recession-defying London art auction brings in $230M

Feb 6, 08 1:22 PM CST
(Newser) - Sotheby's held its most successful sale ever of modern and impressionist art in London last night, with Russian collectors leading a buying frenzy on a day stock markets tumbled. The auction house sold 67 lots worth $230 million—topping high estimate, Bloomberg reports. "There was a lot of buying... More »

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Russia • art • Sotheby's • art auction

Contemporary Art Scores for Auction Houses

Sales swelled 36% in 2007; some fear houses too invested in the new

Dec 27, 07 11:39 AM CST
(Newser) - Contemporary art has been very good to Sotheby’s, fueling a 46% boost in sales for the world’s second-largest auctioneer this year over last, Bloomberg says. A crop of new collectors from the US, Russia and Asia brought new records for artists like Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons, for... More »

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contemporary art • London • art • subprime mortgages • Sotheby's • Christie's • Francis Bacon • Vincent Van Gogh • art auction • Jeff Koons • impressionist art

Art Market Sails Over Turmoil

Weak dollar, overseas buyers help keep prices high

Dec 26, 07 6:01 AM CST
(Newser) - US financial markets were in chaos this year, but the art market certainly wasn't. The expanding ranks of the super-rich, the weak dollar, and emerging connoisseurs from Russia, China, India, and the Middle East kept auction houses in fine form, the AP reports, with postwar and contemporary works—including a... More »

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art • Andy Warhol • Sotheby's • Christie's • auction • US economy • Matisse • art auction • weak dollar

Magna Carta Sells for $21.3M

Purchaser says he'll lend it to National Archives

Dec 19, 07 9:00 AM CST
(Newser) - A 1297 copy of the Magna Carta, the founding document of constitutional law, sold at auction for $21.3 million last night. Ross Perot's foundation put the document up for sale at Sotheby's in New York, where it was bought by David Rubenstein, a private equity magnate who served in... More »

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Sotheby's • Magna Carta

JK Rowling Book Sells for $4M

Only 7 copies of the Tales of Beedle the Bard exist

Dec 13, 07 12:15 PM CST
(Newser) - Sotheby’s figured The Tales of Beedle the Bard would fetch about $100,000 at auction—in retrospect, about 40 times too low. The book, a one-of-a-kind piece of the Harry Potter canon hand-written and illustrated by JK Rowling herself, fetched $3.98 million for charity today, Reuters reports. “... More »

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Harry Potter • JK Rowling • Sotheby's • auction • charity • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows • book • children's books • The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Anonymous Painting Is by Caravaggio

'Copy' of Card Sharps turns out to be earlier version worth $100M

Dec 12, 07 12:37 PM CST
(Newser) - A British art historian who bought a misattributed painting at auction last year has demonstrated it is the work of Caravaggio. The Telegraph reports that Sotheby's sold what it thought was a copy of The Card Sharps, one of Caravaggio's most famous works that currently hangs at the Kimbell Museum... More »

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art • Sotheby's • painting • Caravaggio • The Card Sharps • Kimbell Museum

Lion Sculpture Fetches Record Price at Auction

3¼-inch Guennol Lioness goes for $57M, nearly double last mark

Dec 6, 07 1:23 PM CST
(Newser) - A limestone sculpture of a lioness standing at only 3¼ inches sold at auction in New York yesterday for $57 million, smashing the record price for a sculpture, the BBC reports. The Guennol Lioness, believed to have been carved 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq and Iran), topped... More »

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Baghdad • art • Sotheby's • sculpture • Guennol Lioness

Mama Mia! 400-Year-Old Table Found
in Pizzeria

Expected to fetch $2M
at upcoming auction

Nov 29, 07 6:15 PM CST
(Newser) - A 17th-century cabinet expected to fetch up to $2 million at auction has an unlikely provenance: its long-missing bottom half was discovered outside the bathrooms at a pizza parlor. The Telegraph reports that the cabinet, which depicts St. Peter's Square and other images of Rome, was missing the carved wooden... More »

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art market • Sotheby's • auction

Trashed Painting Fetches $1M

Canvas found in garbage sells for seven figures at Sotheby's

Nov 21, 07 8:00 AM CST
(Newser) - A painting by the Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo rescued from the trash sold at Sotheby's last night for over $1 million, the BBC reports. A New York woman spotted the 1970 work in a pile of garbage awaiting pick-up on the curb in her upper West Side neighborhood. She took... More »

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art • Sotheby's • painting • Rufino Tamayo • Elizabeth Gibson

The Man Behind the Smile

Chinese artist takes New York with his signature troubling grin

Nov 14, 07 5:38 PM CST
(Newser) - It's contemporary Chinese art's most indelible image—the smile so huge it becomes false, accusatory—and it belongs to Yue Minjun, the artist who uses the grinning self-portraits, often many of them, in his paintings. The New York Times chats with Yue, who is enjoying his first US show in... More »

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parody • Chinese art • art • Sotheby's • Tiananmen Square • painting • Yue Minjun • terra cotta

Art Market Defies Crash Fears With Record Sale

Christie's contemporary evening shatters 16 records

Nov 14, 07 6:21 AM CST
(Newser) - So much for a correction: at last night's sale of modern and contemporary art at Christie's in New York, 16 artists achieved record prices and 61 out of 66 lots sold. Dealers were in shock as collectors continued to snatch up works at astronomical prices. Even a lesser work such... More »

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art market • art • Sotheby's • Christie's • painting

Matisse Pulls Impressive $33.6M

Art world breathes easier after first night of stellar sales

Nov 7, 07 7:20 AM CST
(Newser) - A nervous New York art world breathed a sigh of relief on the first night of the fall auctions yesterday when a Matisse painting fetched a whopping $33.6 million, far above its high estimate. Collectors and dealers are watching November's sales at Sotheby's and Christie's with anxiety, reports the... More »

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art market • art • Sotheby's • Christie's • painting • Matisse • Cézanne • Signac • art auction

New JK Rowling Book Headed to Auction Block

Handwritten volume
one of just seven from Harry Potter author

Nov 1, 07 4:26 PM CDT
(Newser) - JK Rowling is about to redefine the meaning of "limited edition," publishing only 7 handwritten and hand-illustrated copies of her new book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard, the Daily Telegraph reports. Six copies of the fairy tale collection by the Harry Potter author will go to friends;... More »

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Harry Potter • JK Rowling • Sotheby's

Chinese Art Booms at London Sales

But prices for Western art shaky as buyers get credit-crisis jitters

Oct 16, 07 9:40 AM CDT
(Newser) - Could turmoil in the financial world trigger an art market crash? That was the question on everyone's mind in London over the weekend during the Frieze Art Fair and the first major sales at Christie's and Sotheby's since the credit crisis. Though the fairs and auctions had all the energy... More »

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art market • London • art • Sotheby's • auction • painting

$7.9M Sale Smashes Record

Rare blue diamond commands $7.98M at auction

Oct 8, 07 7:53 PM CDT
(Newser) - A flawless gem has sold for $7.98 million in Hong Kong and broken the old per-carat sale record, Sotheby's announced today. London's Moussaieff Jewellers snapped up the 6.04 carat diamond at $1.32 million per carat, breaking the last record of $926,000 per carat, set in 1987... More »

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Sotheby's • diamond

Magna Carta Up for Sale

Document expected to command at least $20M

Sep 25, 07 4:34 PM CDT
(Newser) - A 1297 copy of the Magna Carta owned by Ross Perot will go on the auction block in December, Sotheby's announced today. The document, one of 17 left in existence, is expected to sell for 20 million to $30 million, the Times reports. It had been on display at the... More »

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Sotheby's • Ross Perot • Magna Carta • Perot Foundation

Bonds' #756 Ball Fetches $752K

Despite steroid scandal, record-breaking ball sells for more than $750,000

Sep 16, 07 12:25 PM CDT
(Newser) - Barry Bonds beat expectations again, as his record-breaking ball sold for well above industry estimates. Bonds’ 756th homerun ball netted $752,467, while the ball that helped him tie Hank Aaron’s career record sold for $186,750. Some naysayers thought Bonds’ steroid scandal and sharp personality would dampen demand,... More »

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steroids • MLB • San Francisco Giants • Barry Bonds • Hank Aaron • Sotheby's • auction • home run • records

London Art Sales Soar

Bacon tops Sotheby's contemporary auctions; London shows new art-market clout

Jun 25, 07 11:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - Francis Bacon took top honors and Damien Hirst became the highest-priced living artist—beating out Jasper Johns—at Sotheby's contemporary auctions in London last week. A 1971 Bacon self-portrait went for $43.2 million, and the Hirst pill cabinet called "Lullaby Spring" for $19.4 million. "Hirst is... More »

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art market • London • art • Sotheby's • Damien Hirst • Francis Bacon • auction

$72M Sale Shatters Warhol Record

Auction madness continues
as contemporary-art market sizzles

May 17, 07 4:33 PM CDT
(Newser) - An Andy Warhol painting sold for $71.7 million last night at Christie's, more than quadrupling the previous record price for a work by the pop artist. The price for "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)," part of Warhol's "Death and Disaster" series, more than doubled... More »

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art market • contemporary art • art • Andy Warhol • Sotheby's • Christie's • painting • pop art • Mark Rothko • art auction

Rothko Fetches $73 Million

Record price for seminal modern work marks trend in art purchases

May 16, 07 8:18 AM CDT
(Newser) - Sotheby’s sold a Mark Rothko painting last night for $72.84 million, a record price for a piece of art created after World War II and a signal of a new boom in the market. Seller David Rockefeller bought the 7-foot-tall "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender),"... More »

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art market • contemporary art • globalization • art • Andy Warhol • Sotheby's • Christie's • Damien Hirst • painting • Mark Rothko • Jasper Johns

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