Wall Street Journal Review of Impressionist/Modern Sales

Kelly Crow of the Wall Street Journal has a good article with some excellent insight into last weeks Impressionist and Modern Sales in New York at Sotheby's and Christies. Christie's came out the winner by far in the total amount of the sales, and the selling of exceptional lots. Sotheby's sole around $61 million while Christies sold nearly $103 million including buyers premium. Sotheby's two top lots failed to sell.

Crow reported how Christie's did everything within its power to insure a successful sale. This included a third party guarantees on the sale of a Picasso, lower estimates and the influence of provenance.

Crow states To reassure bidders, Christie's gave its offerings extra-low estimates. The majority were priced between $250,000 and $4 million, a considerable drop from the $10 million-plus prices that were common last spring. The strategy worked: For example, a landscape by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, "Plaine aux environs d'etampes," was priced to sell for at least $250,000 but several bidders pounced and the work sold for $350,500. At least 24 other works sold for under a million dollars, including pieces by Egon Schiele, Joan Miró, and Georges Braque. Christie's also played up any works with ties to the estates of well-known collectors like department-store heiress Caral Gimbel Lebworth, whose heirs sold Alberto Giacometti's skinny bronze, "Buste de Diego (Stele III)," for $7.6 million, surpassing its high estimate. Heirs of Evelyn Annenberg Jaffe Hall, meanwhile, sold Alexej von Jawlensky's jewel-toned nude, "Odalyske," for $5.1 million, over its $4 million low estimate.

To read the full WSJ article, click HERE.