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He is the most famous painter of the United States on the lonely realities of twentieth century life. Tuesday night, at Christie's, Edward Hopper joined the unreality of the current art market when his 1929 "Chop Suey" painting sold for $ 91.9 million, selling expenses, a record for the artist .
The previous record for Hopper was $ 40.5 million in 2013 (about $ 43.8 million with inflation).
"Chop Suey" is the most expensive of Christie's 91 works in the estate of Barney A. Ebsworth, Seattle-based travel entrepreneur and renowned American art collector, who passed away in April. This highly exposed painting of two young women sitting in a sun-lit Chinese restaurant has long been promised at the Seattle Art Museum and would have cost between 70 and 100 million dollars.
"Really, $ 100 million for a Hopper? I do not know how they come to these ratings, "said Howard Rehs, a New York-based gallerist specializing in American art, who, like other merchants, has expressed his disbelief at some estimates concerning works presented in a "gigaweek" of Christie's. The Sotheby's and Phillips art auctions and Phillips could yield at least $ 1.8 billion.
But "Chop Suey" was still going to sell, being part of Christie's 10-night auction to the 42 lots of the Ebsworth auction, backed by third-party guarantors. They hoped to either buy the works or be rewarded financially if they were outbid. The Hopper's guarantor, for example, was rewarded with financing costs of approximately $ 4 million, deducted from the final price.
As was the case with the sale of $ 833 million A collection of David and Peggy Rockefeller in May, Christie's had itself offered sellers a guaranteed minimum price for the entire collection, details of which were not disclosed. The overall pre-sale estimate was $ 261 million. The evening session raised $ 317.8 million.
The combination of heavy estimates and third-party guarantees resulted in a measured bid for the most important lots. Willem de Kooning's 1955 canvas, "Woman as Landscape," a rare original work auctioned, cost $ 68.9 million, at an additional cost – an equally high sales room for the artist. And the relatively small "Composition With Red Strokes" drip painting from Jackson Pollock in 1950 cost $ 55.4 million. Both works sold close to their low estimates.
"It did not fly, but it was pretty solid," said Philippe Ségalot, a New York-based private art dealer, referring to the auction.
While Christie's kept the twentieth century's flagship collection of the November auction season, Sotheby's had been keen to include trophy works in its sale of Impressionist and Modern works on Monday night.
The $ 30 million Sotheby's promised New York sellers Ed and Deborah Shein to sell a 1913 painting by American modernist pioneer Marsden Hartley. According to the Artnet Prize database, the artist had so far made a maximum of $ 6.3 million at auction.
"He's an interesting artist, but I do not know how important he is to an international audience," said New York collector David Nisinson, who along with Rehs, the New York dealer, even considered an ambitious value of $ 15 million. for painting.
Sotheby's has not been able to find a third-party "irrevocable bidder" to support its $ 30 million risk on the Hartley. Monday, she did not sell, tainting the profitability of an auction of 65 lots that raised $ 315.4 million. But other less valued works have inspired the competition.
René Magritte's 1937 painting "Le Principe du Plaisir", a half-length portrait commissioned by Edward James, a well-known British patron of the greatest surrealist artists, was sold at a high price of $ 26.8 million. a record auction for the artist. And Egon Schiele's The recently restored landscape of 1913, "Dämmernde Stadt (The Kleine Stadt II)" or "The City at Twilight (Small Town II)", accounted for $ 24.6 million.
Demand had been more moderate the night before when Christie sold 61 Impressionist and Modern works. Although a Claude Monet water lily painting from around 1918 sold for $ 31.8 million, the final total of $ 279.3 million was lower than the pre-sale estimate of $ 304.7 million. , and the losses were considerable.
Van Gogh's 1887 Butterfly Garden Room, for example, was estimated at $ 40 million. Neither Christie's nor any third party was willing to guarantee the work at this level and it was not sold.
"The costs are 10 to 20% too expensive and, until the estimates reach me, I'm not at the rendezvous," said Philip Hoffman, general manager of the Fine Art Group, based in London, which had regularly guaranteed impressionist and modern auction works. "It's a difficult market," he added. "And I'm not in the business of owning art."
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