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 Record-breaking day
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| Riverside Park sunset. 7:30 PM. Photo: JH. |
May 5, 2010. Beautiful sunny day, yesterday in New York. In Carl Schurz Park, the tulips are at their peak in the sunshine and the heat.
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Last night in New York. At La Grenouille the restaurant nonpareil on East 52nd Street in New York, Deborah Norville and Karl Wellner gave a dinner in the restaurant’s private room on the second floor for their friend Ann Getty, who was in town for one night only from San Francisco.
Among the guests: Lauren and John Veronis, Aileen Mehle, Pepe and Emilia Fanjul, Helene and Ramon Martinez, Leonard and Allison Stern, Diane Dorran Saeks, Blaine Trump, Jimmy Finkelstein and Pamela Gross, Dixon and Arianna Boardman, Antonia and Spiros Milonas, Georgette Mosbacher, Mario Buatta, Roberto and Joanne De Guardiola, Lally Weymouth, Peter Gregory -- Jamee is in California visiting their new grandchild; Lita and George Livanos, Mr. and Mrs. JewelleHilary and Wilbur Ross, Maria Eugenia Maury Arria, Herb and Jeanne Siegel, Karen and Richard LeFrak, Peter and Dr. Karen Goulandris. |
| Karl Wellner, Ann Getty, and Deborah Norville. |
| The superb menu: Les Ravioles de Homard a l’Estragon (Lobster and Tarragon Ravioli), Le Filet de Boeuf Roti aux “Pommes Boulangere” (Grass Fed Roasted Filet of Beef with “Pommes Boulangere”), and La Bombe Glacee Grenouille, Café, Thes Tisanes. |
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Also last night in New York, just three blocks to the south, there was a new world record set for the most expensive artwork sold at auction in Christie's May 4 Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale which achieved a total of $335,548,000 (£221,461,680/Є258,317,960).
The evening was highlighted by the runaway success of Pablo Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust from the Collection of the late Mrs. Sidney F. Brody of Los Angeles (see NYSD 4.29.10), which sold for a record $106,482,500 (£70,278,450/ €81,991,525), breaking the previous world record for any work of art sold at auction.
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| Picasso's Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, completed 8 March 1932. |
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Among the sculptures from the Brody Collection, two Giacometti bronzes, Le chat fetched $20,802,500 and Grand tete mince – the most highly prized of the artist’s busts, realized $53,282,500. A new world auction record was also set for Braque with the sale of La treille which sold for $10,162,500 (est. $3-5 million) and Edouard Vuillard’s early self-portrait painted just after 1890 for $2,658,500.
The Evening Sale portion of the Brody Collection also became the highest total for a single-owner sale offered at Christie's New York, surpassing the landmark sale of the Collection of Victor and Sally Ganz sale in 1997. The 27 lots from the Brody Collection achieved $224,177,500/ £147,957,150/€172,616,675 and were 100% sold by lot and value.
Overall, 30 lots sold above the $1 million mark and 9 lots sold above the $10 million mark. Buyers in the sale were 36% United States, 36% European, 4% Asia, and 24% other.
Marc Porter, Chairman of Christie's Americas, commented:
"This was a stellar night for Christie's and for the art market. The sale was led by exceptional prices for works by Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti and Henri Matisse from the Brody Collection, one of the greatest private collections to come to market. In addition, we witnessed great depth of bidding and strong results for important works from other American and European collections, including additional paintings by Picasso and works by Giacometti and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. We are honored to have been entrusted with so many remarkable works this season, and we are delighted to have delivered such positive results, including three new world auction records for Picasso, Georges Braque, and Jean-François Raffaelli." |
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| View of Frances Lasker Brody's sitting room with Pablo Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust on wall in room beyond, next to piano. |
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| Photographs by Mary Hilliard (Ann Getty). |
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