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Category Archives: Auction Analysis

Overtime: Nov. 21 – Nov. 27

Wayne Thiebaud’s artwork is featured on the cover of The New Yorker‘s food issue. Christopher Knight reviews Denver’s Clyfford Still Museum disagrees with admission charge. Sarah Thornton gives us a insightful look at auction guarantees and how they affect prices. Felix Salmon tells you why you can’t trust auction results. Another chapter in Ai Weiwei vs. the Chinese government saga, now involving alledged porn. Assume Vivid Astro Focus helps design Gaga’s Workshop at Barneys. Archaeologist argues that graffiti by Sex Pistols is of great historical […]

Auctions: Dreweatts “Urban Contemporary Art” Sale (October)

Last night in London, Dreweatts kicked off an important week of auctions at the major houses with decidedly weak results. At a mere shadow of the £300,800 – 429,400 estimate, their October Urban Contemporary Art Sale realized a total of £166,320 ($258,646) non-inclusive of Buyer’s Premiums, barely half the low end estimate. These lackluster results lie in stark contrast to some of the compelling sales booked during various September auctions, where record results were made at Bonhams Urban Art Sale, MTV:REDEFINE, as well as with […]

Auctions / Benefits: Christie’s “Artists for Haiti” Results

A couple weeks back, the Artists for Haiti benefit auction racked in massive numbers to a standing room only, celebrity studded audience at Christie’s Rockefeller Center salesroom in New York. Organized by David Zwirner (ranked 4th on last years ArtReview “Power 100” list) and Ben Stiller, who has supported Haiti through his Stiller Foundation non-profit since the catastrophic earthquake, the charitable event brought together an inspired list of of contemporary art’s most important artists, such as Raymond Pettibon, Nate Lowman, Rudolf Stingel, Jasper Johns, Zuang […]

Auctions / Benefits: “MTV RE:DEFINE” Results

A couple Saturdays ago, the inaugural MTV RE:DEFINE benefit exhibition and auction opened at the Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas. As we previewed a couple weeks back, curators, The Future Tense, brought together an impressive roster of 30 emerging and established artists in the contemporary and urban/street art genres  – including such big names as Damien Hirst, Shepard Fairey, Harland Miller, Faile, Russell Young and Tracey Emin – to commemorate 30 years of AIDS research. Phillips de Pury & Company brokered the auction to a sold-out audience […]

Auctions: Bonhams “Urban Art Sale” Results (September)

Last Wednesday, Bonhams hosted their September Urban Art Sale to a “packed house” at the New Bond Street location in Central London. As we highlighted the strength of some recent Banksy results in our overview and analysis of his Top 25 Most Expensive Works Ever, money appears to continue pouring into street art unimpeded at the auction level, despite the general malaise evident in the financial markets. This fact was further reinforced in the wake of last week’s Bonhams Sale, with the auction realizing a […]

Viewpoints: Top 25 Most Expensive Banksy Works Ever

Last Wednesday during Christie’s Post War & Contemporary Art sale in London, a historic Banksy canvas came very close to tripling its high estimate of £50,000. Originally exhibited in 2002 at Santa’s Ghetto, a perennial winter group show (a modern riff of which occurred last December with Marks and Stencils) during those early, pre-hype years that saw Banksy canvases sell – and sometimes sit unsold – for a mere few hundred quid, Bird with Grenade closed at £145,250 ($228,043). The piece serves as an interesting […]