Despite the massive hype leading up to the event, Ben Stiller and David Zwirner’s Artists For Haiti charity auction at Christie’s this evening exceeded expectations with the 27 works offered selling for a collective $13.7 million, beating an earlier estimate of $10 million. Read More
The work of the late Indian painter Maqbool Fida Husain--M. F. Husain, for short--proved to be absolutely dominant at Christie's South Asian modern and contemporary art sale in New York yesterday, with all 13 of his works on offer selling, for a total of $4.2 million, more than half the auction's $7.38 million haul. Read More
The art-auction calendar in the Middle East continues to get busier, with Christie's announcing that it will add a second day to its October sales of modern and contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish Art in Dubai. Read More
Christie's has released a handful of details about its greatly anticipated sale of Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry. The Liz-a-palooza starts September 15 in Moscow, where the auction house will kick off a three-month touring exhibit of the jewelry. The auction itself kicks off in New York at an evening sale of 80 pieces on December 13, Read More
Over the objections of Christie's, the Denver City Council voted last night to approve the sale of four Clyfford Still paintings through Sotheby's in order to benefit the endowment of the Clyfford Still Museum, which is set to open in the city in November. A press official at the City Council told The Observer this morning that the decision was unanimous. Read More
Beatlemania is alive and well! In the auction houses, anyway. On Wednesday night, Christie’s brought in $361,938 for 46 previously unreleased photographs documenting The Beatles’ first US visit, well-surpassing a collective estimate of $100,000 and shocking photographer Mike Mitchell, who was just 18 when he took the pictures. “I wasn’t expecting this, when I took Read More
Last fall, Vanity Fair writer Bob Colacello decided to sell a portrait that Andy Warhol made of him in 1980, when Mr. Colacello was working for Interview, and decided to take along a Vanity Fair camera crew to document the experience. The video was just released and, boy, is it good! The painting was Read More
Christie's CEO Steven P. Murphy announced today that his auction house had set a new record for half-year sales, moving approximately £2 billion, or roughly $3.2 billion, worth of art and other products from January to June this year, according to a report in Bloomberg. Mr. Murphy, who recently told The Financial Times that Read More
Amy Gold, a senior director at Upper East Side gallery L & M Arts, has left the gallery. Contacted by phone, Ms. Gold characterized her departure from the gallery, which is run by Dominique Levy and Robert Mnuchin, as "amicable." She said she has not yet settled on her next move, and will be taking Read More
Just in time for our “1980s British Bohemia Monday” comes this news out of London: the home decor of Uncle Monty’s house from the film Withnail and I will hit the auction block at Christie’s at the end of July. Actually the furnishings of Professor Bernard Nevill, standout items include a sporting painting Read More
Wednesday, May 11
Fifteen Minutes, Extended
Warhol! The pop artist is the auteur of modern celebrity--but will people shell out for, you know, his art, when they can witness his legacy by flipping on E!? Of course, they will. That famous Self-Portrait in vivid red, the centerpiece of today's Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Auction, Read More
Christie's International PLC, founded in 1766, announced late last month the hiring of Steven Murphy, a chief executive who, uncharacteristically, had not gone to Eton. Even more shocking, for the first time in its history, the company will be led by an American.
His nationality aside, the 56-year-old New Yorker was an unlikely choice for the Read More
Winner of the Week: Frick Collection director Anne L. Poulet, who announced she'll retire in Sept. 2011 after eight years there, and much success fund-raising. Let the search for a replacement begin!
Loser: Damien Hirst collectors, who are seeing the (near-term) resale value of their art sink in the wake of the Lehman Brothers auction. Read More
In a surprising and unlikely move, auctioneer Christie's has hired, from outside, a former publishing, record company and Disney executive as its CEO. For the firm known for, literally, centuries (it was founded in 1766) of Eton-educated top managers and very little turnover, this is a huge cultural shift.
Steven Murphy becomes CEO of Christies International Read More
As a student in Paris in 1927, young designer Charlotte Perriand was turned away by the legendary Le Corbusier after being told, "We don't embroider cushions here." A few months later, after a colleague took him to see a glass, steel and aluminum rooftop bar she had designed, he hastily changed his mind. She worked Read More
