Art sales hold up despite war anxieties

NEW YORK, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Two weeks of sales of Impressionist, modern, post-war and contemporary art at New York's three major auction houses proved that a soft economy, the global war against terrorism, and anxiety over the Iraq situation have failed to make a serious dent in the art market.

Paintings and sculpture that were admittedly overvalued with a pre-sales estimate of about $400 million, brought a total of nearly $350 million and set world auction records for several artists. Executives at Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips' auction houses said they were generally pleased with the results, although Phillips' sale of Impressionist and modern art was disappointing.

The total for this year's November series of sales was dramatically higher than the $242 million realized from last year's November sales and good news for the $4 billion-dollar-a-year art market in general. A $78.2 million sale of contemporary art at Sotheby's was the highest total for such a sale since the market for contemporary art peaked out in 1989.

Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg's sale opened the marathon series of auctions last week with 44 Impressionist and modern works on the block, only 19 of which found buyers. Among the works that failed to sell were a Pablo Picasso portrait, a Henry Moore sculpture, an Henri Matisse cut-out, and a Claude Monet Landscape, all of which had been expected to fetch millions.

But at an auction early this week of post-war and contemporary art, Phillips sold all but six of 46 works for a total of $24.8 million, almost exactly the estimated low pre-sale estimate for all of the works offered. Simon de Pury, chairman of Phillips, declared the sale "a fantastic success" for the smallest and newest of the major auction houses.

The top prices realized in the series of sales were $18.7 million for Claude Monet's "Waterlilies," a favorite subject of the artist late in his career, $13.2 million for Willem Ke Kooning's collage, "Orestes," $9.9 million for Jasper Johns' "0 through 9," one of the artist's gray numerals series believed to have been purchased by Hollywood's David Geffen, and $8.4 million for Amadeo Modigliani's "Young Woman With Red Hair."

Remembering the chilling effect the Persian Gulf War had on the art market in 1990, the jittery auction business was focused on the first big sales of the season as indicators of how the market would react to the possibility of a war to topple Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Although some paintings and sculpture failed to find bidders at all the sales, bidding was brisk on most lots, and there even were a few surprises.

One of them was the world auction record of $3.4 million set at Christie's for a work by Spanish modern sculptor Julio Gonzalez, a 1937 abstract welded iron piece titled "Gothic Man" that had carried a high pre-sale estimate of $2 million. It was sold to a European telephone bidder.

Two other individual auction records for sculpture were set at the sale - $6.7 million for Picasso's 1951 bronze, "Monkey and Her Child," purchased by an unidentified American collector, and $999,500 for American artist Alexander Archipenko's "Blue Dancer". An Alexander Calder mobile, "S-Shaped Vine," sold at Phillips for $2.5 million.

Other top prices at Christie's were an auction record of $7.1 million paid at Christie's for a work by Roy Lichtenstein, "Happy Tears," a cartoon -like closeup of a woman smiling and crying, $5.5 million for Fernand Leger's 1918 "Two Acrobats," and $4.9 million for Andy Warhol's silk screen, "Big Electric Chair."

At Sotheby's Lichtenstein's pop image of a garbage can, "Step On Can," sold for $4.8 million, Matisse's "Still Life With Napkin" also brought $4.8 million, Franz Kline's abstraction, "Ninth Street," sold for $4.5 million, and two Andy Warhol portraits, "Lavender Marilyn (Monroe)" and "Silver Liz (Elizabeth Taylor)" fetched $4.6 million and $4.4 million respectively.

The rising popularity of second-string French Impressionist Gustav Caillebotte was reflected in the $4.6 million paid at Sotheby's for his 1876 "Bridge of Europe." But some Impressionist canvases didn't fare well at all. Going unsold because there was no bid high enough to satisfy the seller's minimum were two Monet paintings, another of his waterlily series, "The Waterlily Pond," and "Japanese Bridge in Monet's Garden."

California contemporary artist Wayne Thebaud's "Toy Counter," a picture of toys on a shelf that is typical of his most popular work didn't even get a bid at Sotheby's but one of his later work, "Freeways," an urban landscape, sold for $3 million, far above its $2 million estimate and an auction record for any work by Thebaud. Go figure!