A ARTE DOS NEGÓCIOS DA ARTE EM TEMPOS DE PANDEMIA

Francis Bacon Triptych Sells for $84.6 Million

“Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus,” by Francis Bacon.

A Francis Bacon triptych sold tonight (29/6) for $84.6 million with fees at Sotheby’s inaugural digitally streamed “live” auction of contemporary and Impressionist art that replaced its postponed May evening sales in New York. A global online audience watched the company’s star auctioneer, Oliver Barker, take bids from international colleagues on screens in an empty salesroom in London specially adapted for the coronavirus pandemic.

After a 10 minute duel, the Bacon was finally bought by a telephone bidder in New York against determined competition from an online opponent in China. The price is the third-highest ever achieved for the artist at auction.

The celebrated British artist’s “Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus” (1981), was being sold by the Astrup Fearnley Museet, a private museum in Oslo founded by the Norwegian collector Hans Rasmus Astrup. Entered for the auction before the coronavirus lockdown, the Bacon had been guaranteed by Sotheby’s to sell for at least $60 million, making it the most valuable work so far offered at auction this year. The pandemic has made wealthy owners wary of selling trophy pieces.

“It’s a bit late, but it’s an important work from a good collection,” James Holland-Hibbert, a leading London-based dealer in 20th century British art, said of the triptych by Bacon, whose most prized works date from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. The presale estimate of $60 million was “not unreasonable,” given that the museum had previously tried to sell the work privately for more than $100 million, Mr. Holland-Hibbert said. “It was not entirely fresh to the market.”

Bacon’s characteristic depiction of three animal-like figures in claustrophobic interiors was the first large-scale triptych to have appeared on the auction market since 2014. A year earlier, the artist’s 1969 triptych, “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” had sold for a record $142.4 million, at the time the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction.

The evening sale may shatter a record for the most tired auctioneer ever: With the time differences in three cities, Oliver Barker hammered down his last work at 2:51 a.m. Tuesday in London (it was 9:51 a.m. Tuesday in Hong Kong). And there was still one more auction, of Impressionist and Modern Art, to go.

Christie’s Gets Creative for 20th-Century Art Auction in July

The sale, which includes works that were to be sold in New York in May, will be a hybrid: in-person (where allowed) and online in a format tailored for the coronavirus era.

Pablo Picasso’s “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘F’)” (1955), 

is among the paintings heading for auction that is estimated to bring in more than $20 million.

By Scott Reyburn  May 15, 2020

Christie’s has a new auction format for a July 10 event that it hopes will revive at least some of the drama — and the prices — of the live evening sales that were held pre-pandemic.

Billed as “ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century,” the auction will include a livestream with auctioneers offering works of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art in consecutive sessions from Christie’s salesrooms in Hong Kong, Paris, London and New York.

This gives owners of high-value artworks an opportunity to sell in a globally marketed live sale preceded by public exhibitions where allowed. Since the advent of the pandemic, auction houses have had to rely on more routine online-only sales to generate revenue, which require bidders to buy items without physically examining their quality or condition. Buyers are rarely confident enough to bid above $1 million.

This relay-style auction is expected (perhaps optimistically) to last about two hours and consists of 50 to 70 lots. It will start in Hong Kong at 8 p.m. local time, then progress across time zones, becoming an afternoon sale in Europe and a morning sale in the United States, finishing by about 10 a.m. Eastern time. Buyers can bid online, by telephone, and, where “government advice allows,” in the salesroom, Christie’s said in a statement.