September Contemporary Auction Results.. no sign of trouble!!

We were just totally crushed out bid on a lot at today's Sotheby Contemporary Art Auction...

Don't all those silly bidders know we're in the middle of a MAJOR Financial Crisis???

With tons of people getting fired, home prices tumbling nationwide, seasoned trader loosing their shirts, investment bankers choking on bad leveraged loans and almost every hedge fund whiz kid out there getting wiped out!! you'd think art auction prices would not be jumping up!! guess not !!

So the Christies First Open sale..seems to have gone OK..$12.2 Million with the High Estimate at $12.6 million. Well.. here's a story by Lindsay Pollock from Bloomberg News. Download Christies_first open_Sept07

But DAMN!! The Paddles were flying in the air today at Sotheys too... Calder, Warhol, Haring, Katz and Basquiat all..selling for huge money!!

But there were some true shockers at todays sale...check these out!! Will the money madness ever end???

Lot 316..ALLAN D'ARCANGELO B.1930
SMOKE DREAM #2 signed,

titled and dated NYC 1963 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 30 x 28 inches.

8,000—12,000 USD
Lot Sold. 

Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:  $289,000 USD

But the truly outright stupid ridiculous sale of the year..

goes hands down to this one...

Lot 353a...GEORGE RODRIGUE, B. 1944
THE PATH OF THE CANDLES,

signed; signed, titled and dated 2000 on the reverse

acrylic and oil on canvas 48 x 36 inches.

60,000—80,000 USD
Lot Sold. 

Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:

$115,000 USD !!!

All I can say..

P.T. Barnum would have been proud!!

It's just amazing to think someone with $115,000 bucks to burn can have such bad taste advise .. and doesn't have at least one friend to talk them out of buying a blue dog!!

Comments

[Edward_]

Ahh...there, there, MAO. Those prices will tumble for you. You saw that some of today's hottest young stars were bought in at Christies, no? Your examples of mad prices are by much older artists.

[martin]

mao, that d'arcangelo was worth it!

[Kenny T]

OMG! I'm so excited!!! My Blue Dog collection is going to finally get me that Fire Island Beach House of my DREAMS! And to think I was going to donate them all to the city of New Orleans!

[cocoguy]

OMG, if I want to spend that $115000, I will go to ZONE:Chelsea to buy the whole show. Have you seen that airplane in the ass photo, OMG!

[Art Brute]

Haha, I came across a GEORGE RODRIGUE book at strand just the other day and found myself thinking "how the hell did this guy make it big enough to get his own book?"

As for the hot young artist not selling! Holy crap I'm pretty tempted to try and track down 20 grand to buy that closed contact print. Unless there is any condition issues (which I heard sometimes their is with the larger prints) the low estimate is a bargain for a 70+ inch and desirable print. The 11x14 inch prints have sold for as much as 7 grand with premium and I'd need at least 10k before I'd consider selling my copy.

The schutz print is AMAZING but at 10k low estimate, yeah that one was little overpriced. I really don't think this stuff is anything to send anyone running and screaming. Not yet anyway.

[Brian]

Thanks for the shout-out, MAO! And, thanks for the loan of the photographs.

[Lisa Hunter]

The show was full of junk! Meanwhile, a few really nice pieces by no-longer fashionable artists were bought in. It makes me wonder why Christie's bother to print pictures in their catalog since so many buyers were clearly just shopping for "names."

[Iwan]

I have observed the results of the auctions, both Christie's and Sotheby's. Many big names were not even sold. It is of course easier to pinpoint the succesfully sold art works. Most of the works were sold under the high estimate or not sold at all. I am expecting some correction in the contemporary art world. I am very glad with this situation, meaning that I can again afford buying arts I love.

[Mark Staff Brandl]

Cheese-Us! That blue dog is sickening. You nailed that right! I love your crossed-out additions in general, by the way. It is amazing how stupid the artworld can be at times.

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