Tag Archives: auction

Jul 13 2016
Art

Kew Gardens

ed4a454ec502cf25802511f4e84e4de6

I have a new artist crush, and his name is David Inshaw.

Lovers at Kew Gardens is up for auction and is expected to fetch up to $6K. I’d like to think it’s out of my price range right now, but uh, I’m sure I spent that much on spin last month…I won’t say no to it as a gift, though.

Kew Gardens boasts both the largest collection of living plants AND one of the largest greenhouses in the world. If you want to visit, it’s in the London Borough of Richmond.

Girlfriend seems more interested in getting handsy than learning about boroughs, so I won’t bore you with it either.

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Jan 17 2016
Art, Person

the agony

gauguin image.jpg

How in God’s name does Paul Gauguin still top the list of the most expensive paintings? I’m legitimately trying to understand this. Is there nothing we can do? Christie’s, I am begging you. I can’t take another moment of this smug bastard.

Continue reading posts of my general disdain here.

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Nov 22 2014
Art

francis bacon

francis bacon

This triptych of Lucien Freud, painted by Francis Bacon, is the most expensive painting ever sold at auction (if you avoid inflation). One hundred forty million dollars. That’s seven zeroes.

If you can genuinely explain to me why this has the highest price tag ever paid at auction, that’d be swell. If you can introduce me to the person who paid for it, I’m gonna need to prepare myself for putting the work in. Because if you have 140 million to throw at a bad set of paintings….I’d like to introduce myself.

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Nov 17 2014
Art

pooh sticks

christopher robin

 

Christopher Robin, Pooh, and Piglet are wondering where their weekend went.

Like this illustration? You can buy it at Sotheby’s English Literature, History, Children’s Books and Illustrations auction later this week.

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Nov 17 2014
Art

triple elvis

warhol elvis

Warhol’s “Triple Elvis” sold for $81.9 million this week. More than a billion dollars were spent at auction at Sotheby’s and Christie’s. Like, hello?! I rummage for change when ordering my iced coffee. This whole “millions to throw down on art” must be really, really nice.

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Nov 09 2014
Art

manet

Jeanne Demarsy

 

Manet’s “Spring” fetched a whopping $65 million at auction last week. Turns out the buyer was the Getty. “Spring” was meant part of a series of women representing the seasons, but Manet only completed “Spring” and “Autumn” before he died in 1883.

manet autumn

Spring’s way hotter.

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Oct 08 2014
Art

vase with daisies and poppies

van gogh daisies

 

So, if you have between $30 and $50 million, this van Gogh could be yours when it goes on the auction block November 4th. I’ll extend the same offer I made to anyone who stepped forward to save Detroit’s art collection — call me.

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Aug 28 2014
Art, Person

roy

roy lichtenstein

When this painting came out in 1964, Roy Lichtenstein was profiled in LIFE Magazine. The article’s subheading said, “Is He the Worst Artist of the US?”

Sleeping Girl sold at auction in 2012 for almost $45 million. So, uh, LIFE? I’m gonna go ahead and say, “Or nah.”

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Jul 14 2014
Art

odalisque

matisee-odalique

Henri Matisse’s “Odalisque” has quite a long lineage of ownership. The Nazis seized the work from art dealer Paul Rosenberg in 1941. The work traveled from Paris to New York, where it was purchased by the lumber millionaires Prentice and Virginia Bloedel. (Note: The two founded Bleodel Reserve, a pretty major mansion and wildlife habitat north of Seattle that sits on a measly 150 acres.) They donated the painting to the Seattle Art Museum in 1991.

Since “Odalisque” was a work confiscated by the Nazis, Rosenberg’s granddaughter Anne Sinclair (France’s own “Barbara Walters”) sued the Seattle Art Museum (the first lawsuit of its kind regarding looted art). The museum then sued the New York gallery (like, of course). The museum unanimously voted to give the work back in 1999. In 2007, Sinclair put the work up for auction. The price tag? 33 million.

As if this story couldn’t get more dramatic! Anne Sinclair’s ex is Dominique Strauss-Kahn, former IMF Managing Director who was acquitted of assault charges against a hotel maid. See? Told you.

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Jun 19 2014
Art

field of dreams turns 25


“People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh… people will come Ray. People will most definitely come.”

Be real, James Earl Jones. The one constant I think you mean is a young Ray Liotta…

In related news, Norman Rockwell’s “The Rookie” sold last month for $22 million dollars. If you build auction it, they will come.

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