The start of May sees the art world kick into gear with its Spring Auctions. Sotheby’s New York has a spectacular line-up planned for the next few weeks. The 270 year-old art auction house has made extensive renovations to its New York showrooms situated on the Upper East side. Amy Cappellazzo, the chairwoman of the new Fine Art division, commented that the restoration was undertaken as they ‘need to look like an art business, not an old-fashioned auction house’. Not that the company is doing badly, with combined total sales from New York, their global head office, at $5.35 billion over just the last 3 years.
The newly-revamped exhibition space spans 22,000 square feet over six floors, with galleries designed by Richard Gluckman. It is this very modern space which will host an Impressionist and Modern Art evening on Monday 9th May, followed by the day sale on Tuesday, 10th May. A Contemporary Art evening auction will commence on Wednesday, followed by the day auction on Thursday next. An exhibition of the some 750 works in this collection are currently on display in Sotheby’s New York ahead of the sale, and are not to be missed if you are in the area.
The artwork up for auction includes a selection of Picasso’s to include Buste D’Homme Lauré, the estimate for which begins at $8 million. A stunning Monet piece, Camille à l’Ombrelle Verte, which shows the artist’s wife with a green umbrella painted in their garden at Argenteuil, is expected to fetch in the region of $9 million. Andy Warhol’s Self Portrait (Fright Wig) and Camouflage (Blue) are both up for auction in the evening auction on the 11th, followed by another range of his work on Thursday.
However, the offerings are not limited to paintings, some of the sculptures include a number of works by French sculptor Rodin including his L’Éternal Printemps and Salvador Dalí’s Venus de Milo aux Tiroirs.
You can get a quick glimpse at some of the pieces in this video where Simon Shaw and Grégoire Billault, from Sotheby’s introduce the artwork up for grabs.
Kelly Crow for the Wall Street Journal has reported that Sotheby’s anticipate sales in the region of $460 million for the 4 auctions next week. Intent on keeping up to date with modern trends, Sotheby’s have opened up the May auctions to an online audience through the online marketplace eBay. This move will allow bidders from around the globe to take part in the auction. Other innovative moves the company are involved in include an Apple TV channel for hosting live events and the development of a mobile app.
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