Klimt record for Lauder's collection at Sotheby's
The two catalogues totalled $706 million for 75 lots sold out of 77 offered, exceeding pre-sale estimates
Key points
The two catalogues offered by Sotheby's on the evening of 18 November in New York's new Breuer Building, led by Leonard Lauder's collection, did not disappoint expectations, bringing in a total revenue of $706m for 75 lots sold out of 77 offered, exceeding pre-sale estimates. An important contribution was made by the guarantees, and the participation on the phone or via advisors in the room of several clients from Asia.
The Lauder collection and Klimt record
The proceeds were mainly due to the first catalogue offered: the 24 lots from the collection of the recently deceased Leonard Lauder of the leading cosmetics family, who in over 60 years of collecting had a number of masterpieces on his hands, many of them donated to the MET in NYC in particular, which explains the absence of cubist works of which he was perhaps the world's greatest collector. The catalogue was fully guaranteed by the auction house, which over the course of weeks transferred the risk of 19 lots to third party guarantors, in particular, all those with million-dollar estimates.
The results nevertheless beat the guarantees; the total proceeds of $527.5 million exceeded the high estimate of $412.5 million, largely due to the three Gustav Klimt paintings offered, which totalled over $390 million.
Of particular note was the more than twenty-minute battle between six suitors to win the large and highly elaborate portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, which surpassed its high estimate by $150m to end up fetching $205m, or $236.4m with commissions, a record for the artist and the second highest price ever at auction. The rarity of this delicate full-length portrait, intimately linked to the artist's history in that it was dedicated to his main patrons of the time and painted between 1914 and 1916, combined with its also dramatic history during the Nazi period, when it was requisitioned only to be returned to its rightful owners, put the persuasive force of the unique opportunity to work, surpassing even the privately negotiated price of the famous portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I bought in 2006 by her brother Ronald Lauder for $135 million.
The catalogue also included two characteristic landscapes that did not attract the same interest, however, ending up at around the guaranteed low estimate: 'Blumenweise' from 1908 at $86m with commissions, from an asking estimate in excess of $80m, and a 1916 Attersee Forest at $68.3m, below the $70m asking estimate, which was awarded to art advisor Patti Wong, specialising in Chinese and Asian clients. Two other drawings by Klimt from 1903-04, studies for portraits to Adele Block-Bauer, instead triggered several bids adding $1m, a multiple of the estimate.
The market thus proves somewhat selective, rightly favouring the female portraits that represent the pinnacle of the Viennese artist's production. Rounding out the results for early 20th century painting was also an unusually sunny work by Edvard Munch from 1901-03 with a group of female figures caught on a midsummer night, which fetched the high estimate of $30m, or $35.1m with commissions. Records were also set for an ink drawing byVan Gogh, a study for the famous painting of the Sower, which realised $11.2 million. A major contribution also came from Henri Matisse's six bronzes, led by three rare female figurines conceived in the early 1900s and cast after the war, and three heads by Henriette, which totalled $49 million, above estimates.
The catalogue also featured five post-war works, led by two million-dollar realisations for Agnes Martin's minimalist geometries, with the large 1964 canvas 'The Garden', the artist's only known multi-coloured grid, fetching $17.6 million, and a later work at $7.2 million well above estimates.
