Modern and contemporary auctions: selective exploits, but the market slows down
In the first days of July, adjudications exceeded estimates for Guttuso, Warhol and Burri, but the total takings remained below expectations. Excellent sales from de Chirico to Fontana
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Key points
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The modern and contemporary art auctions held in the first days of July confirmed an established trend: works of high quality or with an interesting provenance are rewarded. At first glance, the results would therefore seem positive. However, a closer look - comparing the counter value of the pre-sale estimates, which do not take buyer's premium into account, with the total hammer price, i.e. the actual hammer prices without buyer's premium - reveals a less bright picture that falls short of expectations. Are pre-sale estimates too high for some works to meet sellers' demands? Or an over-reliance on the pulling effect of top lots, in an attempt to enhance the value of smaller lots as well? Let us now look in detail at the results of the auctions examined, leaving it to the numbers to speak and above all the hammer price.
Between surprises and unsold items: the results of the Cambi auction
.The auction of modern and contemporary art organised by Cambi on 1 July in Milan closed with a counter-value of €1.7m (including buyer's premium) an amount that fell to €1.35m without the buyer's premium, a value that was below the minimum pre-auction estimate of €1.597m. The auction offered 150 lots, of which two were withdrawn before the sale and 44 remained without a buyer, resulting in a sale rate of 70 per cent. Taking the adjudication price as a reference, some lots marked significantly higher values than the pre-estimate, including two of the three works in the auction by Renato Guttuso. The most significant growth from the high pre-auction estimate was recorded by the painting "Natura morta con fiasco e bottiglia" (Still Life with Flask and Bottle) of 1956, which fetched €66,000 (€82.6 thousand with the buyer's premium). Cactus and the Sea (Prickly Pears)" of 1978 also registered a high result and fetched a hammer price of €33,000 (€41.3,000 with the buyer's premium), against a maximum estimate of €18,000. Other sales noteworthy for the price level achieved were the painting by Felice Casorati, 'Fanciullo nello studio', an intimate domestic scene from circa 1958, which closed at €56,000 (€70.1 thousand with the buyer's premium), compared to a maximum estimate of €35,000 and René Magritte, whose small pen drawing, "Untitled", which started from a maximum estimate of just €9,000, reached a hammer price of €30,000 (€37.6,000 with the buyer's premium). In line with the maximum pre-sale estimate, "Volo sull'oceano" of 1929 by Gerardo Dottori, a large oil on canvas, an emblematic work of aerial futurism, fetched €200,000 (€250,100 with the buyer's premium) and "Zone riflesse", 1962, by Paolo Scheggi, an acrylic constructed on three overlapping canvases, which fetched €120,000 (€150.1 thousand with the buyer's premium). Also for 'Nero medio' a work of 1964 by Afro Basaldella, a mixed technique on canvas with strong colour contrasts, it was beaten to the maximum estimate of euro 70,000.
Among the unsold items were a ceramic by Lucio Fontana, "Corrida", 1951 - 1952, (estimate between Euro 40-60,000), three works by Giacomo Balla, a painting by Salvo, "Senza titolo" (estimate Euro 50-80,000) and a silkscreen print with the dollar symbol by Andy Warhol (estimate Euro 35,000-45,000). Of the three canvases by Capogrossi only 'Superficie CP/9' sold for €12,000 (€15,100 with buyer's premium) within the estimate (€10-15,000).
Finarte: famous lots but not always satisfactory results
The auction on 2 July featured a catalogue with 153 lots (48 unsold) and closed with a countervalue of €2.2m (including buyer's premium) against a pre-sale estimate of between €3m and €4.3m. The auction included works from the private collections ofMonica Vitti and Fausto Bertinotti and Lella Ravera. From the Monica Vitti collection, three important works: the painting by Giorgio de Chirico, "Mysterious Baths" of 1935 that from an estimate between €400 and 600,000 fetched €380,000 (€467,500 including the buyer's premium) slightly below the minimum estimate. A second work by de Chirico, "Niobe" of 1921, tempera on canvas, with an estimate between €450,000 and €650,000, however, did not find a buyer, as did the work by Giacomo Balla, "Compenetrazione iridescente" - study for "Penetration + Space" of 1912, tempera on paper with an estimate between €65,000 and €80,000.
For Fausto Bertinotti and Lella Ravera's collection, the most significant result was recorded by the two Andy Warhol silkscreens depicting Mao Tse Tung, created in 1972 and donated to the Bertinotti couple by former banker Mario D'Urso. The works, initially estimated at between €20,000 and €30,000 each, were sold for €106,000 and €80,000 respectively (both prices are without buyer's premium). Among the lots sold were two works by Piero Dorazio, which fetched respectively €7,000 and €2,451, followed by a bronze by Mario Ceroli (€2,800), a vase by Luca Maria Patella (€2,000), a 1981 painting by Mario Schifano (€15,000) and "Camion", 1976 by Titina Maselli, which fetched €11,500. A good performance by Giosetta Fioroni's "La gabbia d'oro" sold for €16,500 (hammer price €13,000 from an estimate of €3-4,000).
Among the hammer prices over the estimates was a painting by Mark Kostabi, a leading figure in the 1980s within the East Village art movement in New York, "Gregor massage therapist", 1989 sold at a hammer price of €6,500 from an estimate of between €4 and €5,000. Among the other auction highlights, "Combustion" (1968) by Alberto Burri fetched €103,500 (hammer price €82,000, pre-auction estimate €20-30,000), while another work by Alberto Burri ("Texas", 1945, estimate €600-800,000) went unsold.
The catalogue could not fail to include the now ubiquitous Salvo: two works were offered but only one of them, "Ora di pranzo" (2007), was sold (hammer price €48,000 just below the estimate of €50-70,000). Among the unsoldPiero Gilardi, "Melo fiorito", 1999 (estimate Euro 15-25 thousand), "Femme à la guitare", 1899, pastel and wax crayons on paper (estimate Euro 30-50 thousand) and "Kellem", 1990 byVictor Vasarely (estimate Euro 50-70 thousand).
Pandolfini between exploits and disappointments
Two modern and contemporary art events took place at Pandolfini. Between the end of June and the first days of July, an online auction was held that presented 212 lots, very limited in value, which closed with a result of €81,040 (€102,110 with the buyer's premium) below estimates ranging from €141,500 to €249,230. The other event, on 11 June, featured 85 lots and realised a countervalue of €1.011m (€1.271m with the buyer's premium) compared with the pre-sale estimate of between €949.7m and €1.624m. Among the top lots: the portrait of Fanny Kessler III by Antonio Ligabue for the first time on the market from the collection of Bruno Bertacchini fetched €100,000 (€126,000 with the buyer's premium) from its pre-sale estimate of between €80,000 and €120,000. The sculpture "Sonno II", 2001 by Igor Mitoraj surpassed its high estimate of 90,000 euro to reach 110,000 euro (hammer price), as did "Cimitero Partigiano (rosso)", 1963 by Franco Angeli which fetched 70,000 euro (88.200 with the buyer's premium) and the gouache byTheo Van Doersburg entitled "Projet d'Affiche (non realisée) for a retrospective at Little Review Gallery, New York" (c.1924/25) that reached €30,000 (€37,800 with the buyer's premiumu,) from the maximum estimate of €20,000. The hammer price (€70,000) for the work "Solare", an enamel on paper applied on canvas by Mario Schifano, reached its maximum estimate. A ceramic work by Lucio Fontana (estimated at between €35 and €60,000) and a mixed technique by Fernando Botero, "Natura morta con uva", 1977 (estimated at between €35 and €60,000) did not find a buyer. Remaining below estimate is "Egg and White Drape", 1981 by Renato Guttuso (hammer price €33k from an estimate of €35-60k) despite numerous exhibitions including Paris and New York.
