13/12/2001
by Andrew Moore

December saw the global auction house grouping known as the International Auctioneers (IA) hold their winter sale of Impressionist and Modernist paintings. Five of the ten-strong association held their sales on the 4^th of December, with the sale total making 97% (by value) of lots sold by value and a turnover of $ 5.9 million (€ 6.4 million), the highest yet realized in the IA’s shortlived 4 year history. Unquestionably these are strong results but perhaps its worth noting that these figures are artificial in the sense that the auctions were only related by being in the same catalogue and sold on the same day.

The auction began in Zurich at 6 pm local time at Galerie Koller, with the catalogue of 50 lots passed from one auction house to the next. Lempertz with 14 lots followed next, then Dorotheum with 13 lots, Finarte Madrid with 4 lots, and Finarte Milan with 7 lots making the whole affair a swift auction for the participants. Bidders were given the chance of participating via audio-link, but the sales were forgeone conclusions. "With every auction, we have become more and more selective about the works we include in the sale," said Alfred Karny, director of the Dorotheum in Vienna in an incredible piece of understatement, given that Finarte Madrid managed to muster only 4 lots. The IA auctions are increasingly shrinking as live sales events with it being more cost effective to market the lots and secure bids before the auction actually takes place.

Nevertheless the sale accolades went to Marino Marini’s bronze sculpture, Cavaliere, dating from 1947 which soared from an initial estimate of $ 533,040 (€ 600,000) to a hammer price and auction record for the artist of $ 1.2 million (€ 1.32 million). Finarte followed up this success the following day in a separate auction of Modern paintings and works of art at which another Marino Marini bronze entitled Cavallo, studio dated 1951, which fetched $ 135,100 (€ 150,550). Another new record on the 4^th of December during the IA auctions was Il povero pescatore (The Poor Fisherman) by Mario Sironi which hammered for $ 492,000, (€ 553,670) against a top end estimate of $ 17,770 (€ 20,000) at Koller. The oil on canvas, measuring 102 x 76 cm, came from a Swiss private collection and was exhibited in the third Biennale Romana d’Arte (Rome) MCMXXV in 1925. In this painting Sironi has dispensed with the dynamism of Futurism to focus in the mid 1920’s more on classical statuesque forms, along with contemporaries Picasso and Giorgio de Chirico.

Finarte, Madrid saw a bronze sculpture by Joan Miró, Oiseau sur une branche fetch $ 135,600 (€ 152,600). Lempertz another of the IA group, held its sale in Koln, the leading lot being Blaue Stimmung by the German expressionist Emile Nolde which fetched $ 614,000 (€ 690,990) while $ 424,000 (€ 477,170) was the price for an early 1950’s Composition by Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-), a contemporary French-Canadian artist, influenced by the Surrealist movement and the Ecole de Paris.

On the same day in London, Bonhams held their sale of 20^th century British and Irish Art. Though the catalogue was printed as a Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg auction, this was however a Bonhams affair at Bond Street, after the two auction houses Phillips (UK) and Bonhams merged as one firm, (simply now known as Bonhams) at the beginning of November. Top price in the sale which saw 71% of lots finding buyers, went to Edward Burra’s Sugar Beet, East Anglia a watercolour measuring 76.5 x 135 cm with provenance from the The Lefevre Gallery, London. Estimated at $ 57,300-85,400 (€ 64,500-96,130) the painting sold for a massive $ 114,460 (€ 128,840). Stanhope Alexander Forbes’ oil on canvas measuring 61 x 76 cm, entitled The Huckster just managed to surpass its top-end quote, selling for $ 111,600 (€ 125,630) against an estimate of $ 71,540-100,160 (€ 80,520-112,740). The auction house had only just sold a Stanhope Forbes painting the previous week (21^st of November) Young girl in a Cornish street an oil on canvas laid down on board, measuring 60.3 x 49.5 cm, which sold for $ 101,320 (€ 115,340) against an estimate of $ 56,290-84,440 (€ 63,010-94,520) and this lastest result shows that interest in this British impressionist artist is still unquenchable.