Sotheby's and Christie's preparing for the upcoming May sales in New York

New York, accounting for 95% of total U.S. art auction revenue, is preparing its major May 2013 sales with a great deal of media attention. And considering the challenge facing Christie's and Sotheby's after their exceptional results in May 2012, it is easy to understand why.
 Last year, Sotheby's was very proud to announce a new world auction record at $120 million generated by one of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

Indeed, that result will most likely remain the world’s best-ever auction result for at least a few months to come since none of the small number of masterpieces announced by the two giants of the art market look like toppling Munch from his number one position. Sotheby's is planning to offer two major works: Paul Cézanne’s Les Pommes, considered tempting enough to fetch between $25 and $35 million (which would already be one of Cézanne Top 3 results) and a surprising portrait of L’Amazone by Amedeo Modigliani.

The latter is an early work from 1909 portraying the Baroness Margaret Hasse de Villers, in austere colours. Its main quality is its style, which acted as a precursor for the following ten years of artistic creation.
The following day (8 May 2013), Christie’s will be offering another portrait, this time with fauvist colours painted in 1905 by André Derain. Entitled Madame Matisse au kimono and estimated at between $15 and $20 million. This is the first time such an important Derain work with so much "Fauvist" and "Matissian" character will be offered to the public, and its low estimate should be achieved without difficulty.

Other highlights will be Gerhard Richter's Domplatz, Mailand from 1968, it is estimated at $30 to $40 million. Also one version of Auguste Rodin's Le Penseur from 1906  will be also sold. This copy was made for Ralph Pulitzer, son of the publisher Joseph Pulitzer.

The subsequent sales of Contemporary Art will of course be watched with tremendous interest after last year’s combined turnover record (Christie's and Sotheby’s) of $578.3 million for Post-War and Contemporary Art. Although this year’s catalogue does not contain any major work by Rothko, top-flight collectors will no doubt be eager to compete for another great American artist, Jackson Pollock, whose popularity has exploded in recent years.

In fact, in November 2012 Pollock’s Number 4 (76.5 cm x 63.5 cm) beat his previous auction record of approximately $15 million when it fetched no less than $36 million! And this time it is not a “dripping” that will be on offer, but a pivotal work from 1946, created just a few months before the first drippings. Kept in the same collection for over 50 years, this early work of respectable size (213.4 cm x 142.1 cm) entitled The Blue Unconscious will be presented on May 14 by Sotheby's with an estimated price range of $20 to $30 million.

"Madame Matisse au kimono" will be auctioned at Christie's on May 8th. AFP photo: Andrew Cowie