5 Fascinating Auction Sales from Around the World
Laura Owens, Untitled (2012)
Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby's
Sold at Sotheby’s New York (November 16)
Lively bidding for this 9-by-7-foot mixed-media painting drove the price to $1.45 million, well over the artist’s previous $360,000 auction record and the $200,000–300,000 estimate. The canvas is one of seven from Owens’s “Pavement Karaoke” series, five of which went on view a week earlier in the Whitney Museum’s mid-career survey of the Los Angeles artist's work.
Etruscan Bronze Appliqué
Photo: Courtesy of Christie's Images Limited
Sold at Christie’s London (December 6)
The best-preserved and only example to have remained in private hands—the other four known such pieces are in museum collections—this extraordinary figure, circa 500–475 B.C., represents the sun god Usil and was acquired for £296,750 ($397,348).
Shaun Leane, COILED CORSET (1999–2000)
Photo: Courtesy of Sotheby's, Opposite: Robert Fairer
Sold at Sotheby’s New York (December 4)
This sale of collaborations between jeweler Shaun Leane and fashion designer Alexander McQueen featured daring pieces that dissolved distinctions between adornment and art. Designed for the Overlook collection, this corset of 97 aluminum coils was precisely fitted to the model’s measurements. The only work in the sale to be signed by both men, it commanded $807,000.
Ansel Adams, The Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (1942)
Photo: Ansel Adams/National Archives/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Sold at Doyle New York (December 14)
Toward the end of his life, the photographer reated “Museum Sets” of ten images—all produced in his studio and signed by him—which collectors were legally bound not to sell. For the first time ever, a set was offered piecemeal in a deaccession by the College of New Rochelle, in New York. This iconic gelatin-silver print fetched $81,250.
Alberto Giacometti, “Figure” Floor Lamp (1933–34)
Photo: Courtesy of Phillips
Sold at Phillips New York (December 12)
One of several objects commissioned by designer Jean-Michel Frank for his client Elsa Schiaparelli, this patinated bronze lamp with a paper shade embodies the imaginative minimalist spirit these men shared. An early version featuring a narrow base, it sold for $325,000.
