Page 68 - Studio International - October 1966

Art prices current

The season at Parke-Bernet by Fritz Neugass

Parke-Bernet Galleries, the New York auction designate a price below which the item is not to be Usually prices fluctuate within one season. It is
house, reports an all-time high in its turnover for sold and he does not have to pay the full com- only rarely that the same price is reached for a
the 1965-6 season. The total of $23 million nearly mission fee when his reserve price is not reached. piece of art at different sales. Such, however, was
doubles the sum for the previous year and is about On the other hand, the chance for the collector or the case with Daumier's Ratapoil, which brought
$9 million above the previous highest result dealer to get a bargain is greatly reduced. On the $24,000 at Parke-Bernet in October 1965. Another
reached in 1962 when one painting by Rembrandt, whole, Parke-Bernet benefitted by the new regula- copy of the same cast came up in June 1966 at the
the Aristotle from the Erickson collection, was tions, it attracted prospective consigners and re- Palais Galliera in Paris and was knocked down for
knocked down to the Metropolitan Museum for ceived better material, much of which would Frs. 120,000, the exact equivalent of the price
$2,300,000. formerly have been sent for sale to London. reached in New York.
In recent years the New York auction market had The number of auction sales rose to ninety, as The highest, much-publicized price of Parke-
suffered from the competition of Sotheby's and compared to seventy-three in the previous season Bernet's 1965-6 season was the $800,000 which
Christie's, but in 1964, when the Sotheby/Parke- and to eighty-three in 1964. Many of the sales were Paul Mellon paid for Cezanne's landscape Maison
Bernet affiliation took place, it was hoped that devoted to special fields which drew a discrimi- a l'Estaque, which easily topped the previous record
New York would rally to its former eminence in nating clientele: Impressionists, modern painting for this artist's Boy with the Red Vest, sold for
the international art market. The results seem to and sculpture, Americana, Asiatica, primitive art, $616,000 at the Goldschmidt sale in 1959. Yet
justify these hopes. Commission fees have been etc. Some sales consisted of highly reputed private these amounts seem small by comparison with the
reduced and reserves, until now the exception, collections which always find a more interested $1,400,000, paid the same year by the National
have been introduced. The consigner can now audience than auctions of mixed lots consisting of Gallery in London for a large version of Cezanne's
less coveted properties and of material sent in by Bathers, purchased in private transaction from the
dealers to establish a market value for an artist or heirs of Pelletier, the collector of Manet and
to dispose of less attractive pieces which have long Cezanne.
Kenneth Armitage been in the market. Another Cezanne landscape, Le Jas de Bouffon,
Linked figures 1949 The main event of the season was the dispersal of was put up for auction at Parke-Bernet this season.
Bronze the collection formed by the late Pittsburgh indus- Slightly smaller but qualitatively of the same class
39 x 21+ x 10+ in. trialist G. David Thompson, which was attended as Maison a l'Estaque, this was knocked down for
Cast in Berlin 1960 by many European dealers and collectors. This $350,000 to the same dealer who had bought the
Sold at Sotheby's for £1,000
sale—with a total of $2,416,550— established new Mellon painting for $800,000. Although still an
record prices. The Swiss art dealer Ernst Beyeler adequate price in today's evaluating of Cezanne, it
paid the top price of $120,000 for Braque's cubist represents a considerable drop. This shows clearly
still-life La Bouteille au Rhum, and $55,000 for the vagaries of the auction market. Only when two
Picasso's Tête (Blue Bone) of 1929. Daniel Varenne wealthy bidders fight for the same item are
from Paris took home two paintings by de Stael for staggering prices reached.
$42,000 and $26,000. A Klee went to the Rhenish In spite of the substantial gain in the total of
collector Haak for $19,000, and the Grosvenor Parke-Bernet's 1965-6 season, essential losses did
Gallery, London, purchased two Mires for occur in several cases. In 1962 at the Sir Alexander
$13,000 and $15,000. The top price for Mirò, Korda sale in London, Renoir's Jeunes Filles au
however, a record for this artist— $85,000 — was Bord de l'Eau, c. 1883, was sold for $117,600. In
paid by the Hudson Gallery of Detroit for Auto- New York, this season, the same painting changed
portrait II. hands for $57,000, less than half the previous
The New York art dealer Charles Lock set a new amount. Similarly a Portrait de Jeune Femme by
record for Klee when he purchased Steamer and Renoir was sold at the same auction for $43,000,
Sailboats for $80,000—Thompson had originally paid about 20 per cent less than at its previous sale a
$18,000. Klee's previous record price of $61,000 few years ago. These declines do not mean neces-
for Departure of the Ships sold last year at a London sarily that the market for Renoir is weakening.
sale, was now topped by about 25 per cent. They show normal fluctuations in the auction
For some time now increased interest in sculpture climate which can be affected by the stock market,
has been shown in rising prices. This season's top by political unrest, even by a rainy day. Further-
results for sculpture—modern and primitive—indi- more, American collectors are getting more
cated a continuation of this trend. Rodin's bronze sophisticated. They are no longer just buying
study of 1893 for the Balzac statue was sold to the famous names, and are only willing to pay top
Rhode Island School of Design for $70,000 prices for highest quality. This trend clearly
(Thompson had purchased the bronze from the showed when eight unimportant Renoirs in the
Rodin Museum in Paris for about $12,000). Rubinstein sale fetched prices of between $3,500
Matisse's Figure decorative, c. 1906, reached $45,000 and $11,000.
(another cast fetched only $22,500 at a London The demand for quality became even more evi-
sale six years ago). Thompson had acquired from dent when Huntington Hartford, founder of New
Henry Moore a terracotta statue Seated Woman, York's Gallery of Modern Art, sold Le Polisseur, an
1952, of which he had a bronze cast made in 1961 academic study by Toulouse-Lautrec painted when
without the artist's consent. Only later did Moore he was not yet twenty. Mr Hartford purchased
give permission for five more casts to be made. this picture at the Somerset Maugham sale four
The first of these was sold at Parke-Bernet in years ago in London for $75,600. Now, in New
October 1965 for $33,000. Five months later the York, it reached only $30,000—for the consigner a
price for Thompson's bronze had risen to $47,500. loss of about $50,000 including the commission fee.