2010 年Top 10 卖出的艺术品

10 Most Expensive Art Sales of 2010

  

The top-end of the art market rebounded last year, as billionaires from Asia, Russia and the Middle East competed with established U.S. and European buyers for the few choice works up for grabs. The 2010 list of highest-priced art sales reflects the current taste for large-scale, expressive, modernist works by art world stalwarts. Only one postwar artist—Andy Warhol—made the list, but two Chinese artworks found their way into the top five, a clear sign of future interest. In another shift, half of the works were sold outside the U.S., indicating the rapid growth of global wealth and buying habits. (Artnet, a pricing database, Sotheby’s and Christie’s helped compile the data below.)

 

01. $106.5 MILLION

 

 NUDE, GREEN LEAVES AND BUST, Pablo Picasso

 

 

The late, great Picasso helped shake the art sector out of its recessionary doldrums. In May, this sensuous 5-foot-tall 1932 painting of the artist’s mistress went for $106.5 million at Christie’s, becoming the priciest artwork ever sold at auction. The work came fresh to market from the estate of Los Angeles philanthropist Frances Brody, who acquired her Picasso in 1950 for $17,000. The record-setting price wasn’t a surprise, though; the canvas was the trophy of the spring New York auction season.

 

02. $104.3 MILLION

 

WALKING MAN 1, Alberto Giacometti

 

 

A life-size bronze statue of a slender striding man provided a windfall for the German Dresdner Bank AG and its owner, Commerzbank AG. Dresdner sold Giacometti’s 1961 Walking Man 1 for a (short-lived) record $104.3 million in February at Sotheby’s in London. Lily Safra, worth an estimated $1 billion, was the reported purchaser after an eight-minute auction that began with a range of roughly $18 million to $27 million. Giacometti, whose work personifies postwar European angst and alienation, has been an auction powerhouse lately. Still, the work comes from an edition of six, plus four artist’s proofs, which left some dealers puzzling over the price. “It was a freak result,” London art expert Philip Hoffman told Bloomberg, attributing the high price to “wealthy people … desperate to buy rare pieces.”

 

03. $83 MILLION

 

QING DYNASTY CHINESE VASE, artist unknown

 

 

China is the undisputed future of the art market. In what may be the year’s biggest auction surprise, a yellow-and-blue 18th century vase, decorated with goldfish, soared past a $1.5 million presale estimate, selling for a jaw-dropping $83 million in November to an anonymous Asian buyer, a record for a Chinese work of art at auction. Why the high price? The vase was created around 1740 for a favored emperor, and Chinese collectors are passionate about bringing such masterpieces, many of which were looted by the British during 19th century conflicts, home. The lucky sellers were heirs of a British woman who had owned the vase since the 1930s.

 

04. $69 MILLION

 

NUDE SITTING ON A SOFA, Amedeo Modigliani

 

 

Top-notch works are increasingly rare at Impressionist and modern art auctions, especially in uncertain financial times, when collectors are reluctant to sell into a potentially weak market. But Sotheby’s landed at least one gem this fall: Modigliani’s 1917 nude, which sold for $69 million after a global bidding battle. Back in 1999, Nude Sitting on a Sofa sold at auction for $16.8 million, a cast-off from the Sultan of Brunei’s family.

 

05. $64 MILLION

 

CHINESE CALLIGRAPHY SCROLL, Huang Tingjian

 

A 15-meter-long, black-and-white Chinese scroll brought $64 million in June at a Beijing Poly Auction sale. Dating back to 1095, the scroll was the work of Huang Tingjian (1045-1105), considered one of the four great calligraphers of the Song Dynasty, which lasted from the year 960 to 1279. Competition between a pair of bidders reportedly lasted 30 minutes. The price achieved a record for a Chinese work of art at auction, broken just five months later by the Qing vase described above.

 

06. $63.4 MILLION

 

MEN IN HER LIFE, Andy Warhol

 

Warhol’s 1962 black-and-white painting of serial images of actress Elizabeth Taylor sold for $63.4 million at Phillips de Pury and Co. in New York in November, confounding dealers and art advisors who whispered that the painting was worth only a fraction of the sale price. Men in Her Life was among works rounded up by private dealer Philippe Segalot for the sale at Phillips to inaugurate a splashy new Park Avenue salesroom. The seller was the Mugrabi family, whose stash of some 800 Warhol paintings is second only to that of Pitt*****urgh’s Andy Warhol Museum.

 

07. $53.3 MILLION

 

GRANDE TÊTE MINCE, Alberto Giacometti

 

 

Frances Brody’s estate also included the 1954-1955 Giacometti bust Grande Tête Mince, which surpassed expectations of $35 million by selling for some $53 million in May at Christie’s New York. (Another piece from the same edition went for $13.8 million in 2002, before the recent spike in Giacometti prices.) The buyer, private dealer Guy Bennett, declined to identify his client.

 

08. $52.6 MILLION

 

TÊTE DE CARYATIDE, Amedeo Modigliani

 

 

Best known for his dazzling painted portraits, Modigliani scores a second spot on the list with Tête de Caryatide, an elegant, masklike limestone sculpture, which sold for $52.6 million. The work zoomed above the $5 million to $8 million presale estimate. The 1911-1912 bust, influenced by African sculpture, sold in June at Christie’s in Paris, establishing a record price for an artwork sold in France and for Modigliani, though the latter benchmark held for just five months.

09. $52 MILLION

 

PORTRAIT OF ANGEL FERNANDEZ DE SOTO, Pablo Picasso

 

 

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s foundation parted with this 1903 Blue Period Picasso at Christie’s in London for $52 million. The foundation describes its purpose as “to advance the education of the public in the arts … by purchasing paintings for [England].” It bought the work, depicting the artist’s friend in a smoky cafe with a large glass of absinthe, at Sotheby’s in 1995 for $29.2 million.

 

10. $48.8 MILLION

 

NU DE DOS, 4 ÉTAT (BACK IV), Henri Matisse

 

 

Though Matisse is best known for his colorful canvases, this life-size bronze sculpture of a woman’s back achieved an auction record for the artist: In November, it sold at Christie’s New York to dealer Larry Gagosian for an unnamed client for $48.8 million. The Matisse, from an edition of 10, was conceived in 1930 and cast in 1978, nearly a quarter century after the artist’s death. This sale marked the first time one of Matisse’s bronzes from the series was available at auction.