​ An exceptional week in Paris

Last week was the Parisian art market’s most important week in its annual calendar. Visitors and collectors were attracted to a veritable marathon of fairs and exhibitions that included the International Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC) at the Grand Palais and the Louvre (and its gardens), the YIA Art Fair, the Asia Now Fair, the Outsider Art Fair, the Paris Internationale Fair and the tenth anniversary of Art Elysées (Art and Design). There were also a number of less publicised (but highly quality) events such as Chambres à part and Private choice and a number of inaugurations (including that of the RX gallery in the Marais district) and a number of galleries not present at the fairs stayed open late into the night.

In sum, hundreds of galleries, thousands of artists and tens of thousands of visitors converged on the French capital to show off and discover the latest artistic trends. And in the middle of it all, some auctioneers were active as well, with Christie’s keen to make the most of the influx of professional collectors from around the world.

The best French avant-gardistes

Christie’s organized two major sales to coincide with the FIAC: one focused on the Parisian Avant-garde (20 October) and the second offering the first leg of Claude Berri’s collection.

The first, Paris Avant-Garde (20 October), paid tribute to Paris’s status as the capital of the avant-garde movement in the 20th century, offering works by Fauvists, Surrealists, Cubists and New Realists. The theme of the sale effectively allowed Christie’s to focus on one of the most effervescent periods in art history and the artistic revolutions that shaped the last century and, by extension, this one too.

A superb Joan MIRO gouache from Bernard Monnier’s spectacular collection fetched four times its high estimate, at $2.2 million. The sale started well with the Miro work at lot number 1 generating one of the best results of the day. Other works from Bernard Monnier’s collection included an Alberto GIACOMETTI bronze (Lampe coupe aux deux figures) estimated $200,000 to 300,000 that fetched just over a million dollars million and a surrealist piece by Joseph CORNELL (Soap Bubble Set variant) that sold within its estimated range at nearly $82,000. Another gem was a portrait of a man by Jean Dubuffet made of butterfly wings (1957) that fetched $595,000 at twice the average estimate. Jean Dubuffet created only 11 works of this type between September and October 1953 and a further 19 in the summer of 1955. Confidence in the work’s quality was enhanced by its impeccable provenance at the Daniel Cordier Gallery and by its time spent at the New York MoMA.

Other works from superb collections included a necklace by Alexander CALDER in brass wire from Pierre and Silvia Loeb (sold $332,000 at twice its high estimate), a painted relief by Hans Arp from Louis Aragon’s collection ($503,000), an installation by François-Xavier LALANNE entitled Moutons de laine that formerly resided in the home of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé ($661,000) and a splendid Mobile by Alexander Calder from Agnes Varda’s collection ($2.6 million). In the end, from a superb selection of 39 lots, 33 found new owners, generating a total of $22.4 million.

The following day, another sale dedicated to Modern Art offered 82 lots including a Pablo PICASSO oil-on-cardboard titled Buste d’homme (130 x 65 cm) as featured on the catalogue cover. Estimated $2.1 to $3.2 million, the work fetched its low estimate.

Claude Berri’s famous collection

Claude Berri’s collection contained work by a number of major signatures in Contemporary art like Jean Dubuffet, Yves Klein, Jannis Kounellis, Dan Flavin, Henri Michaux and Daniel Buren as well as by younger artists like John Baldessari, Paul McCarthy, Berlinde de Bruyckere, Joana Vasconcelos, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Gilles Barbier. On 22 October, Christie’s launched the first round of a dispersion which will involve five sales in total. Highly anticipated, this first sale offered a number of museum quality works like Yves KLEIN’s 1961 rarity Untitled Monogold (MG 44) that fetched $1.3 million and a majestic untitled work (1960) by Jannis KOUNELLIS from his alfabeto di Kounellis series measuring nearly three meters wide and closely related to works in New York’s MoMA, London’s Tate Modern and François Pinault’s collection. One of the sale’s key works, Kounellis’s untitled work fetched half a million above its high estimate at $1.7 million. Christie’s has once again proved that offering high quality works is the only way to ensure a successful sale.