Two big auction houses realize Monday sales of more than $40 million, more to come
Tiara on sale at Sotheby's in Geneva 15 May
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Swiss franc is a pale safe haven in these days of troubled economies, compared to the bright, shining market in fine jewels, if Geneva auctions are any indication.
Monday was a big day, with Sotheby’s succeeding in the afternoon in a “white glove” (all lots sold) sale of 60 pieces of jewelry by designer Suzanne Belperron for CHF3.4 milliion ($3.2m), triple the pre-sale estimate.
The top item was a 1935 rock crystal and diamond ring that went for half a million dollars.
Christie’s in the evening held Lily Safra’s Jewels for Hope charity sale, which made CHF35m ($37.9m), almost double the pre-sale estimate.
The biggest ticket item was a ruby and diamond ring, the Hope Ruby, a cushion-shaped Burmese ruby ring of 32.08 cts, by Chaumet. Amer Radwan of Dubai’s Radwan Diamond and Jewelry Trading, paid CHF6.2 million for the gem, setting a world record for the per carat price for a ruby.
Christie’s holds its regular spring jewelry sale Wednesday 16 May and Sotheby’s continues its two-day sale Tuesday, with a lineup of historically significant jewels that include the Beau Sancy diamond, (estimate, CHF1.85-3.6m / $2-4m), the Murat Tiara (CHF1.4-2.3m) and a diamond brooch set with a 7.33 carat Fancy deep yellow diamond that was offered to the Corsini family by Charles Edward Stuart (1720-1788), Bonnie Prince Charlie (CHF 280,000-480,000).
Lily Safra's jewels on auction 14 May include this pair of 19.43 and 19.16 carat pear-shaped diamond ear clips (photo: Christies)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Some CHF20 million in jewels will be auctioned for charity by Christies Monday night 14 May, in a sale called “Jewels for Hope” at the Hotel des Bergues in Geneva. The collection is owned by Lily Safra, one of Geneva’s most famous philanthropists along with her late husband, banker Edmond Safra, who died in a fire in 1999, a case of arson for which his bodyguard was imprisoned.
Lily Safra has headed the Safra Foundation since 2000; it provides financial support for projects in a number of fields, including religion, cultural and humanitarian relief.
Edmond Safra was her fourth husband; they were married for 20 years. He was estimated to have a fortune worth $2.5 billion in the early 1990s, amassed during his 40-year career as a financier. He founded the Trade Development Bank in Geneva and Republic National Bank of New York.
The proceeds from the sale will benefit 20 charities supported by the Safra Foundation.
JAR diamond and ruby brooch, estimated value $1.25-1.5 million, to be auctioned Monday night at Christies sale in Geneva
The collection shows a wide range of design work, from a 1911 diamond lavaliere necklace by Cartier, estimated value CHF200-400,000, to 18 pieces designed for Lily Safra by contemporary jeweler Joel Rosenthal (JAR), the largest single-owner collection of his work seen at an auction.
The star of the JAR pieces is a ruby and diamond Camellia flower brooch created in 2003 and estimated at $1.2-1.5 million.
But diamonds are likely to bring in the highest bids, with two rings each expected to fetch at least $3 million: “The 34.05 carat rectangular-cut diamond ring (D/VVS1 potentially flawless, Type IIa) is a perfect stone estimated at $3.6-5 million” according to Christies.
“Formerly in the collection of Luz Mila Patiño, Countess du Boisrouvray, the famous 32.08 carats cushion-shaped Burmese ruby and diamond ring by Chaumet is offered with an estimate of $3-5 million.” A pair of diamond pearl-shaped clip earrings are estimated in the same price range.
Christies is holding its regular spring fine jewelry auction Wednesday 16 May in Geneva.
Ed. note: the Safra jewels are on display at the Hotel des Bergues until 18:00 this evening.
Sun-drop yellow diamond discovered in 2010 goes for CHF11.28m at its first-ever sale in Geneva
James Bond and his amazing Rolex watch adapted in 1973 for "Live and Let Die" (source: Christie's Images Ltd, ©2011)
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Going, going, gone! For CHF11.28 million, the world’s “largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond”, a rarity for colour at its size and a newcomer on the market, went to an individual who wishes to remain anonymous, says Sotheby’s. The diamond was the hottest item in the auction house’s semi-annual Geneva fine jewels sale Tuesday night 15 November.
It kept great company this week, with jewels (not, of course, just baubles) that could tell tales and watches to match every fantasy. Wednesday night Christie’s holds its fine jewels sales, expected to fetch CHF49 million in total.
A watch sale by the auction house Monday night sold more than CHF26m in timepieces, including a 1968 Patek Philippe pink platinum watch that went for CHF2m, twice its estimated sale price.
Roger Moore's James Bond Rolex (click on image to view larger): Oyster Perpetual, 660ft=200m, Submariner, manufactured in 1972 and then converted. Movement removed to allow customization, black dial, luminous baton and dot numerals, luminous mercedes-style hands, tonneau-shaped case with calibrated rotating black bezel with saw-tooth edge, modified screw back, the inside case back signed Roger Moore 007, screw down crown, stainless steel Rolex Oyster expandable bracelet with deployant clasp stamped 7-72, a small hole in the end links used to attach an invisible wire to unzip Miss Caruso's dress, case and dial signed (source: Christie's Images Ltd, ©2011)
Journalists oohed and aahed over the Taylor collection, struggling to capture the sparkling jewels with cameras
Geneva’s “palaces”, or five-star hotels, hosted visits by James Bond’s electrifying watch (not literally, one of the few things it doesn’t do), which was also sold Monday night. fpr CHF219,000, as well as a collection of astonishing jewels from the star-studded world of Hollywood’s last “real star”, Liz Taylor. The Taylor collection then moved on to Paris and soon heads for New York where Christie’s will hold a four-day special auction in December, linked to a number of Elizabeth Taylor events.
The Wednesday night Christie’s sale features one of the largest selections of BVlgari jewels ever seen at auction, it says, as well as 40 jewels that Welsh actor Richard Burton gave to Susan Hunt Burton, his third of four wives, from 1976-82; Burton, was famously earlier married twice to Taylor.
Burton, who moved to Celigny in 1957 is buried in the village, not far from Geneva.
For Russian friends in Geneva, a parure as rich in historical and emotional value as beauty, was the highlight of the week’s shows, but it failed to find a buyer Tuesday night at Sotheby’s despite strong interest.
The jewels in the diamond necklace with earrings and brooch, whose asking price was not published, are reputed to have been part of the ransom offered by Catherine I of Russia, wife of Peter the Great, to Ahmed III, the 23rd Ottoman Sultan after the Pruth River battles in 1711. The battles were a key point in the war upon Russia by the Sultan, undertaken with the encouragement of Sweden’s ruler Charles XII. Russian forces were surrounded and in desperate straits when Catherine, who had accompanied her husband to the Pruth River for the final battle, gathered her jewels in secret and sent them with a last plea for peace from her husband to the sultan. A treaty was thus negotiated and, popular history has it, Catherine saved her husband and the empire.
The jewels went on to have a rich history, ending up in Egypt and eventually, in 1963, on the market. Christie’s notes that they are probably the most “important suite of antique coloured diamond jewels to appear at auction in the past 50 years”.
La Peregrina by Cartier, with 16th century drop-shaped pearl pendant, detachable from necklace designed by Taylor herself; a gift from Richard Burton, 1972
Fine jewels have value because of their intrinsic beauty and/or their rarity, but also often because of their history, as in the case of Empress Catherine’s peace offering. But glamour counts for much and Geneva has seen plenty of it, or at least the acoutrements of it, in the past week.
The Taylor jewels in particular, were accompanied by non-stop film footage of the star wearing her glamorous pieces, who went from National Velvet to Cleopatra, but who also lived her private life very much as a star. She was one of the early entertainment world celebrities to set up house in the Swiss ski resort of Gstaad, where she was a familiar sight, wearing her extraordinary and often over-sized jewels on a daily basis.
“She was the last of the great Hollywood stars”, said Christie’s Jonathan Rendell, deputy chairman of its Americas division, when presenting the collection to the press. She understood, he said, that “when she stepped outside her door she was no longer Elizabeth Taylor the private person, but the Hollywood star.”
Christie’s will not say how much of the money from the sale will go to support Taylor’s humanitarian work, but Rendell did make clear that she selected the pieces before her death and asked that Christie’s handle the sale. She died 23 March 2011, age 79.
GenevaLunch will be adding a photo album of Elizabeth Taylor’s jewels, from the Geneva exhibition, Wednesday afternoon.
The diamond and emerald tiara fetched the highest price ever at auction for a tiara, in Geneva
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva residents and visitors have had a week of closeups of true glitter which has drawn to a close Wednesday evening 18 May. Christies Fine Jewels sale closes the city’s spring season of auctions.
Several records set for jewelry
Tuesday night at Sotheby’s saw what may have been the crowning glory of the week, when a breathtaking emerald and diamond tiara was sold for CHF11.28 million, the highest price ever paid at auction for a tiara.
The jewels sold during the twice-yearly major sales by the world’s two main auction houses are available for the public to view, once they pass through security checks, at city centre hotels Beau Rivage and Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues.
Visitors from Geneva and abroad check out the jewels before the sale
Cristiano de Lorenzo from Christie’s London office told GenevaLunch that the week of power viewing and sales is organized intentionally to make it easier for buyers from outside Geneva to do their auction-buying in one go in the city.
Tuesday noon, the day before the fine jewels sale for Christies, saw its fine jewels display room busy. One woman whispered to her girlfriend that she fancied a diamond bracelet while a couple who were clearly planning to bid at the Wednesday evening sale talked about the practicalities of wearing a Harry Winston piece with contemporary fashion.
He said, no problem. She wasn’t convinced and they had a heated discussion. She was in her early 30s, fashionably dressed, business-like, and it appeared her taste would win out.
Record price for tiara
Tuesday evening six bidders fought it out for the tiara at Sotheby’s; the name of the new owner was not made public.
The tiara, probably made about 1900, had been estimated earlier at CHF4.6m-9.2m.
Sotheby’s total sales of CHF79 million in fine jewels included the winning bid by international jewelers Leviev for a “superb fancy intense pink diamond, weighing 10.99 carats, for CHF9.60m, the third highest price for a pink diamond and the ninth highest price for a diamond at auction”.
$10 million: Christies set a record for heart-shaped diamond sale in Geneva
Hot on their heels was Christies, which sold CHF78 million in jewels Wednesday evening 19 May, with three records set: for a heart-shaped diamond, for any sapphire and for any Indian jewel. The top lot was a 56 ct heart-shaped diamond that sold for more than $10 million, becoming the most expensive heart-shaped diamond ever sold at auction.
And record for a red Burgundy wine
Wedged between the two jewelry sales was a fine wine sale at Christies. Crowds were smaller and bottles are not on display, so it’s a sale mainly visited by professional buyers.
Sales were generally flat at the all-day session with more than 700 lots of wine sold at top speeds, but there were some surprises: a 1945 Romanee-Conti Burgundy (75cl) estimated at CHF50,000-70,000 went for a surprising CHF123,889, the highest price ever at auction for a red Burgundy, after lively bidding online and in the room.
Top Sotheby's watch 15 May was a nearly 50-yer-old Patek Philippe
CHF1.15 million for the most expensive Rolex ever sold at auction, by Christies (source: Christies Ltd)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – This is a week where spending your spare millions will be very easy in Geneva, the week when auctions are offering rare watches, an extraordinary emerald tiara and a bottle of Château Lafite-Rothschild, vintage 1887, Pauillac, 1er cru classé that would make grandfather sit up in his grave and ask for a glass.
Christies and Sotheby’s are outdoing themselves during the usual mid-May Geneva sales week. Sotheby’s, not too long before the British royal wedding when minds were on crowns and other state jewels, sent around a photo of the rare tiara that will be offered for sale Tuesday evening 17 May.
Most expensive auction Rolex goes for CHF1.04 million
But the week of rarefied goods began with Sotheby’s and Christies’s Important Watches sales
When the gavel went down Sunday evening 15 May on the final item at Sotheby’s, the firm could claim CHF7.75 million in sales, with a Patek Philippe watch alone going for CHF722,500. The 1960 watch, sold in 1962, belonged to a “distinguished gentleman” and is described as: “an extremely rare 18K yellow gold perpetual calendar, chronograph wristwatch with registers moon-phases and tachometer scale.”
The second most costly watch was just over CHF300,000, a 2007 Greubel Forsay watch.
They were overshadowed by the sale nearby at the Christies auction of a Rolex watch that set a new world record price for any Rolex wristwatch ever sold at auction, a “legendary, ultra-rare, split-seconds chronograph reference 4113″, sold for CHF1.035 million ($1.16m).
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Christies Europe will auction off an extraordinary art collection 21 and 22 June, the last of the artworks owned by Ernst Beyeler and his wife Hildy, whose collection has often been called one of the great private art collections of the 20th century.
Agency AFP reports that the collection sale will mark the close of the couple’s Basel gallery and includes work from iconic 20th century artists including Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Matisse, Klee and Roy Lichtenstein.
The sale will come just two days after Art Basel ends. The artworks will be part of a Christies evening sale in London the 21st and day sale the 22nd.
Beyeler was the founder of Art Basel, the world’s largest contemporary and modern art fair (note: which last week announced it is adding a third fair, Art Hong Kong to the main fair and a second one, Art Basel Miami Beach).
His career in art took off when he transformed and developed the antiquarian bookshop of a former employer into
Beyeler Museum (photo, ©2011 Mark Niedermann / Beyeler Foundation)
the Beyeler Gallery in Basel, which allowed him to build his personal collection.
Ernst Beyeler died, age 88, in February 2010, two years after the death of his wife and close art partner Hildy.
He left instructions for the gallery to be closed upon his death, and the private and business collections to be sold, with proceeds to go to support the Beyeler Foundation in Basel.
The Foundation was created to provide a home, the Beyeler Museum, for the collection, and its purpose is to make the collection available to the public. The museum opened in 1997 and it has become hugely popular, with 300,000 visitors a year.
A Segantini exhibition that ended 25 April had pulled in 100,000 visitors between January 16 and 20 March.
Le Repas Frugal print for sale in London
A collection of 57 prints, including three by Pablo Picasso, will be up for sale in London in September.
The Spanish painter’s works, to be auctioned off at Sotheby’s, are expected to bring over £2.5 million ( CHF4 million).
Heading the sale are three very important Picasso works expected to fetch over CHF2 million alone: The Frugal Repast (Le Repas Frugal) from his Blue Period, The Weeping Woman (La Femme qui Pleure) from 1937, and The Minotauromachy (La Minotauromachie) considered to be the artist’s masterpiece of printmaking.
In early May Picasso’s “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” sold for a record $106.5 million (CHF122 million).
Christie's unmounted flawless 62.3 carat diamond sold for CHF8.01 million (click on image to view larger)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Forget the girl’s best friend, diamonds that investors love are dazzling the jewelry world this week. Christie’s big November precious gems and jewelry sale in Geneva Wednesday 18 November ended on a high note, with the sale of a 62.3 carat diamond going for CHF8.01 million at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues.
Overall, the sale brought in CHF32.28m, another strong sign that the market has recovered, after Sotheby’s sold CHF37 million in jewels Monday. The buyer was Aleks Paul of Essex Global Trading in New York, a dealer who also walked off with two other lots of diamonds worth more than CHF5m.
And down the street at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel the Antiquorum sale of fine watches set a record price for watches sold in 2009: CHF5.12m for the Patek Philippe Yellow Gold Calibre 89, one of only four in the world, each unique.
Cai Mingchao, advisor to China’s National Treasures Fund, has declared himself the secret bidder for two Chinese statues sold for $19 million each last week by Christie’s in Paris. The statues were part of an auction of artwork owned by the late Yves St Laurent, fasion designer, and his partner Pierre Bergé. The buyer says he has no intention of paying, nor does he have the money: his bid was a patriotic act because he believes the art, stolen from China’s Imperial Palace in 1860 by British and French soldiers, should not be sold. The auction house told the New York Times that in such a situation the second highest bid does not necessarily get the item, but it would not speculate on what will happen. BBC, New York Times, Xinhua
Deep blue diamond, Sotheby's November 2008 in Geneva
New York, USA and Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The art markets and in particular fine jewels auctions were being watched closely at the end of 2008 for signs that they were suffering from the global economic crisis, but a new report from Art Market Review suggests that the jewelry market in particular has been more stable than expected. The review was prepared for Sotheby’s by industry observer Art Market Monitor.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A mixed performance at Christie’s fine jewels auction Thursday in Geneva echoed the results at Sotheby’s the night before: on the one hand a record sale was made for a sapphire ring but on the other, half of the lots were unsold at the end of the evening.
