Ferdinand Hodler, "Genfersee von Chexbres aus" (Lake Geneva from Chexbres), 1904, sold by Sotheby's in Zurich 28 November for CHF7.14 million
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The art market is alive and thriving, Sotheby’s Swiss art sales Monday evening 28 November in Zurich made clear.
A 1904 painting of Lake Geneva from Chexbres by Ferdinand Hodler fetched CHF7.14 million, well above its pre-sale estimate of CHF3-5m. It was sold by telephone to a private collector.
The painting’s price is not a record for a Hodler work, but a record was set for a painting by Alfred Anker, with “Strickendes Mädchen, Kleinkind in der Wiege hütend”, which sold for CHF6.13 million. The 1885 oil portrait shows a girl, knitting and watching a toddler in a cradle. It reflects childhood, a theme that recurs often in Anker’s portraits.
Hodler’s priciest painting to date is a view of Lake Geneva from the fields above Saint Prex, sold in 2007 for CHF10.9m.
The Zurich auction Monday brought together an unusually large group of representative 19th and 20th century paintings by several of Switzerland’s most popular artists. Total sales were CHF17.41 for lots that together were estimated at CHF11m before the sale.
Sotheby’s notes that the Hodler painting from a private collection, on the market for the first time since 1963, is a close cousin to one in Geneva.
“The view of Lake Geneva from Chexbres inspired many landscapes by Hodler (1853-1918) between 1895 and 1911. The artist, however, painted only two landscapes from the vantage point featured in this iconic work. Dating from circa May 1904, this oil on canvas was probably executed shortly before a very similar canvas which is now part of the collection of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Geneva. It reflects the stylistic direction taken by Hodler in the early 1900s. In 1904, the artist took part in the Vienna Secession and the influence of the Jugenstil movement is clearly mirrored in the ornamentation, curves and lines of the painting. Testament to Hodler’s style are also the composition’s parallel design, the depiction of forms as large spreads of colour and the dominance of the colour blue, symbol of transcendence for the artist.”
Strong sales for panoply of Swiss artists’ works shows growing interest
Other artworks of note that were sold Monday:
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.
This annual charity Gala will be music to your ears (and hearts). An elegant black tie fundraising dinner that includes a personal appearance by Belinda Carlisle, an auction by Sothebys to raise money for a local charity.
Location: Hotel Kempinski – 19, Quai du Mont-Blanc, Geneva, 1201, Switzerland
Link out: http://www.100womeninhedgefunds.org/pages/genev…
Start date: 24 Nov 2011
Start time: 18:30
End date: 25 Nov 2011
End time: 1:00
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Sotheby’s star diamond at its November sales in Geneva comes without much of a history, but that is no shortcoming: the new gem is expected to be sold for $11-15 million when it goes to auction 15 November.
The rough of the Sun-Drop Diamond was found in South Africa in 201.
Sotheby’s holds the world record for selling the most expensive diamond, the Pink Graff, sold for $46.16 million in Geneva in 2010.
The diamond, at 110.03 Carats, “has been graded Fancy Vivid Yellow, the highest colour grading for a yellow diamond, by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA),” says Sothebys
“This exceptional stone ranks as the largest known pear-shaped fancy vivid yellow diamond in the world, and has a purity of VVS1.”
The GIA, in its monograph on the gem, was rich with praise: “Its magnificent color combined with impressive size and uncommon cut make it a paragon in the world of diamonds.”
It was shown in London at city’s Natural History Museum earlier this year. The diamond was cut by Cora International, whose headquarters are in New York.
"Joyful woman", 1909, Ferdinand Hodler
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Ferdinand Hodler remains a favourite among Swiss artists, with his 1909 “Joyful woman” selling for CHF2.88 million at Sotheby’s Zurich Swiss art sale Monday evening 30 May, the top item. Felix Vallotan’s “Naked woman kneeling in front of a red couch,” 1915, sold for CHF674,500. Both prices were in the range of their pre-auction estimates.
The 128 artworks on auction went for a total of CHF9.5 million, with works by well-known names Hodler, Vallotan, Albert Anker and other early 20th century Swiss avant-garde artists selling as expected.
But there were some surprises. The lovely “Young Valais woman 1915″ by Raphy Dalleves went for CHF206,500, well above the painting’s estimate of CHF80-120,000. Ernest Bieler’s “Two women from Valais in a winter landscape” sold for CHF314,500, also well above the estimated CHF150-200,000, an indication of the growing appreciation for a larger group of Swiss artists.
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).
La lecture by Pablo Picasso, sold at Sotheby's auction for £12.2 million 8 February: Marie-Thérèse Walter as his model
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – All eyes were on Marie-Thérèse Walter, Pablo Picasso’s young lover, in 1932, and again 8 February 2011 in London
The artist’s rendering of his mistress in January 1932 in a painting called La Lecture was one of the hits of his first retrospective, at the Kunsthaus in Zurich from September to November 1932.
Tuesday night an anonymous private owner sold it at a Sotheby’s auction in London for £25.2 million, about twice the estimated sales price, after furious telephone bidding.
The 1932 Zurich show featured several paintings with his then-hidden mistress as the model. He had met Walter five years earlier, when she was just 17, on the streets of Paris.
The young woman’s long blond hair and athletic form were mostly folded into contemporary forms that effectively hid her identity, with one exception which caught the eye of his wife, Olga.
In La Lecture, the model appears more forcefully as an individual, and the wife began to realize there was a mistress.
Zurich’s 1932 retrospective was the first for Picasso, and the first time a living painter had a major show in a museum, as opposed to a gallery.
La ceinture jaune: Marie'Thérèse Walter, Pablo Picasso, 1932 (courtesy, Zurich Kunsthaus), one of several paintings of the artist's mistress that were part of his 1932 show
The year was a crucial one for Picasso, who painted many of his best-known works then and, as CBC puts it, “cemented his reputation”, notably through the Zurich show, which he himself curated.
Zurich’s Kunsthaus repeated, on a smaller scale, the 1932 show as part of its centennial building celebrations in a show that closed 30 January 2011. Several paintings with Walter as the model were included, but not La Lecture.
Review, GenevaLunch, Zurich Picasso show in 2010-2011
The French government is being handed a painting by Edgar Degas, stolen 40 years ago, by the US government Friday 21 January. The “Blanchisseuse souffrant des dents” painting was stolen from the Malraux Museum in Le Havre in 1973, where it was on loan from the French government.
It resurfaced in October 2010 when it Sotheby’s included it in an art auction calatog. The owner, who has long worked with Sotheby’s, said his father had given it to him as a gift and was unaware it was stolen. The auction house says the painting was not in its database of stolen works.
Links to other sites: CNN, La Tribune de l’Art (Fr), US Justice Department (where the painting’s name is not quite correct)
Photo: artknowledgeonline on flickr
The newely baptized “Graff Pink” diamond goes to the king of diamonds
CHF45 million for a pink diamond
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The final ring on the cash register and the total for a hard day’s work at Sotheby‘s in Geneva was CHF103,418,050 million and a bit, a record total for a jewelry auction.
The third sale of the day at Beau-Rivage Hotel, in the evening, brought in CHF90,472,100. Fully half of that came from the sale of one diamond ring: CHF45,442,500 ($46.2m), well over the pre-auction estimate of CHF27-38m.
“Most fabulous” diamond Graff has seen
The top-selling gem had four bidders. In the end it went to 72-year-old Laurence Graff, who calls the Swiss resort of Gstaad home. His bid was handled by the chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, Patti Wong.
The buyer took advantage of his right to name it, and the diamond will now be known as the Graff Pink. “It is the most fabulous diamond I’ve seen in the history of my career and I’m delighted to have bought it,” says Graff.
He is a man who knows his diamonds. The new owner is from London’s East End, a school dropout and self-made man who has become one of Britain’s wealthiest people through his diamond business.
Forbes in 2009 said he was worth $2.2 billion and wrote that “jewelry business insiders call British diamond merchant Graff the new Harry Winston”, a fitting reference since the diamond for which he paid CHF45m Tuesday night was sold for the first and last time by Winston, 60 years earlier.
Other diamonds are more costly: the Hope diamond is valued at $100 million and others are more, but some of these are museum pieces rather than wearable jewelry.
Christmas countdown, gift suggestions: number 40
GenevaLunch begins its countdown to the winter holiday season, with 40 gift options for buyers rich and poor, in the Lake Geneva region
Suggested sales price: starting at CHF27 million
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The excitement is building inside the long room with its tidy rows of chairs and a bank of TV cameras, at Beau-Rivage, the elegant old hotel on Lake Geneva where Sotheby’s holds it Geneva auctions. Those bidding are well-dressed and discreet, and the security guards try to blend in. Outside, the air is chilly but it’s not yet really fur weather, although that will not stop women from slipping them on once the auction is over.
This is the night when one of the most “important”, not to mention expensive, diamonds to be sold in over 30 years goes up for auction. The Fancy Intense Pink Emerald-cut Diamond weighing 24.78 carats is described by Sotheby’s, which is not noted for understatement about its gems, as among the “rarest and most beautiful gemstones ever offered at auction”.
It comes from the Cullinan mines owned by Petra in South Africa and was last on the market 60 years ago. David Bennett, auctioneer and longtime precious gems expert, says this beauty, nearly perfect in its natural state before cutting, is one of nature’s deepest secrets.
The auction room and phone-in bidders, Sotheby's, Geneva
Pre-auction estimated price: CHF27-38 million (from $27.4m). To put this in perspective, Sotheby’s has, in the past two years, had a number of record-setting diamond sales, including one in May 2009 where a blue diamond went for CHF10.5 million.
The entire lot of gems sold for about CHF40m.
Size: 55-1/2
Details: set in shield-shaped shoulders, notable for the curved corners.
Who will not be buying this ring, we guess: Prince William (Kate should have her ring by now), Governor Schwarzenegger of California, whose budget can’t cover the bid, Michael Moore, whose pinky isn’t small enough.
Suggestion: if this is not in your Christmas gift budget but you have at least a million to spend, you might still be interested in the other Sotheby’s gems for sale Tuesday evening, but you’ll have to hurry to put in your online bids. They include jewels from the collection of Cristina Ford, some jewels formerly owned by Christina Onassis, a ruby and diamond bracelet by Petochi which was once in the collection of Countess Mona Bismarck, and a diamond cuff bangle made by Cartier in 1938 for HH Abbas Hilmi II Bey, the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan (1874-1944).
Sotheby’s auction, important private collection of Swiss art that includes 2 by Ferdinand Hodler
Location: Zurich Sotheby\\\’s
Link out: http://www.sothebys.com/app/paddleReg/paddlereg…
Date: 14 Jun 2010
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).
Hammer price on this rare blue diamond: CHF8,930,500
Total sale close to CHF60 million ($53.97m)
Update 10:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Currencies and gold for investors seeking a refuge this week suddenly paled Tuesday night, when it comes to investments, compared to diamonds – the cut and polished variety you put on a girl’s finger.
Sotheby’s latest fine jewels auction saw its top “Very rare Fancy Intense Blue diamond ring” go for nearly double the low end of its estimated price (CHF4.32m) when the gavel came down on CHF8.9 million ($8.03m) – and two other lovely diamond rings went for prices nearly as high.
The sale netted a total of CHF59,995,700.
The record for the per carat price for diamonds was broken: it had been set at Sotheby’s in Geneva in November 2009: $796,178 per carat for a 3.17 carat round brilliant cut stone at the time. The new top sale at Sotheby’s put the 7.64 carat fancy blue’s per carat price at over $1,050,636.
Alexandre Reza diamond ring: CHF7,026,500 at Sotheby's, Geneva
The catalog description of the gem and ring: Claw-set with a fancy intense blue cushion-shaped diamond weighing 7.64 carats, mounted in yellow gold and platinum, size 51.
The other two rings that significantly boosted the total were a “magnificent diamond ring” that went for CHF8,818,500 and an Alexandre Reza “highly important and exceptionally rare” diamond ring for CHF7,026,500.
Background, Geneva Living (including video with Sotheby’s David Bennett, chairman of the company’s European and Middle East jewelry division.
52-carat diamond ring for sale in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – An auction sale in Geneva is expected to draw collectors from all over the world interested in purchasing rare diamonds, emeralds, and watches made for kings.
One of the most impressive pieces that will be auctioned off at Sotheby’s in Geneva is a 52.82 carat emerald-cut diamond ring estimated on $7 million.
Read the full story and see the pictures.
Giacometti's Walking man I. © 2010 Sotheby's
Update 20:40 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A sculpture by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti has been sold for £65 million to an anonymous bidder by telephone at London’s Sotheby’s auction house. The life-sized sculpture “L’homme qui marche I” (Walking man I) was sold 3 February for five times the amount the auction house expected and becomes the most expensive work of art sold at an auction, just beating a Picasso sold in 2004.
The numbered sculpure was cast in 1960 in Paris and belonged to Dresdner Bank.
Geneva’s Musée Rath is holding a Giacometti retrospective until 21 February.
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.
Duchess Roxburghe's ruby and diamond earrings, sold for more than 10 times their estimated price at Sotheby's, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The annual Sotheby‘s sale of “Magnificent Jewels” was an extraordinary event Tuesday evening 17 November in Geneva, reassuring investors that the jewelry market is alive and well, with sales close to the impressive CHF40 million of May 2009: CHF37 million, with sales spread across several lots. In May, one blue diamond alone sold for CHF10.4 million, accounting for over one-quarter of the auction value.
Several items were bought for sums dizzyingly higher than their estimates Tuesday night. Diamond rings in particular went for double their estimates, for the most part.
The November 2008 sale, at a point of great gloom over the global financial crisis, brought in CHF18 million and some of the top items were not sold because of bids that were too low for the sellers.
The top items Tuesday night included (from catalogue descriptions):
Calibre 89, auctioned an Antiquorum, Geneva
Cartier watch made in honour of Red Cross, Sotheby's sale
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A watch made for an Ethiopian emperor and a 1948 pink gold watch with a perpetual calendar and moon phases are among the top pieces on the watches auction list at Sotheby’s Sunday 15 November.
The world’s most complicated timepiece, a Patek Philippe Calibre 89 watch with 33 complications, is up for auction Saturday 14 November at Antiquorum.
The two Geneva auction houses hold their big annual watch sales, which dominate the market, every November.
Several historical watches are top of the billing at Sotheby’s:
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The owner of a fancy blue diamond sold by Sotheby’s 12 May, which set two records, has been named: Joseph Lau Luen-Hung, a Hong Kong collector, paid $9.48 million for the 7.03-carat fancy vivid blue internally flawless cushion-shaped diamond. He has named it the “Star of Josephine,” exercising his right as the first owner of the gem.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fears that the jewelry market might be floundering in this economic crisis appear to be unfounded, with Sotheby’s selling CHF40 million worth of diamonds, rubies and other fine jewels as rings, necklaces, bracelets and tiaras Tuesday 12 May.
The rare fancy vivid blue diamond ring that was the centrepiece of the auction went for CHF10,498,50, ($9,488,754), comfortably above the estimated CHF6.8-10 million pricetag. The diamond was found in 2008 in South Africa’s famed Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan mine.
Rare "Vivid Blue Diamond" to be auctioned 12 May 2009 at Sotheby's, Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (Genevalunch) – The shining star of the show when Sotheby’s auctions off its next batch of jewels 12 May in Geneva will be a rare “Fancy Vivid Blue” 7.03 carat diamond from a rough stone of 26.58 carats, never worn. The new owner will have the privilege of naming the stone, which is expected to fetch CHF6.8-10 million. The diamond was found in 2008 in South Africa’s famed Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan mine.
Another Fancy Vivid Blue diamond failed to sell in November 2008 in Geneva, raising questions at the time about the impact of the financial crisis on the fine jewels market.
Title: American Citizens Abroad Annual Gala Auction
Location: Geneva
Description: At the Mandarin Hotel a fabulous auction.
Auction with Geoffroy Ader of Sotheby’s
Anne Hornung-Soukup
Auction Items: Meal in your home, week in a chalet, week in the Dominican Republic, wine, art objects and much much more.
For further information:
American Citizens Abroad (ACA)
The Voice of Americans Overseas
5 Rue Liotard
1202 Geneva, Switzerland
+41.22.340.02.33
info.aca@gmail.com
Date: 27 Mar 2009
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.
No new home for this beauty: Fancy Deep Blue Diamond
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sotheby’s November auction of fine jewels, which in 2007 set price records, failed to raise bids to a level where it could sell the three highest priced items Wednesday night in Geneva. David Bennett, chairman of jewelry for Europe and the Middle East at the auction house said “Tonight’s sale was assembled in the wake of our near-all-time record Geneva jewels sale [May 2008] and most of the property was consigned and valued prior to the turmoil in the financial markets.
Lesotho I diamond set in a ring by Harry Winston, Sotheby's November 2008 auction in Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – This is one of the big weeks in the year for Geneva’s international art market, with auctions taking place at lakefront hotels in Geneva for top-end watches, jewelry and antiques. The world will be watching closely to see if the art market here reflects the economic downturn. Wednesday , a Francis Bacon self-portrait that was expected to sell for $40 million was pulled from a Christie’s auction in New York when it reached only $27.4m, to gasps from the crowd.
Title: Magnificent jewels for auction
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Jewelry auction begins at CHF 4,000
Date: 19 Nov 2008
Title: Important watches auction
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Auction of Swiss watches at Sotheby’s. Bidding prices begin at CHF1,000
Date: 16 Nov 2008
