Beyond Contemporary

NEW YORK—Last month all eyes were on New York’s Impressionist/Modern and Postwar/Contemporary Sales as the latest gauge of the art market’s health. Except for one hiccup, everything went well (actually very, very well), and an entire industry breathed a sigh of relief. In the month since, the strength of the contemporary market has been reconfirmed several times over, most notably at last week’s extravaganza in Miami. But what about other sectors of the market? While much of the art world was at Basel, last week’s record-setting auctions of antiquities, African art, and ancient jewelry in New York and Paris showed that there is enough health—and wealth—for art markets of every color and stripe. 

Lioness Strides Ahead at Sotheby’s
Everyone knew that the ancient stone lioness, the star of Sotheby’s December 5 antiquities sale in New York, would bring a price fit for a masterpiece, but no one thought it would go as high as it did. The magnificent but diminutive 3 ¼-inch limestone piece’s estimate went unpublished, but Richard M. Keresey, worldwide director of antiquities at Sotheby’s, said it had been expected to bring $14 million to $18 million. The work sold to a determined-looking English buyer named Geoffrey Turner, who is said by the trade to be a private dealer, for $57,161,000 million—setting auction records for an antiquity and for a sculpture of any kind.

Made in Mesopotamia some 5,000 years ago, the figure depicts a lioness turning to the right and striding forward, humanlike, with front paws clasped to her stomach. The work was purchased in 1948 by Alistair Bradley Martin and his wife, Edith, who named it the "Guennol Lioness," after the Welsh name for Martin. It had been on view at the Brooklyn Museum for the nearly 60 years since.

“It’s all about quality and provenance,” said Keresey, who compared this sale to one last June containing work from the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York, including a bronze sculpture of Artemis and the Stag, which also set a record for an antiquity and for a sculpture when it sold for $28.6 million, also quadrupling its high presale estimate. The sculpture record had been broken last month at Sotheby’s, when Picasso’s bronze Tete de Femme (Dora Maar) sold for $29 million.

Overall the antiquities sale brought in just less than $65 million, the highest-ever total for an antiquities auction. Of 137 lots, only four minor works failed to find buyers, and a vast majority sold above the high estimate, showing the strength of the market at every level. And unlike many auctions, where a single person bids against a reserve, or where all of the action is on the telephones, this sale featured many underbidders and plenty of bidding in the room and on the Internet.

Private African Art Collection Sold in Paris
American collectors Brian and Diane Leyden, whose extensive collection of African art Brian amassed over the past 40 years, decided to sell 15 pieces at Sotheby’s in Paris. Why Paris? “All of the objects are from two Ivory Coast tribes, the Bete and the Senufo,” he said. “The market for them is stronger in Paris than it is in the United States.” (The strong Euro may also have something to do with it.) The Leydens concentrated on works in the pre-Colonial style and statuary whose impact on 20th century Western art is most evident. The sale took place on December 5, and though only seven of the lots sold, for a total of €2,200,750 ($3,225,307), the major pieces found buyers.

Images of women brought the highest prices, including the star Senufo figure, a 19th-century object from the Ivory Coast or Mali that sold to an anonymous American buyer for €844,250 ($1,240,110, est. €500,000–800,000). Senufo statuary was popular among early 20th-century artists, including Andre Derain and Fernand Leger. A second highlight of the sale was a stylized Bete figure of a women, also from the 19th century, that was pre-empted by the Musee du Quai Branly for €704,250 ($1,034,473, est. €600,000–900,000), setting an auction record for a Bete figure. Another Senufo female figure, with arms folded by her sides, went to a European collector for €384,250 ($564,425, est. €350,000–500,000).