Auction Highlights, 1989–1998

Photo by Julian Marc, Los Angeles Modern Auctions, Los Angeles

Los Angeles Modern Auctions, an early champion of Charles and Ray Eames, has sold many pieces by the designers since the '90s, including this storage unit, ca. 1950-52.

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1989-1998

Auction Action

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June 1989: The Nicholas Brown secretary/bookcase, ca. 1760-70, shatters the record for American furniture, going for $12.1 million at Christie’s to dealer Harold Sack, bidding for financier Robert M. Bass.

June 1990: A record for a Greek vase is set when a fragmentary calyx krater signed by Euphronios, circa 510 B.C., is bought by Leon Levy and Shelby White for $1.76 million.

July 1990: At Christie’s, the Badminton Cabinet — named after the English house for which it was made — sells to Johnson & Johnson heiress Basia Johnson for £8.58 million ($15.18 million), more than doubling its estimate and setting an auction record for a piece of furniture.

April 1991: A Cartier Egyptian Revival Temple Gate clock, ca. 1927, sells for $1.54 million, 10 times its high estimate, at Christie’s.

Dec. 1991: Titian’s Venus and Adonis brings £7.5 million ($13.5 million) — a record high for the artist and nearly twice its estimate — at Christie’s.

May 1992: A Louis XIV Savonnerie carpet goes for a record $1.2 million at Sotheby’s.

May 1993: Paul Cézanne’s Nature morte: Les grosses pommes, 1890-94, earns $28.6 million at Sotheby’s, heralding a rebound in the market for Impressionist and modern art.

May 1997: The 29-lot sale of John and Frances L. Loeb’s collection of largely Impressionist works at Christie’s makes a staggering $92.8 million.

April 1998: New York photography sales boom. Among the top lots is Thomas Eakins’s study for his 1885 painting The Swimming Hole, which brings $178,500 at Christie’s.

May 1998: A 15-panel folding screen by Charles and Ray Eames sells for $41,800 against a high estimate of $10,000 at Los Angeles Modern Auctions. Rapidly increasing prices for Eames pieces signal the flowering of the market for midcentury design.

"Auction Action: 1989-1998" originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's September 2009 Table of Contents.