Auction Action: 1999-2009

1979-1988 >

1989-1998 >

1999-2009

Auction Action

Fair Trade

Gallery Scene

Newsmakers

Artists

Museum World

House Rules

Total Recall >

Essays

Reflections: Marisa Bartolucci

Reflections: Souren Melikian

Reflections: Judd Tully

Reflections: Jori Finkel

Willem de Kooning Lucian Freud Jeff Koons George Bellows Hendrick Terbrugghen Vermeer SFMOMA Considers Unusual Expansion Plan Crazy for Koons

Send a letter to the Editor

Save to Del.icio.us Digg this

Oct. 1999; March 2002; Nov. 2008: The four-part André and Marie-Thérèse Jammes collection of 19th-century photographs at Sotheby’s earns more than $30 million.

March 2001: A Chinese bronze ritual wine jar at Christie’s brings $9.2 million, a record for an Asian work of art.

May 2001: At Sotheby’s, Jeff Koons’s Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988, fetches $5.6 million, the artist’s record until his Hanging Heart, 1994-2006, snags $23.6 million at the same house in November 2007.

April 2003: An epic, 52-hour sale of the André Breton collection at Calmels Cohen in Paris racks up €46 million ($50.2 million).

June 2004: At Christie’s, 150 pieces of jewelry from the Doris Duke collection take in $12 million.

July 2004: Young Woman Seated at the Virginal, the first Vermeer to appear at auction in 80 years, sells for $30 million at Sotheby’s.

Dec. 2004: The Badminton Cabinet returns to Christie’s, this time bringing $36.7 million, becoming the most expensive piece of furniture at auction.

June 2005: A 1949 Carlo Mollino table goes for a record $3.8 million at Christie’s.

Feb. 2006: Edward Steichen’s The Pond- Moonlight, 1904, is offered at Sotheby’s as part of the famed Gilman collection, fetching $2.9 million — the auction record for a photograph.

Nov. 2007: At Phillips de Pury & Co., Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XVI, 1982, earns $5.8 million.

May 2008: At Christie’s, Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, 1995, brings $33.6 million, a record for a work by a living artist.

Nov. 2008: The Sotheby’s sale of 135 lots of tribal art from the collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal rakes in $10.8 million.

Jan. 2009: Hendrick Ter Brugghen’s Bagpipe Player in Profile, 1624, sells for $10.1 million at Sotheby’s.

"Auction Action: 1999-2009" 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.