Art

There's been much chat in the office today about a quite amazing sale in Paris. It was all sparked off by Mark Hill. "Did you know my favourite artists Modigliani has just broken a record?" I don't think I was the only one who said, "No Mark, I did not know that."

A 2 feet 2 inch tall limestone sculpture called, Tête has just sold for a staggering €38.5 million, it's also staggering because the estimate was €4-6 million. The piece, dating from 1910-12 was sold to an anonymous buyer at Christie's in Paris. It beat the previous highest ever price in France by over €6 miilion _ that was for a Matisse’s still life Les Coucous that sold at Christie’s Yves St. Laurent sale in February 2009, The previous record for the Italian artist, the $28m (£15.1m) for Jeanne Hébuterne (Devant une porte) thats sold in November 2004.

Part of the reason for the price is because of the rarity of Amedeo Modigliani sculptures. There are only 27 of them and 17 of those are in museums.

Many apologies for missing a couple of days on the blog but I've been away and had no Wifi access. I'll make it up to you I promise! First things first here's a link to my piece in today's Daily Telegraph. It is all about Pop Art. I was inspired to write it after I spotted three different people in three days walking towards me with Andy Warhol's head emblazoned on their T-shirts. This is no coincidence.

I've just come off the telephone from talking with a friend of mine who arrived back from Amsterdam where he had been to the opening of a photographic exhibition – he had luckily booked to go there and back on Eurostar and so avoided the disappointment of travelling, or  not, by plane. The exhibition of rock and pop photography from the 1960s is by a well known Danish photographer – Bent Rej.

As it says on the gallery's web site. . . Millions of words have been written about the sixties – the groups, the singers and the scene - but nothing captures the magic quite like brilliant photography. It was a time when music was not burdened with the labels that have since become commonplace. Pop music was…well it was pop music. Music marketing hadn’t been invented and while image was everything it wasn’t manipulated and managed like it is today. Music was either in the Pop, Jazz or Classical sections of record shops and Pop was everything from The Mothers of Invention and Jimi Hendrix to Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick, and Tich.

These kind of limited edition prints may or may not increase in value over the next 20, 30, 50 or 100 years but they will be a beautiful addition to anyone's home. You can read more about Bent's photography that is on display in both Rotterdam and Amsterdam HERE

This picture was sent to me recently by a friend asking what I could tell him about the bronzes. Apparently the picture was taken at Sothebys in 1969 when this bronze was sold. They were cast in 1964 by the sculptor, David Wynes, the same man who did the Boy with a Dolphin on Cheyne Walk, the Fred Perry bronze outside the Centre Court at Wimbledon, and the Queen Elizabeth Gates by Hyde Park Corner.

According to Wynne he contacted Brian Epstein asking if the Beatles would sit for him. Epstein was not confident they would and so Wynne went to Paris, where the band was staying at the Hôtel George V. "Beatlemania was at its height and there were police everywhere. I went up to their room, and found they were not too keen at first. But eventually Ringo said OK. The clay model I made seemed to meet with their approval, so I went on and did them all. After that we got on rather well. I took them out to dinner, which they found useful because I could speak French."

Six casts were eventually made and all soon sold, with Wynne keeping a proof for himself.The proof sold in 2004 for £75,000

In my Collectors' corner column this time I have looked at the the rise of vintage posters. You can read the whole thing HERE