Marcel Duchamp

In 1964 Marcel Duchamp decided to reissue, in partnership with the Milanese dealer Arturo Schwartz, four “readymades” created in the 1910s. He was the one who invented the readymade concept. It involves taking everyday objects which, through the artist’s signature alone, adopt the status of a work of art. People often talk about his “Fountain”, a urinal that he displayed upside down. (See here a report about Marcel Duchamp).

Marcel Duchamp

In advance of the broken arm

But there’s also a shovel, “imagined” in 1915 and given the strange name: “In advance of the broken arm”. “It was only by making this edition,” writes Schwarz, “that Duchamp could save his readymades from oblivion, while restoring the missing pages of the corpus of his works” (1). What Duchamp created was an artistic gesture that he wanted to leave to posterity, even though the original pieces have been lost.

Collection Bergé/ Saint Laurent

On November 19 2024, at the highly anticipated Christie’s sale in New York dedicated to 20^th-century art, the first lot presented is “In advance of the broken arm”, the edition of eight copies from 1964 of the readymade from 1915. This specific example belonged to the American conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth (born 1945). Its value today is estimated at 2 million dollars by Christie’s. The last one was sold in 1985 for the equivalent of 7,851 euros.  According to the Artprice database, the record for Duchamp, 8.9 million euros, is still held by a fake perfume bottle from the Bergé/Saint Laurent collection, dating from 1921.

An ambivalent relationship with the art market

Duchamp had an ambivalent relationship with the art market. He used to say, for example: “It seems today that the artist cannot survive without an oath of allegiance to the good old almighty dollar.” He now has many spiritual heirs, but the most famous of them all is the Italian artist who lives in New York, Maurizio Cattelan (born in 1960), who harbours no ambiguity towards the market (See here a 2016 report about Maurizio Cattelan) . He plays it.

Comedian

Coincidentally, Sotheby’s is offering one of his most high-profile works, entitled “Comedian”, on November 20, 2024 in New York. It’s a real banana stuck to a wall using silver-coloured duct tape. Clearly it is not, strictly speaking, the banana that is sold but, just as with Duchamp’s readymades, it’s the idea of ​​this ordinary object being treated as a real work of art. The transfer is also accompanied by a certificate giving detailed instructions, and which truly embodies the value of the piece in the same way as an inventor’s certificate.

 Maurizo Cattelan

“Comedian” was sold for the first time in 2019 for 120,000 dollars by Emmanuel Perrotin’s gallery (See here an interview of Emmanuel Perrotin) during Art Basel Miami, to Sarah Andelman, founder of Parisian concept store Colette.

The latter confirms to us that she has her version well-kept. Two others were produced and numbered. The Sotheby’s lot is one of them, which is being offered with an estimate of 1 million euros.  But how to determine the value of a “certified banana”?

Grégoire Billault

“It’s a powerful gesture on the part of a major artist, as shown in his retrospective at the Guggenheim in New York in 2012,” points out Grégoire Billault, head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s. He also highlights that the record price for the artist is 15 million dollars.

Extraordinary media coverage

What Sotheby’s is also selling with “Comedian” is an object, a symbol of the absurdity of the age, which has been fetishized to the extreme by extraordinary media coverage. The catalogue reproduces an impressive list of articles devoted to it. It’s a way of forgetting that in a very turbulent economic context, the auction house itself was recently at the centre of a media storm. In September 2024 the Wall Street Journal highlighted Sotheby’s significant debt, while its Hong Kong sales were postponed under exceptional circumstances due to a lack of sufficient lots. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund has confirmed that it is investing 1 billion dollars in Sotheby’s…

Water Lilies

Between November 18 and 21 2024 Sotheby’s is offering other remarkable lots. In the classical vein, the most fascinating is a late painting (1914-1917) by Claude Monet depicting his favourite subject, the Water Lilies, when the shapes are diluted and the reflections, the flora and the sky become one (estimate: 60 million dollars). This painting belonged to Sydell Miller (1937-2024), a cosmetics businesswoman from Ohio who made her fortune in false eyelashes. The record price for the Water Lilies, 84 million dollars, was obtained for a painting from the same period (See here a report about Claude Monet).

Classic Jeff Koons

In the field of late-20^th-century art, “Woman in tub” is also a great classic. This work, imagined in 1988 by Jeff Koons (born in 1955), presented on November 20, comes from the famous Swiss Barbier-Mueller collection, best known for its excellence in African and Oceanic art. Here Koons, a great lover of art history and also eroticism, takes up a common theme among the old masters, depicting a young lady in the bath (See here and here an interview of Jeff Koons).

Precious

As always with the American artist, there are references to popular art that contrast with a great sense of preciosity. In this case, it’s an incomplete image – the head of the figure didn’t appear – inspired by a postcard, fashioned in porcelain in a large size (91 cm high). The sculpture, with an estimate of 10 million dollars, was purchased in 2001 for 2.8 million dollars. In 2019 a famous metal rabbit also by Koons sold for the record price of 91 million dollars.

Keith Haring 31 times

On November 21, Sotheby’s is selling a group of 31 chalk drawings by one of the pioneers of street art with a unique vocabulary, Keith Haring (1958-1990). Very expressive and effective, they were produced clandestinely, in a matter of moments, in the New York subway. “The panel would remain there from a day to several weeks. This constant replacement forces me to constantly invent new images and new ideas,” said the artist.

Larry Warsh

These ephemeral works have been preserved by art fans and recovered over time, mainly during the 1980s by a New York serial collector, Larry Warsh. In 2012 they were exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. “I knew Haring well, and Basquiat too, in the New York downtown of the 80s. I find it inexplicable that their prices currently suffer from such disparity. Keith Haring is also a great artist.”

Jean Michel Basquiat

On November 21, Christie’s is presenting a drawing by Haring’s friend, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) with an estimate for the colossal sum of 20 million dollars. According to Christie’s expert Rachel Ng, it is most likely the largest drawing ever made by the artist (161×112 cm) and from what specialists consider to be his best year: 1982. It was exhibited as part of the Basquiat retrospective in 2019 at the Vuitton Foundation (See the report here) and apparently comes from the collection of a historic fan of the artist, Peter Brant.

Ed Ruscha

But up until now the record for a drawing by the New York artist, also dated from 1982, stands at 15.1 million dollars. In this period of economic uncertainty, the most prominent works of the season continue to see their prices being pushed up by auction houses. This is the case for a painting by Californian Pop artist Ed Ruscha (born in 1937), showing an archetype of the contemporary American landscape.  “Standard station” painted in 1964 depicts a gas station sign against a background of azure blue sky. It belongs to the Bass family from Fort Worth, Texas, which made its fortune in oil. Quite a symbol… The record price for Ruscha goes up to 52.4 million dollars.

L’empire des Lumières, 18 times

Lastly, the highest estimate of the week, at around 95 million dollars, is for an image that René Magritte painted no less than 18 times in different versions: “L’empire des lumières”. “It’s the most beautiful painting in the series,” observes Charly Herscovici, president of the Magritte Foundation (See here an interview of Charly Herscovici).

Trump and the market

René Magritte

The work, which is guaranteed by a third party – meaning it’s already ensured it will be sold in agreement with the sellers and Christie’s – belonged to the American collector, Mica Ertegun.  Spectacular in its format (146×114 cm), it blends an urban scene at night, in the lower part, and during the day, in the upper part. Charly Herscovici concludes: “The return of Trump is having a real impact on the art market. It’s giving confidence to certain collectors in tax and economic affairs as well. Magritte is now returning to the big leagues. This painting could exceed 100 million dollars.”

The record for the Belgian surrealist, obtained for another version of “L’empire des lumières”, is currently set at 79.3 million dollars (See here a report dedicated to L’empire des Lumières”).

(1) Marcel Duchamp. Bernard Marcadé. Flammarion. 2007.