100 Top Treasures
November 2007
71 Plain Geometry
A major collection of Brazilian Constructive Art—hip, cool and engagingly modern—was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The announcement that the museum had purchased the 98-piece Adolpho Leirner Collection was made in March. The total value of the collection was estimated by art-market sources in the mid-seven figures. The collection, which consists of the finest examples of geometric abstraction in paintings, constructions and other media by outstanding Brazilian artists in the period following World War II, "represents a key chapter in the global story of Modernism," says Dr. Peter C. Marzio, the director of the MFA, Houston. The contributions of these artists has only recently been recognized outside of Brazil. Pictured above is "Visible Idea" (c. 1956), which was created out of wood plastered with paint, by Waldemar Cordeiro. —D.K.
72 Annunciation Announcement
We all have our favorite stories. One of El Greco’s was "The Annunciation," which he painted repeatedly. This version, which was deaccessioned from the Toledo Museum of Art and sold at a Sotheby’s New York auction last January for $4,184,000, is described by Sotheby’s specialists as "beautiful," "of superior quality," and for years "regarded as the prime example of the composition." —D.M.
73 Wood Work
For collectors of furniture by the American craftsman George Nakashima, Sotheby’s New York sale of the famed Arthur and Evelyn Krosnick collection last December was the place to be. Nakashima collectors since the 1960s, the Krosnicks, together with Nelson Rockefeller, were the artist’s most devoted clients. But in 1989 their Princeton, New Jersey, home, along with more than 100 examples of Nakashima furniture, burned to the ground. Fortunately the collection’s centerpiece, a 91-inch redwood dining table called the "Arlyn" (a combination of the couple’s first names), had been on loan to the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts & Design in New York) at the time and escaped destruction. As expected, it was the sale’s top lot, selling for a record $822,400. The purchaser was the Two Red Roses Foundation, a Florida-based institution dedicated to the acquisition and exhibition of works from the American Arts and Crafts Movement. "The legendary Arlyn table is Nakashima’s masterwork and one of the top 10 most important lots of 20th-century furniture to appear on the market," says Robert Aibel, owner of the Moderne Gallery in Philadelphia, which specializes in Nakashima. —D.G.
74 Vintage Vessel
Applause broke out following vigorous bidding for a rare archaic bronze wine vessel and cover (fangjia) at Sotheby’s New York sale of Chinese ceramics and works of art in March. Formerly in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, this late Shang dynasty (13th–11th century B.C.) vessel sold for $8.1 million to English dealer Roger Keverne, who was acting on behalf of Compton Verney, a museum outside Stratford-upon-Avon, England. All four sides are cast in low relief, a loop handle extends from one side, the other three sides are adorned with riveting owl heads. These vessels were used for ancestor worship or sacrificial ceremonies and intended to hold black millet wine that was poured onto the ground. "The market always places great esteem and high value on certain peaks throughout the 5,000-year span of art. Archaic bronzes are one of those peaks, and the sale affirms its validity and importance," explains Joe-Hynn Yang, head of the Chinese art department at Sotheby’s. —D.G.
75 Attention, Shoppers
Andy Warhol was quoted once as saying, "All department stores will become museums and all museums will become department stores." In Andreas Gursky’s "99 Cent II Diptych," which sold to a private collector at a November 2006 auction at Phillips, de Pury & Company, New York, for $2.48 million, Warhol’s maxim appears to have come true. As stated in the Phillips catalogue about the sale, the 2001 photograph "celebrates the seductive powers of supermarket packaging and most, importantly, presentation … At the core of Gursky’s practice is an interest in commerce, whether the production, trade or sale of goods, and this is best exemplified in ‘99 Cent II Diptych.’" The massively scaled work (81" x 134 ¼"), which depicts a dizzying array of wares displaying in the aisles of a discount store, embodies Gursky’s typical methods— making color prints from celluloid negatives, which, according to the Phillips catalogue, "contribute to the crystalline quality definition and high-gloss sheen for which his photographs are famed." —D.M.
76 Emotive Marble
Even though Jean-Antoine Houdon’s portrait of "Madame His" (1774–75) is rendered in marble, his depth of carving can fool the viewer into thinking her eyes are pale-colored and misting with emotion. "I know this portrait well," says Anne L. Poulet, director of The Frick Collection, to which the sculpture was given as a gift in October by collector Eugene V. Thaw, "and it is a work of exquisite beauty and refinement, as well as a rare surviving example that preserves Houdon’s original luminous surface treatment." Other Houdon portraits featured as past Top Treasures have been valued at several million dollars. —D.M.
77 Dower Power
If a young person came into a marriage today with nothing but the Black Unicorn Chest, it would represent, even empty, a substantial dowry. The chest, painted and decorated with red, black, ivory and yellow designs on a blue-green ground, was sold by Skinner, Boston, in November 2006 for $446,000. The buyer was Olde Hope Antiques Inc. of New Hope, Pennsylvania. "The chest had been in the same Massachusetts family since the early 20th century," says Ed Hild, co-owner of Olde Hope Antiques. "There’s a nearly identical one at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." —D.K.
78 Polar Expression
A 15-foot totem pole was installed last spring at the Field Museum, Chicago. The piece, valued in the low to mid-six figures by American Indian art experts, was commissioned by the museum to replace a totem pole it returned to the Tlingit people of Alaska under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Carved by the father-and-son team of Nathan and Stephen Jackson from a Western red cedar tree donated by the Tlingit, "the new pole is something of a post-modern creation," says Janet Hong, the museum’s project manager for exhibitions. —D.K.
A major collection of Brazilian Constructive Art—hip, cool and engagingly modern—was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The announcement that the museum had purchased the 98-piece Adolpho Leirner Collection was made in March. The total value of the collection was estimated by art-market sources in the mid-seven figures. The collection, which consists of the finest examples of geometric abstraction in paintings, constructions and other media by outstanding Brazilian artists in the period following World War II, "represents a key chapter in the global story of Modernism," says Dr. Peter C. Marzio, the director of the MFA, Houston. The contributions of these artists has only recently been recognized outside of Brazil. Pictured above is "Visible Idea" (c. 1956), which was created out of wood plastered with paint, by Waldemar Cordeiro. —D.K.
72 Annunciation Announcement
We all have our favorite stories. One of El Greco’s was "The Annunciation," which he painted repeatedly. This version, which was deaccessioned from the Toledo Museum of Art and sold at a Sotheby’s New York auction last January for $4,184,000, is described by Sotheby’s specialists as "beautiful," "of superior quality," and for years "regarded as the prime example of the composition." —D.M.
73 Wood Work
For collectors of furniture by the American craftsman George Nakashima, Sotheby’s New York sale of the famed Arthur and Evelyn Krosnick collection last December was the place to be. Nakashima collectors since the 1960s, the Krosnicks, together with Nelson Rockefeller, were the artist’s most devoted clients. But in 1989 their Princeton, New Jersey, home, along with more than 100 examples of Nakashima furniture, burned to the ground. Fortunately the collection’s centerpiece, a 91-inch redwood dining table called the "Arlyn" (a combination of the couple’s first names), had been on loan to the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts & Design in New York) at the time and escaped destruction. As expected, it was the sale’s top lot, selling for a record $822,400. The purchaser was the Two Red Roses Foundation, a Florida-based institution dedicated to the acquisition and exhibition of works from the American Arts and Crafts Movement. "The legendary Arlyn table is Nakashima’s masterwork and one of the top 10 most important lots of 20th-century furniture to appear on the market," says Robert Aibel, owner of the Moderne Gallery in Philadelphia, which specializes in Nakashima. —D.G.
74 Vintage Vessel
Applause broke out following vigorous bidding for a rare archaic bronze wine vessel and cover (fangjia) at Sotheby’s New York sale of Chinese ceramics and works of art in March. Formerly in the collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, this late Shang dynasty (13th–11th century B.C.) vessel sold for $8.1 million to English dealer Roger Keverne, who was acting on behalf of Compton Verney, a museum outside Stratford-upon-Avon, England. All four sides are cast in low relief, a loop handle extends from one side, the other three sides are adorned with riveting owl heads. These vessels were used for ancestor worship or sacrificial ceremonies and intended to hold black millet wine that was poured onto the ground. "The market always places great esteem and high value on certain peaks throughout the 5,000-year span of art. Archaic bronzes are one of those peaks, and the sale affirms its validity and importance," explains Joe-Hynn Yang, head of the Chinese art department at Sotheby’s. —D.G.
75 Attention, Shoppers
Andy Warhol was quoted once as saying, "All department stores will become museums and all museums will become department stores." In Andreas Gursky’s "99 Cent II Diptych," which sold to a private collector at a November 2006 auction at Phillips, de Pury & Company, New York, for $2.48 million, Warhol’s maxim appears to have come true. As stated in the Phillips catalogue about the sale, the 2001 photograph "celebrates the seductive powers of supermarket packaging and most, importantly, presentation … At the core of Gursky’s practice is an interest in commerce, whether the production, trade or sale of goods, and this is best exemplified in ‘99 Cent II Diptych.’" The massively scaled work (81" x 134 ¼"), which depicts a dizzying array of wares displaying in the aisles of a discount store, embodies Gursky’s typical methods— making color prints from celluloid negatives, which, according to the Phillips catalogue, "contribute to the crystalline quality definition and high-gloss sheen for which his photographs are famed." —D.M.
76 Emotive Marble
Even though Jean-Antoine Houdon’s portrait of "Madame His" (1774–75) is rendered in marble, his depth of carving can fool the viewer into thinking her eyes are pale-colored and misting with emotion. "I know this portrait well," says Anne L. Poulet, director of The Frick Collection, to which the sculpture was given as a gift in October by collector Eugene V. Thaw, "and it is a work of exquisite beauty and refinement, as well as a rare surviving example that preserves Houdon’s original luminous surface treatment." Other Houdon portraits featured as past Top Treasures have been valued at several million dollars. —D.M.
77 Dower Power
If a young person came into a marriage today with nothing but the Black Unicorn Chest, it would represent, even empty, a substantial dowry. The chest, painted and decorated with red, black, ivory and yellow designs on a blue-green ground, was sold by Skinner, Boston, in November 2006 for $446,000. The buyer was Olde Hope Antiques Inc. of New Hope, Pennsylvania. "The chest had been in the same Massachusetts family since the early 20th century," says Ed Hild, co-owner of Olde Hope Antiques. "There’s a nearly identical one at the Philadelphia Museum of Art." —D.K.
78 Polar Expression
A 15-foot totem pole was installed last spring at the Field Museum, Chicago. The piece, valued in the low to mid-six figures by American Indian art experts, was commissioned by the museum to replace a totem pole it returned to the Tlingit people of Alaska under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. Carved by the father-and-son team of Nathan and Stephen Jackson from a Western red cedar tree donated by the Tlingit, "the new pole is something of a post-modern creation," says Janet Hong, the museum’s project manager for exhibitions. —D.K.
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