100 Top Treasures
November 2007
15 Wright Turn
"Portrait of Robert Shore Milnes" (1771–72) by the 18th-century English painter known as Joseph Wright of Derby, sold last January at Sotheby’s New York for $7,208,000 to the London dealer Jean-Luc Baroni. The price was more than quadruple the high estimate of $1.5 million and set a new world auction record for the artist. "Wright’s novel approach to portraiture is evident in the unusual composition of the picture and in the unusual painting technique he employed," wrote Christopher Apostle, senior vice-president of Sotheby’s, New York Old Master paintings department, in the auction catalogue. "Milnes … is wearing the uniform of the Royal Horse Guards, his right foot resting on the trunk of a fallen tree and his arm outstretched in a commanding gesture. The overall sense is one of action and confidence, ideally suited to the portrait of the young officer." —D.K.
16 Heavy Metal
El Anatsui, a native Ghanaian artist who lives and teaches in Nigeria, finds his art materials on the street—and often in the bush. For "Fading Cloth," he took discarded metal liquor bottle tops, flattened them and stitched them together with copper wire into a quilt-like tapestry measuring more than 10 feet by 6 feet. In February the Saint Louis Art Museum purchased this 2005 "textile" from the October Gallery in London for about $80,000, as reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. El Anatsui’s work is both an aesthetic and political statement, for he wanted to reference the historical practice of using textiles and liquors to trade for gold and slaves. "El Anatsui is inviting the viewer to question why a material like discarded alcohol bottle tops can constitute art," says Charlotte Eyerman, the museum’s curator of modern and contemporary art. "It’s through his imagination and his extremely inventive relationship to materials that he makes that transformation." —D.M.
17 Rare Survivor
Last October the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, received a gift of a Pawnee split-horn headdress from Nebraska, circa 1840. "Horns signify supernatural associations and endow the wearer with sacred power and protection," says Gaylord Torrence, the museum’s curator of American Indian art. Valued at more than $200,000, the headdress, one of a few Pawnee objects preserved from the historic period, is composed of a variety of materials including buffalo hide, split cow horn, eagle and raven feathers and glass beads. —D.G.
18 Abstract Expert
"I like the idea of there being a kind of perpetual motion," says Brice Marden. "If you follow a color through, you begin to understand there’s a certain kind of logic in the making." That logic is manifestly evident in Marden’s most ambitious painting to date, a 24-foot-long piece titled "The Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Third Version" (2000–06). The six-panel painting (two are shown) was acquired in November 2006 by the Museum of Modern Art while it was on view there in the first major retrospective of the artist’s work ever mounted. It was donated to MoMA as a promised gift by Donald Marron, vice chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, and his wife, Catherine. The value of the painting has been estimated in the low eight figures by art-market sources. The huge MoMA retrospective, according to New York art critic Peter Schjeldahl, confirmed Marden "as the most profound abstract painter of the past four decades." —D.K.
19 The Final Version
During his lifetime, the Quaker folk artist Edward Hicks painted about 70 versions of the "Peaceable Kingdom," parables inspired by the words of the prophet Isaiah, who predicted harmony among God’s creatures. In January, Christie’s New York sold the last of these images that the artist created. Dated 1849, the year before his death, it was painted for his daughter, Elizabeth, and handed down in the family to the seller. The work sold for $6.1 million, an auction record for the artist, and was purchased by Pennsylvania folk art dealer Harry Hartman. Until last year, it had been on loan at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The earliest "Kingdom" pictures were begun in 1816–18, and Hicks would continue painting them throughout his life. The early pictures are relatively uneventful and static, but during the middle years, Hicks paid more attention to detail, remodeling figures and expanding his palette. In this last work, the leopard appears relaxed, the lion nearly asleep and all 13 animals in the painting mingle peacefully as the autumn sun sets. It is a moment of surrender and acceptance. Hicks is finally at peace with the world. "It was an honor to sell Edward Hicks’ final work on the subject that dominated his painting career," says Margot Rosenberg, head of sales in Christie’s American furniture, decorative arts and folk art department. "It had impeccable provenance and is a beautiful and luminous example of this iconic image." —D.G.
20 Bronze Beauty
One of the most anticipated antiquities sales in recent years took place at Sotheby’s New York in June. The center of attention was a bronze figure of Artemis and a stag that had been deaccessioned from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. A fierce battle between London-based Chinese art dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi and antiquities, Islamic and Indian art dealer Oliver Forge continued for several minutes until Eskenazi emerged the winner. The final bid was a record $28.6 million, and the room exploded in thunderous applause. The unusually tall (36 1/4") figure of the goddess, represented as an adolescent girl rather than as a young woman, is shown having just released an arrow (the bow is missing). She wears elaborately laced sandals, and her chiton clings to her thighs and billows out at the sides. The sculpture is thought to be a late Hellenistic creation designed for the highly sophisticated tastes of the Roman art market in the late Republic or early Empire. According to Ugo Jandolo, the first known owner of the statue, this figure came to light sometime before the 1930s when houses near Rome’s Church of St. John Lateran were being rebuilt. "In my 37 years at Sotheby’s, this is the most beautiful sculpture ever sold," says Richard Keresey, head of Sotheby’s antiquities department. "Few works of that period have survived in such excellent condition. It is a radiant image." —D.G.
21 Vane Exercise
It stands 5 feet 2 inches, but it doesn’t have eyes of blue. It was a well-weathered verdigris from head to toe and had facial features resembling those of an Indian-head nickel. In October 2006, the rare, molded-copper Indian Chief weathervane (circa 1900) brought $5,840,000 at Sotheby’s, New York. The price was not only a world auction record for a weathervane, but for any work of American folk art at auction. The piece, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Buhl Ford II of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, was purchased by Susan and Jerry Lauren, an executive vice president at Polo-Ralph Lauren, the firm founded by his brother. Given its unusual monumentality, the Indian Chief weathervane "was probably a special order originally created for a fraternal lodge or community institution," says Nancy Druckman, director of Sotheby’s American Folk Art department. "Remarkable for its size, condition and artistry, it is a masterpiece in every respect." —D.K.
"Portrait of Robert Shore Milnes" (1771–72) by the 18th-century English painter known as Joseph Wright of Derby, sold last January at Sotheby’s New York for $7,208,000 to the London dealer Jean-Luc Baroni. The price was more than quadruple the high estimate of $1.5 million and set a new world auction record for the artist. "Wright’s novel approach to portraiture is evident in the unusual composition of the picture and in the unusual painting technique he employed," wrote Christopher Apostle, senior vice-president of Sotheby’s, New York Old Master paintings department, in the auction catalogue. "Milnes … is wearing the uniform of the Royal Horse Guards, his right foot resting on the trunk of a fallen tree and his arm outstretched in a commanding gesture. The overall sense is one of action and confidence, ideally suited to the portrait of the young officer." —D.K.
16 Heavy Metal
El Anatsui, a native Ghanaian artist who lives and teaches in Nigeria, finds his art materials on the street—and often in the bush. For "Fading Cloth," he took discarded metal liquor bottle tops, flattened them and stitched them together with copper wire into a quilt-like tapestry measuring more than 10 feet by 6 feet. In February the Saint Louis Art Museum purchased this 2005 "textile" from the October Gallery in London for about $80,000, as reported in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. El Anatsui’s work is both an aesthetic and political statement, for he wanted to reference the historical practice of using textiles and liquors to trade for gold and slaves. "El Anatsui is inviting the viewer to question why a material like discarded alcohol bottle tops can constitute art," says Charlotte Eyerman, the museum’s curator of modern and contemporary art. "It’s through his imagination and his extremely inventive relationship to materials that he makes that transformation." —D.M.
17 Rare Survivor
Last October the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, received a gift of a Pawnee split-horn headdress from Nebraska, circa 1840. "Horns signify supernatural associations and endow the wearer with sacred power and protection," says Gaylord Torrence, the museum’s curator of American Indian art. Valued at more than $200,000, the headdress, one of a few Pawnee objects preserved from the historic period, is composed of a variety of materials including buffalo hide, split cow horn, eagle and raven feathers and glass beads. —D.G.
18 Abstract Expert
"I like the idea of there being a kind of perpetual motion," says Brice Marden. "If you follow a color through, you begin to understand there’s a certain kind of logic in the making." That logic is manifestly evident in Marden’s most ambitious painting to date, a 24-foot-long piece titled "The Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Third Version" (2000–06). The six-panel painting (two are shown) was acquired in November 2006 by the Museum of Modern Art while it was on view there in the first major retrospective of the artist’s work ever mounted. It was donated to MoMA as a promised gift by Donald Marron, vice chairman of the museum’s board of trustees, and his wife, Catherine. The value of the painting has been estimated in the low eight figures by art-market sources. The huge MoMA retrospective, according to New York art critic Peter Schjeldahl, confirmed Marden "as the most profound abstract painter of the past four decades." —D.K.
19 The Final Version
During his lifetime, the Quaker folk artist Edward Hicks painted about 70 versions of the "Peaceable Kingdom," parables inspired by the words of the prophet Isaiah, who predicted harmony among God’s creatures. In January, Christie’s New York sold the last of these images that the artist created. Dated 1849, the year before his death, it was painted for his daughter, Elizabeth, and handed down in the family to the seller. The work sold for $6.1 million, an auction record for the artist, and was purchased by Pennsylvania folk art dealer Harry Hartman. Until last year, it had been on loan at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. The earliest "Kingdom" pictures were begun in 1816–18, and Hicks would continue painting them throughout his life. The early pictures are relatively uneventful and static, but during the middle years, Hicks paid more attention to detail, remodeling figures and expanding his palette. In this last work, the leopard appears relaxed, the lion nearly asleep and all 13 animals in the painting mingle peacefully as the autumn sun sets. It is a moment of surrender and acceptance. Hicks is finally at peace with the world. "It was an honor to sell Edward Hicks’ final work on the subject that dominated his painting career," says Margot Rosenberg, head of sales in Christie’s American furniture, decorative arts and folk art department. "It had impeccable provenance and is a beautiful and luminous example of this iconic image." —D.G.
20 Bronze Beauty
One of the most anticipated antiquities sales in recent years took place at Sotheby’s New York in June. The center of attention was a bronze figure of Artemis and a stag that had been deaccessioned from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. A fierce battle between London-based Chinese art dealer Giuseppe Eskenazi and antiquities, Islamic and Indian art dealer Oliver Forge continued for several minutes until Eskenazi emerged the winner. The final bid was a record $28.6 million, and the room exploded in thunderous applause. The unusually tall (36 1/4") figure of the goddess, represented as an adolescent girl rather than as a young woman, is shown having just released an arrow (the bow is missing). She wears elaborately laced sandals, and her chiton clings to her thighs and billows out at the sides. The sculpture is thought to be a late Hellenistic creation designed for the highly sophisticated tastes of the Roman art market in the late Republic or early Empire. According to Ugo Jandolo, the first known owner of the statue, this figure came to light sometime before the 1930s when houses near Rome’s Church of St. John Lateran were being rebuilt. "In my 37 years at Sotheby’s, this is the most beautiful sculpture ever sold," says Richard Keresey, head of Sotheby’s antiquities department. "Few works of that period have survived in such excellent condition. It is a radiant image." —D.G.
21 Vane Exercise
It stands 5 feet 2 inches, but it doesn’t have eyes of blue. It was a well-weathered verdigris from head to toe and had facial features resembling those of an Indian-head nickel. In October 2006, the rare, molded-copper Indian Chief weathervane (circa 1900) brought $5,840,000 at Sotheby’s, New York. The price was not only a world auction record for a weathervane, but for any work of American folk art at auction. The piece, from the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Buhl Ford II of Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, was purchased by Susan and Jerry Lauren, an executive vice president at Polo-Ralph Lauren, the firm founded by his brother. Given its unusual monumentality, the Indian Chief weathervane "was probably a special order originally created for a fraternal lodge or community institution," says Nancy Druckman, director of Sotheby’s American Folk Art department. "Remarkable for its size, condition and artistry, it is a masterpiece in every respect." —D.K.
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