100 Top Treasures
November 2007
Producing the annual 100 Top Treasures list is more than reporting on and writing about the best art objects that have been sold or donated over a year’s time (July 2006–June 2007). For David Masello, Dick Kagan and Doris Goldstein, New York correspondents who have served as our Top Treasures team for five years, researching and compiling this list is an experience filled with all the drama that is the nature of our passion—collecting fine and decorative arts.
On the following pages, we hope to inspire and enlighten you through the objects we have selected for our "collection." Though numbered for logistics, any of the following 100 items can be a No. 1 in our opinion. Our reporters, too, have their favorites. "I’ve come to feel almost proprietary about the objects we’ve written about," says Masello. "When I went to the Frick Collection to see the ‘Pietà with Two Putti Angels’ [12], I scolded two over-zealous tourists who were getting too close to the sculpture with their big dangling purses." The bidding war for the bronze figure of Artemis (20) captivated Goldstein, who as a veteran auction reporter appreciates a heated sale. "The realized price was four times the $7 million high estimate. A surprise?" she posits. "No. Two dealers, both with their heels dug in, sparred until one conceded. The sale had all the elements of great theater." And like any collecting pursuit, there’s always that one treasure that missed being added to the assemblage. For Kagan, it was a Lalique perfume bottle that sold for a record $216,000 at David Rago Auctions, in Lambertville, N.J., which did not make the final list. "A young man paid a then-princely $50 for it in 1939 and gave it to his wife, who kept it 65 years," Kagan says. "It was as much an item of enduring love as a rare artifact."
1 Architect’s Archive
During the 1970s, while Pierre Koenig was designing prefabricated homes for residents of California’s Chemehuevi Indian Reservation, he learned something about natural air conditioning. Koenig told his students at the University of Southern California School of Architecture that the "passive-ventilation systems" typical of the teepees of the Plains Indians were perfect examples of "prefabrication and conforming to the environment at a small cost! We haven’t yet been to able to achieve this in modern technology." Even though he celebrated—and exploited to their fullest—the chief materials of the Modernist architectural palette (steel and glass), Koenig often advised, "Don’t put too much confidence in mechanical systems. They fail. Far better to build in concert with nature in the first place." Of his many architectural accomplishments, Koenig is best known for his Case Study houses No. 21 and No. 22, built in 1959 and 1960. The original working drawings for those now iconic (and extant) residences in Los Angeles are among the 3,000 objects and items of ephemera included in his architectural archive, acquired in December by the Special Collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Although the Getty won’t put a value on the archive, it is revealing to note that Koenig’s Case Study houses continue to sell in excess of $3 million—ironic considering that they were meant to be solutions for affordable housing in their day. —D.M.
2 Boudoir Scene
Since 1980 French antiques dealer Maurice Segoura had owned "An Interior with Two Ladies and a Gentleman" (1776) by Louis-Rolland Trinquesse. But in October 2006 at Christie’s New York sale of Old Master paintings, it was purchased by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford for $968,000. Considered an outstanding example of French 18th-century genre painting, the scene is set in a lavish bedroom in the Louis XVI style. "It’s a wonderful document of the third quarter of the 18th century, providing detailed information of the period’s furniture, wall coverings and costumes. It also reveals how people at the time related to one another," says Linda Roth, chairman of the museum’s curatorial department and curator of European decorative arts. —D.G.
3 Modernist Miami
Although Fernand Léger (1881–1955) was long known for Cubist works that were on par with those of Picasso and Braque, it was only after World War II that he adopted a particularly distinctive style that was decidedly less abstract and made use of contrasting cylindrical and rectilinear forms. And closer to the end of his life, he was especially fascinated by the creation of sculptural figures whose forms were rendered in bold black lines emerging from white and sometimes red backgrounds. In December 2006, collector Jeffrey Loria, the owner of the Florida Marlins, donated "Femmes aux Perroquet" ("Women with Parrot"), a painted bronze sculpture, to the Miami Art Museum (MAM). "Because of Jeffrey’s remarkable generosity, visitors to MAM will be able to see exactly why Léger is considered one of the great Modernist European artists of the 20th century," says Mary Frank, president of the museum’s board of trustees. Terence Riley, the museum’s director, adds that Loria’s gift, which is valued at $2 million, is one of the "landmarks in MAM’s history." —D.M.
4 Heaven and Earth
At one time a pair of celestial and terrestrial globes were the sine qua non for the home libraries of well-educated gentlepersons. That was before the multimedia home entertainment center took over. One particularly handsome pair of library globes, circa 1815, was sold last winter by M.S. Rau Antiques of New Orleans for $250,000. The pair, made by John and William Cary of London, had previously been in the library of a townhouse in the English capital. "The Regency stands, each 46 inches tall, are made of Cuban mahogany, with compasses at the base that are purely decorative," notes Bill Rau, president of the firm. "The celestial globe has magnificent drawings of all the constellations, while the center of Africa on the terrestrial globe is marked as ‘Unknown Parts.’ Given their colossal scale, the reputation of the maker and exceptional condition, they’re the greatest pair of globes I’ve ever seen." —D.K.
5 Stone Faced
During ritual ceremonies in the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacán, a clothed effigy would be topped with a stone mask so realistically rendered that the figure could be imagined as having come to life. The masks were carved to reflect the ideal of beauty in the culture, which flourished from 450 to 650 A.D.: full parted lips, aquiline nose, heavy-lidded eyes. But as Esther Pasztory wrote in her 1998 book Pre-Columbian Art, such masks, ultimately, "are the faces of the people of Teotihuacán … they suggest both anonymity and multiplicity." At a Sotheby’s New York sale of African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art in May, this stone mask sold to an anonymous American dealer for $684,000, a record for a pre-Columbian mask at auction. —D.M.
6 Sommer Time
Ohio resident William Sommer rendered the hills and dales of the Buckeye State with the same grace and acuity that post-Impressionists brought to rills and vales of the Côte d’Azur. "Landscape with Yellow Clouds" (c. 1915), from the artist’s Fauvist period, went on view for the first time in a gallery dedicated to Sommer’s work at the Akron Art Museum with the opening of its expanded and renovated facility last July. Dynamic, distinctive and joyous, "Landscape with Yellow Clouds" was painted after Sommer visited the historic Armory Show (in either New York or Chicago) in 1913, where he was delighted by Modernist works, including French Fauvist art. The value of the painting was put in the low six figures by art-market sources. "It has a wonderful freshness to it," says Barbara Tannenbaum, Akron’s director of curatorial affairs. "It is perhaps Sommer’s best painting from that early period. It will be displayed with one of his Cubist landscapes on one side and a dark expressionist piece on the other. It’s a fabulous exposition of the history of 20th-century art as seen in his work." —D.K.
On the following pages, we hope to inspire and enlighten you through the objects we have selected for our "collection." Though numbered for logistics, any of the following 100 items can be a No. 1 in our opinion. Our reporters, too, have their favorites. "I’ve come to feel almost proprietary about the objects we’ve written about," says Masello. "When I went to the Frick Collection to see the ‘Pietà with Two Putti Angels’ [12], I scolded two over-zealous tourists who were getting too close to the sculpture with their big dangling purses." The bidding war for the bronze figure of Artemis (20) captivated Goldstein, who as a veteran auction reporter appreciates a heated sale. "The realized price was four times the $7 million high estimate. A surprise?" she posits. "No. Two dealers, both with their heels dug in, sparred until one conceded. The sale had all the elements of great theater." And like any collecting pursuit, there’s always that one treasure that missed being added to the assemblage. For Kagan, it was a Lalique perfume bottle that sold for a record $216,000 at David Rago Auctions, in Lambertville, N.J., which did not make the final list. "A young man paid a then-princely $50 for it in 1939 and gave it to his wife, who kept it 65 years," Kagan says. "It was as much an item of enduring love as a rare artifact."
1 Architect’s Archive
During the 1970s, while Pierre Koenig was designing prefabricated homes for residents of California’s Chemehuevi Indian Reservation, he learned something about natural air conditioning. Koenig told his students at the University of Southern California School of Architecture that the "passive-ventilation systems" typical of the teepees of the Plains Indians were perfect examples of "prefabrication and conforming to the environment at a small cost! We haven’t yet been to able to achieve this in modern technology." Even though he celebrated—and exploited to their fullest—the chief materials of the Modernist architectural palette (steel and glass), Koenig often advised, "Don’t put too much confidence in mechanical systems. They fail. Far better to build in concert with nature in the first place." Of his many architectural accomplishments, Koenig is best known for his Case Study houses No. 21 and No. 22, built in 1959 and 1960. The original working drawings for those now iconic (and extant) residences in Los Angeles are among the 3,000 objects and items of ephemera included in his architectural archive, acquired in December by the Special Collections of the Research Library at the Getty Research Institute. Although the Getty won’t put a value on the archive, it is revealing to note that Koenig’s Case Study houses continue to sell in excess of $3 million—ironic considering that they were meant to be solutions for affordable housing in their day. —D.M.
2 Boudoir Scene
Since 1980 French antiques dealer Maurice Segoura had owned "An Interior with Two Ladies and a Gentleman" (1776) by Louis-Rolland Trinquesse. But in October 2006 at Christie’s New York sale of Old Master paintings, it was purchased by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford for $968,000. Considered an outstanding example of French 18th-century genre painting, the scene is set in a lavish bedroom in the Louis XVI style. "It’s a wonderful document of the third quarter of the 18th century, providing detailed information of the period’s furniture, wall coverings and costumes. It also reveals how people at the time related to one another," says Linda Roth, chairman of the museum’s curatorial department and curator of European decorative arts. —D.G.
3 Modernist Miami
Although Fernand Léger (1881–1955) was long known for Cubist works that were on par with those of Picasso and Braque, it was only after World War II that he adopted a particularly distinctive style that was decidedly less abstract and made use of contrasting cylindrical and rectilinear forms. And closer to the end of his life, he was especially fascinated by the creation of sculptural figures whose forms were rendered in bold black lines emerging from white and sometimes red backgrounds. In December 2006, collector Jeffrey Loria, the owner of the Florida Marlins, donated "Femmes aux Perroquet" ("Women with Parrot"), a painted bronze sculpture, to the Miami Art Museum (MAM). "Because of Jeffrey’s remarkable generosity, visitors to MAM will be able to see exactly why Léger is considered one of the great Modernist European artists of the 20th century," says Mary Frank, president of the museum’s board of trustees. Terence Riley, the museum’s director, adds that Loria’s gift, which is valued at $2 million, is one of the "landmarks in MAM’s history." —D.M.
4 Heaven and Earth
At one time a pair of celestial and terrestrial globes were the sine qua non for the home libraries of well-educated gentlepersons. That was before the multimedia home entertainment center took over. One particularly handsome pair of library globes, circa 1815, was sold last winter by M.S. Rau Antiques of New Orleans for $250,000. The pair, made by John and William Cary of London, had previously been in the library of a townhouse in the English capital. "The Regency stands, each 46 inches tall, are made of Cuban mahogany, with compasses at the base that are purely decorative," notes Bill Rau, president of the firm. "The celestial globe has magnificent drawings of all the constellations, while the center of Africa on the terrestrial globe is marked as ‘Unknown Parts.’ Given their colossal scale, the reputation of the maker and exceptional condition, they’re the greatest pair of globes I’ve ever seen." —D.K.
5 Stone Faced
During ritual ceremonies in the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacán, a clothed effigy would be topped with a stone mask so realistically rendered that the figure could be imagined as having come to life. The masks were carved to reflect the ideal of beauty in the culture, which flourished from 450 to 650 A.D.: full parted lips, aquiline nose, heavy-lidded eyes. But as Esther Pasztory wrote in her 1998 book Pre-Columbian Art, such masks, ultimately, "are the faces of the people of Teotihuacán … they suggest both anonymity and multiplicity." At a Sotheby’s New York sale of African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art in May, this stone mask sold to an anonymous American dealer for $684,000, a record for a pre-Columbian mask at auction. —D.M.
6 Sommer Time
Ohio resident William Sommer rendered the hills and dales of the Buckeye State with the same grace and acuity that post-Impressionists brought to rills and vales of the Côte d’Azur. "Landscape with Yellow Clouds" (c. 1915), from the artist’s Fauvist period, went on view for the first time in a gallery dedicated to Sommer’s work at the Akron Art Museum with the opening of its expanded and renovated facility last July. Dynamic, distinctive and joyous, "Landscape with Yellow Clouds" was painted after Sommer visited the historic Armory Show (in either New York or Chicago) in 1913, where he was delighted by Modernist works, including French Fauvist art. The value of the painting was put in the low six figures by art-market sources. "It has a wonderful freshness to it," says Barbara Tannenbaum, Akron’s director of curatorial affairs. "It is perhaps Sommer’s best painting from that early period. It will be displayed with one of his Cubist landscapes on one side and a dark expressionist piece on the other. It’s a fabulous exposition of the history of 20th-century art as seen in his work." —D.K.
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