Picasso, Giacometti works fetch $7.7M each in NYC

[May 07, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Pieces by Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti sold Wednesday for more than $7 million each at an auction of impressionist and modern art, showing that collectors still are willing to spend despite the global recession, the Christie's auction house said.

The 1971 Picasso painting "Woman with Hat" was consigned by film director Julian Schnabel to help finance a real estate project. It shows a female figure with a face reminiscent of the artist. It sold for $7.7 million, just below its pre-sale estimate.

Schnabel, who was nominated for an Oscar for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," bought it from Picasso's grandson, and it has hung in his Manhattan home and studio since 1989. Picasso selected the canvas for a solo exhibition in Avignon, France, in 1973, but he died a month before it opened.

A Giacometti sculpture from the estate of Caral Gimbel Lebworth, daughter of a Gimbels department store chairman, also sold for $7.7 million, above its pre-sale estimate. The bronze "Bust of Diego," which features the artist's brother, had not been exhibited for more than 35 years.

A record was set Wednesday for a 1932 painting by Tamara de Lempicka, "Portrait of Madame M.," which sold for $6.1 million, Christie's said. The previous record was set Tuesday at the rival Sotheby's auction house, when "Portrait of Marjorie Ferry" sold for $4.9 million.

The uncertain economic climate has softened parts of the art auction market. But Christie's said it was pleased with how Wednesday's auction went.

"Tonight's sale demonstrates that auction is very much the arena in which to sell works that are fresh to the market," said Marc Porter, president of Christie's Americas. "Collectors remain hungry for high-quality works that are reasonably estimated and finely presented."

Of the 48 lots offered by Christie's, 38 sold for a total of $103 million, in line with their pre-sale estimate of between $88 million to $125 million.

Last spring, Christie's had 58 works and sold 44, realizing $277 million.

On Tuesday, Sotheby's offered 36 impressionist and modern works of art and sold 29 for a total of $61 million, well off their $119 million estimate.

The art auction houses this spring offered fewer lots, more conservative estimates and works by well-known artists and private estates that haven't been seen at auction in decades. In the fall, they took beatings when many works didn't sell or sold below their estimates.

Christie's didn't reveal the identities of the buyer's at Wednesday's sale, whose final prices included commissions paid to the auction house.

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On the Net:

Christie's: http://www.christies.com/

[Associated Press; By VIRGINIA BYRNE]

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