© Dorotheum
21. 06. 12. - 15:57
Auction results show trend to non bank savings
As the economic crisis continues to bite people are increasingly putting their money anywhere but banks and as a result the auction houses are reaping the profits.
Vienna's Dorotheum Auction House, continental Europe's largest auction house, reported record results and said that the May auction week in particular delivering the strongest result to date.
The top bid in the contemporary art category, which also achieved its best result in Dorotheum history, was on 24th May with a disc-shaped, scintillating blue wall object by the famous contemporary artist Anish Kapoor.
The untitled 2001 painted stainless steel piece was acquired by an art collector for 754,800 Euros. Top prices were also paid for works by Luigi Fontana, Agostino Bonalumi and Robert Indiana.
In the modern art category, pride of place went to "Les jeunes et les jeux twistent", an animated Dadaist work by Max Ernst, which sold for 605,300 Euros. Egon Schiele's "Seated Female Nude" characterised by bold simple lines and a daring point-of-view was sold for similarly successful 398,300 Euros.
At the auction of old master paintings on 18th April, an international art collector paid 869,800 Euro for "David's Triumph" by the hand of the Florentine master Lorenzo Lippi. Among 19th century paintings, Friedrich von Amerling's "Portrait of a Girl in profile, with black mantilla" was particularly successful at 156,800 Euros. A post-card sized Crimean landscape by Archip Ivanovich Kuindzhi rose to remarkable 133,800 Euros.
Coins, medals, and decorations proved to be particularly sought-after collector's items.
The single known copy of the Matthias II. gold coin (1612 - 1619) offered at the coin auction on 16th of May, was bought up by a collector for sensational 122,000 Euros, while at the "Medal and Decoration" auction on 14th of May a bidder put down 91,500 Euros for a collar of the Order of the Iron Crown. Under the inspired direction of interior designer Philip Hohenlohe the February auction "Prince Kinsky Estate" featured a wide range of furniture and decorative art, historical glass, porcelain, and silverware, as well as robes and travel gear, and was rewarded with quite princely results.
The 29th of February marked the auction premiere of "Austrian Design" and made a strong statement for its subject matter offering important objects from Austrian design history from the nineteen-twenties to -sixties, with many of the objects going for unprecedented prices.
"A strong first two quarters for Dorotheum", said Martin Böhm, Dorotheum managing director. "It is particularly encouraging that art collectors from all over the world are responding to the international selection offered by our auction house with such enthusiastic interest."
