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Sotheby apos;s Reveals Its Top 10 Priciest Lots Of 2015

2022-03-21T02:41:13Z

ElviraLarios:

Money may not be able to buy you happiness, but if you had several million pounds to spare you could have splashed out on Sotheby's most expensive auction lots of the year. A Cy Twombly painting sold for a staggering £47million last month, while Picasso's La Gommeuse - with a hidden piece of art on the back - cost a buyer £46m just days earlier. The hammer went down on the ultimate 'sparkler' - a 12-carat blue diamond ring - at £33m in Geneva. It was bought by a Hong Kong billionaire for his seven-year-old daughter, and he renamed it The Blue Moon of Josephine. Here, auctioneers Sotheby's reveals its top 10 priciest lots of 2015. 1. Cy Twombly, Untitled (NYC) - £47million ($70,530,000) £47million: CY Twombly's Untitled (New York City) was Sotheby's highest selling lot in the whole of 2015 Cy Twombly's masterpiece became Sotheby's top selling lot when it sold for a mind-blowing £47million at a Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York on November 11. The oil-based house paint and wax crayons on canvas is signed, and inscribed with NYC and dated 1968 on the back. It was produced by the artist as part of his acclaimed Blackboard series. The former army cryptographer painted six bands of repeated loopy lines on a gray background, which was sold by a prominent US collector to benefit a reform temple in Los Angeles. The American painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor's artwork sold for more than 10 times the amount it fetched when it last appeared at auction in 1990. 2. Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse - £45million ($67,450,000) £45million: Pablo Picasso, La Gommeuse features a second portrait by the artist on the reverse of the canvas Pablo Picasso's La Gommeuse was sold by Sotheby's for £45m at sale in New York on November 5. The oil on canvas was painted in Paris in 1901 and is signed in the top left corner. What is unusual about La Gommeuse is that it features a second portrait by the artist on the reverse of the canvas, which was hidden for a century until 2001. The painting on the back was seen in public for the first time when the painting was sold this year. The artwork is the most important Blue Period Picasso - painted between 1901 and 1904 in shades of blue and blue-green - to come to the market in a generation. It came the highest valued Blue Period work ever sold at auction. 3. Vincent Van Gogh, L'Allée des Alyscamps - £44million ($66,330,000) £44million: L'Allée des Alyscamps sold for the highest price paid at auction for a Van Gogh since 1998 Vincent Van Gogh's famous L'Allée des Alyscamps sold at an auction in New York on May 5 for £44m. The oil on canvas - painted on November 1 1888 - broke the record for any landscape created by the famous artist. The selling price was the highest paid at auction for a Van Gogh since 1998, and sold for £8m in 2003. The Dutch painter is one of the most popular of the Post-Impressionist painters today, but was not widely appreciated while he was alive. He suffered from depression and in 1890 he died after shooting himself. 4. Claude Monet, Nymphéas - £36million ($54,010,000) £36million: Monet's Nymphéas, painted in 1905, was sold by Sotheby's at an auction in New York Claude Monet's Nymphéas sold at a sale in New York in May for £36million for well above the estimate. The signed oil on canvas was painted 1905, when he created what are considered to be his finest works. Monet was a French artist and a leading member of the Impressionist group of painters. Nymphéas are among the most iconic and celebrated Impressionist paintings - the subject of which was his famous lily pond in his garden in Giverny. 5. Vincent Van Gogh, Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé - £36million ($54,010,000) £36million: Van Gogh's Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé was sold by Sotheby's in New York in November Paysage sous un ciel mouvementé is another of Vincent Van Gogh's masterpieces in Sotheby's top 10 most expensive lots of 2015. The oil on canvas, painted in Arles in southern France in 1889, was sold on November 5 in New York for £36m. The painting depicts a lush green field under threat of a rainstorm, and was completed two months before the artist painted arguably his most celebrated work - The Starry Night. 6. Blue Moon - £33million - (48,634,000 Swiss Francs) £33million: A Hong Kong billionaire was the top bidder for the 12.03-carat Blue Moon diamond sold this year A Hong Kong billionaire was the top bidder for the 12.03-carat Blue Moon diamond sold in Geneva in November. Joseph Lau bought the diamond for his seven-year-old Josephine and promptly renamed it The Blue Moon of Josephine. The blue diamond, set in a ring, was said to be among the largest known fancy vivid blue diamonds and was the showpiece gem at the Sotheby's jewellery auction. The Blue Moon is named in reference to its rarity, playing off the expression 'once in a blue moon'. The polished blue gem was cut from a 29.6-carat diamond discovered last year in South Africa's Cullinan mine, which also yielded the 530-carat Star of Africa blue diamond that is part of the British crown jewels, and the Smithsonian Institution's Blue Heart discovered in 1908. The sale set a new auction record price-per-carat for any diamond or gemstone and also set a new auction record price for any jewel. 7. Andy Warhol, Mao - £32million ($47,514,000) £32million: Warhol's acrylic silkscreen of the late Chinese communist leader, sold in New York in November Andy Warhol's acrylic silkscreen of Mao Zedong, from the artist's first series of the late Chinese communist leader, sold for £32m in New York on November 19. In the past 19 years, only one such comparable Mao painting of this size from the same series has ever been offered at auction. Sotheby's said it was the highest price paid for a Warhol of the week of auctions at its showroom and that of arch rival Christie's. The artist is still one of the most influential figures in contemporary art and culture more than two decades after his death. 8. Mark Rothko, Untitled (Yellow and Blue) - £31 million (46,450,000) £31 million: Mark Rothko's 8-foot-tall oil on canvas painting sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York in May Mark Rothko's oil on canvas painting sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York in May for £31m. The 8-foot-tall abstract painting of large yellow and blue planes hung at the National Gallery in Washington for 10 years while it was owned by the late Rachel 'Bunny' Mellon. She acquired it directly from Rothko's estate shortly after his death in 1970. The heir to the Listerine fortune and widow of philanthropist Paul Mellon died in 2013. A wealth of her artwork, 43 post-war and contemporary paintings including pieces by Pablo Picasso and Rothko, were sold in 2014 for more than £107m. Rothko was an American Abstract Expressionist painter, born in Russia. 9. Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild - £30million £30million: The oil on canvas is one of the largest abstract paintings by artist Gerhard Richter The abstract work by German artist Gerhard Richter sold for more than £30 million in February - a record for a living artist in Europe. Standing at 9ft 10" by 8ft 2", Sotheby's auctioneers in London described Abstraktes Bild as 'one of the largest abstract paintings by the artist and certainly one of his most chromatically astounding'. The oil-on-canvas, featuring Richter's trademark 'squeegee-style', was bought by an anonymous bidder. Art experts said there was huge interest in the painting because it is not only one of Richter's biggest works, but it is also one of its favourites. Richter had personally asked that the painting go on extended loan to the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, during the 1990s. 10. Amedeo Modigliani, Paulette Jourdain - £29million ($42,810,000) £29million: This oil on canvas painted circa 1919 by Amedeo Modigliani sold for well above its estimate This painting by Amedeo Modigliani sold for £29m, well above its estimate, on the first day of Sotheby's fall art auction in November. The oil on canvas painted circa 1919, was owned by US mall developer A. Alfred Taubman, who served prison time in an auction house price-fixing scandal. It was among 500 works, which stretched from antiquity to contemporary art, and also included paintings by Pablo Picasso and Jackson Pollock. Taubman, a billionaire who founded the shopping mall business Taubman Centers Inc, died in April at the age of 91. In 1983, he bought Sotheby's and became its chairman. But in the early 2000s, Taubman was convicted and jailed for 10 months over an international price-fixing conspiracy with competing auction house Christie's. He left jail in 2003 still proclaiming his innocence.

Sumner Redstone apos;s Extraordinary Life

2022-03-20T07:16:09Z

ElviraLarios: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „Sumner Redstone in 1988, after he took over Viacom and while he was making a play for Paramount Pictures Sumner Redstone's death on Tuesday comes after a…“

Sumner Redstone in 1988, after he took over Viacom and while he was making a play for Paramount Pictures Sumner Redstone's death on Tuesday comes after a colorful life that began humbly in Boston and saw him rise bombastically through the TV and movie world, collecting film studios and cable conglomerates all while juggling two marriages, a string of messy affairs, family feuds and mammoth business deals. The ViacomCBS giant died aged 97, his family revealed on Tuesday, after a sad existence in recent years. After being hospitalized in 2014 with pneumonia and having ingested food in his lungs, he spent much of the last six years unable to speak. He communicated through an iPad and was cared for round-the-clock by nurses who have claimed he was often reduced to tears and screaming by an ex-girlfriend, Sydney Holland, who they say tried to keep him from his family. That life in his final days is a far cry from the trail he blazed in the world of entertainment over the last 50 years. Born Sumner Rothstein in Boston in 1923, his father Max sold linoleum from the back of a truck and his mother was a housekeeper. When he was a teenager, his father changed the family name to Redstone. Redstone was dismayed and thought his father was trying to abandon their Jewish heritage. Friends close to the family have since suggested that Max did not want the family to be associated with the famous gangster, Arnold Rothstein, who fixed the world series. After high school, he enrolled at Harvard, on a scholarship, and graduated within three years. He was so skilled in languages that he was invited to Washington during World War II to work as an army cryptographer to decipher Japanese military codes. In 1947, Redstone married his first wife, Phyllis. They welcomed their children Shari and Brent and the family lived for a time in San Francisco, where he worked in a law firm and later teaching at a university. Redstone's first foray into the world of TV and movies came in 1954, when he abandoned his law career to join his father who had saved enough money to buy a drive-in movie theater. Together and with the contribution of Sumner's brother, they bought 11 more. Redstone married his passion for movies with his legal expertise to sue film studios which, at the time, didn't allow drive-ins to lease first-run films. In the early 1960s, as the appetite for drive-in theaters declined, he tore them down and started building multiplexes in their places. Redstone became CEO of his father's company - National Amusements Inc - in 1964. For the next several years, he invested on he side in studios but his quickly ascending career was brutally halted in 1979 in a hotel fire. In 1979, Redstone was staying at The Boston Copley Plaza when a fire tore through the hotel. He was staying with his mistress and escaped by clinging on to a window ledge as flames burned his hands Redstone was rescued from the hotel on a ladder. He later wrote in his autobiography: 'The fire shot up my legs. The pain was searing. I was being burned alive' Redstone was in the hotel fire with his then mistress, Desla Winer (together, right). She escaped with fewer injuries. The pair remained friends for years. He was married at the time to his first wife, Phyllis (together, left in 1997). The pair were married for 52 years, during which time he had several affairs, before they divorced in 1999 Redstone circa 1981, in another portrait shot by The Boston Globe (left) and in 1986 (right). By then, he'd recovered from the fire injuries and was quickly charging ahead with buying up movie studios Sumner (center) with Shari (second from right) and Phyllis (far right) along with children believed to be Shari's kids and TomF Freston and Michael Stipe in 1993 Redstone was staying at The Copley Plaza with his mistress, Delsa Winer, when a fire tore through the building. He was 55 at the time. 'The fire shot up my legs. The pain was searing. I was being burned alive,' Redstone in his autobiography, describing surviving the 1979 fire at the Copley Plaza Hotel where he was spending the night with a mistress when flames engulfed his room He climbed out through the window and clung to the window ledge as flames burned his hand and 45 percent of his body until he was rescued by fire fighters. 'The fire shot up my legs. The pain was searing. I was being burned alive,' he wrote in his autobiography. Redstone had to undergo five surgeries but nothing could correct the damage to one of his hands. He would later say that he felt lucky to be alive. In 1987, he went after Viacom, his biggest business play to date. He bought it was $3.4billion. Next, he bought Paramount in 1993 for $8.2billion. CBS was folded into Viacom in 1999 through a stock merger worth $37billion - the largest deal in media history at the time. He separated the pair in 2006 and put Les Moonves in charge of CBS. Shari brought the two companies back together with her coup over the last few years which resulted in the ViacomCBS merger, a $30billion deal. Redstone with Bill Clinton during Clinton's presidency in 1996. He remained friends with the Clintons for years and fundraised for their charity enthusiastically Wife number two: Redstone married New York City teacher Paula Fortunato in 2003. The pair were married were five years before he filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, in 2008. They divorced in 1999. Under the terms of their prenuptial agreement, she got $5million - $1million for every year they were married Redstone receiving his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame i 2012 Sumner, at the time of his death, owned 80 percent of the company and Shari owns 20 percent. His shares will be divided now into two trust; one for his two children - Shari and Brent - and their kids, and one for his first wife, Phyllis. Phyllis remained married to him until 1999 - staying by his side throughout many affairs, including with Winer, who he was caught in the fire with. Three years after divorcing Phyllis, and at the age of 79, he married 40-year-old New York City public school teacher Paula Fortunata. They were married for five years before Redstone filed for divorce. The pair had a pre-nuptial agreement in place which awarded her $1million for every year they were married. It was during those years that Manuela Herzer, one of the ex-girlfriends he accused of stealing $150million from him, claims they cemented their relationship. In court documents, she said they were close friends and confidantes since 1999. Herzer worked in his home while he was in a relationship with Sydney Holland. Details of their complicated relationships became public in 2015, after he'd thrown both women out of his home. By then, his health had all but diminished and his family, namely Shari, feared for how the women were controlling him. In 2014, Redstone's health took a drastic turn for the worse when he was hospitalized with pneumonia. Redstone boasted famously that he'd never die. In an interview with Larry King (above) he said: ''The people who fear dying are people who are going to die. I'm not going to die.' In 2006, Redstone separated CBS from Viacom. He'd folded it into Viacom as part of a $37billion merger but when the Viacom stock price started stagnating, he took them apart again and put Les Moonves in charge of CBS. Moonves is shown with him in 2013. He was ousted from CBS during the #MeToo movement as allegations of sexual misconduct emerged. The two men are shown with Moonves' wife, Julie Chen, and Redstone's then-girlfriend, Sydney Holland. It was one of his final outings before his health took a drastic downturn Sumner Redstone in 2014 with the cast of Teenage Mutant Turtles, including Megan Fox, in 2014. He'd ingested food into his lungs and by the time he emerged from the hospital, could no longer speak. Manuela Herzer sued after being thrown out by Redstone. She claimed she'd been unfairly iced out by him and his family. A judge ordered her last year to repay $3million in gifts that he lavished on her Redstone had such difficulty speaking in the past several years that he has had to communicate with an iPad loaded with recordings from past interviews along with buttons for 'yes', 'no' and 'f*** you'. Shari wrote in emails to her relatives that the gilrfriends tried to keep her and other members of the family out of the home and that her father's nurses told her they filled his head with claims that his children and grandchildren didn't love him. 'I just called to tell him that I love him and that I would be there tomorrow and all he kept saying was, ‘Leave Sydney and Manuela alone,"' Shari wrote to her children, according to an email obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. 'He said it 100 times. He was not interested in the fact that I love him or that [her son] Tyler and I were coming out,' she went on. Shari and her son went to the home the next day but were asked to leave at Sydney's instruction. Joseph Octaviano, one of Sumner's nurses, later emailed Shari, saying: 'One time Manuela told your dad that none of his family loves him except them.' Sumner had given both Holland and Merzer tens of millions of dollars throughout their relationships. He begged Shari not to go after the women for it, asking her to give him 'peace of mind'. In 2015, his household staff and nurses filed a police report alleging that the two women had been emotionally and financially abusing him. It drew Shari into a fight to defend her ailing father, with whom she'd been at war with for decades. Disturbing details of how they abused him emerged in emails from the staff. They told of hearing him cry and scream when Sydney tried to stop him from seeing his grandchildren or great-grandchildren. Eventually, a judge sided with Shari. The two women now are not thought to have any claim to Redstone's private wealth - estimated to be some $3billion - or ViacomCBS shares.

My £4m Enigma Estate: It apos;s Got A Heated Pool Gym Tennis Court

2022-03-19T18:00:17Z

ElviraLarios: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „With its gabled, late-Victorian red-brick exterior and oak-panelled interior, Cournswood House could almost be Bletchley Park, the English country house at the…“

With its gabled, late-Victorian red-brick exterior and oak-panelled interior, Cournswood House could almost be Bletchley Park, the English country house at the heart of the recent Oscar-nominated drama The Imitation Game, about the cracking of Germany's wartime Enigma code. So it is appropriate that at least two of Cournswood's long-term residents have had strong Bletchley connections. The first was wartime Naval cryptographer and Enigma codebreaker Dillwyn Knox, who bought it in 1921 and lived there until his death in 1943. His funeral was attended by many from Bletchley Park, and a memorial stone to Knox can be found bordering the property. Cournswood House is in the south of Buckinghamshire - in ten acres of secluded woodlands in the picturesque village of North Dean Bletchley connections: Codebreaker Dillwyn Knox, left, who bought it in 1921 and lived there until his death in 1943 and right, Sharon Constancon, who is related to the Leon family who once owned Bletchley Park And the current owner, businesswoman Sharon Constancon, is related to the Leon family who once owned Bletchley Park. 'I only discovered this when I went on a visit to Bletchley Park with my uncle,' says Sharon. 'The Leon family donated the building to the Government in 1937 for use as a code-breaking centre.' RELATED ARTICLES Previous 1 Next Head-in-the-sand house sellers refuse to admit market has... Mega-home where the STAMP DUTY could buy you another... Share this article Share While both are in Buckinghamshire, Cournswood House is in the south of the county - in ten acres of secluded woodlands in the picturesque village of North Dean - while Bletchley Park is in the town of Bletchley in the north, 20 miles away. During the Second World War at Bletchley Park, Dillwyn Knox led the team that made the first breaks into the code Germany was using, and he encouraged Alan Turing - the subject of The Imitation Game - in his work there. Although Knox does not feature in the new movie, he was portrayed by actor Richard Johnson in the 1996 television film Breaking The Code, which starred Derek Jacobi as Turing and Prunella Scales as his wife Sara. The pool is in a glasshouse, where vines thrive in the heated environment. A separate glasshouse houses the Jacuzzi and a herb garden Cracking mysteries seems to be something Knox enjoyed in his private life too, as novelist Agatha Christie was a good friend and often visited Cournswood. 'I fell in love with Cournswood House the moment I saw it,' says Sharon, who bought it in 2003. 'It's an outstanding property with lots of potential.' Apart from the main house, there are two cottages, offices, a swimming pool, Jacuzzi, gym, and woodland with lakes, Japanese-style bridges, waterfalls and fountains. The pool is in a glasshouse, where vines thrive in the heated environment. 'The grapes are perfect for making chutney,' says Sharon. A separate glasshouse houses the Jacuzzi and a herb garden. AT A GLANCE Price: £4million Location: North Dean, Buckinghamshire Bedrooms: 5 Unique features: Office suite, indoor swimming pool, two cottages, Jacuzzi, gym, grass tennis court, former home of wartime codebreaker Dillwyn Knox adverts.addToArray({"pos":"mpu_factbox"})Advertisement There are five bedrooms, four bathrooms (two en suite) and five reception rooms. The large drawing room has high ceilings, ornate cornicing and a fireplace with carved wooden mantel and surround. Double doors open on to a triple-tiered terrace, with an open barbecue, that overlooks the lakes and woodlands. In the dining room, solid parquet flooring continues through to the serving room, reached through a pair of oak double doors. The modern kitchen is a chef's delight, with Gaggenau and Miele ovens. In the centre is an island incorporating a breakfast bar and storage units. 'I love entertaining and the kitchen offers everything you could possibly want,' says Sharon. The reception hall features a sweeping staircase to the first floor, where there are the bedrooms and bathrooms as well as two dressing rooms and a TV/cinema room. The master bedroom opens on to a circular balcony with stunning views over the gardens, lakes and woods. In the library, still concealed behind one of the wall panels, is Knox's private safe. One of the property's cottages overlooks the lakes, while the other is on the edge of the woods. 'Both cottages are ideal for short- or long-term lets or for staff, friends or family visits,' says Sharon. At the entrance to the property there are electric gates with majestic stone golden eagles perched on top of pillars. 'I'm moving to downsize,' says Sharon. 'I'll miss the privacy, security and tranquillity, not to mention the wildlife, such as deer, red kites and ducks.' hamptons-int.com, 01494 611313

Apos;Blackboard apos; Painting Goes For Record 70.5 Mn In NY

2022-03-18T18:19:21Z

ElviraLarios: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „'Blackboard' painting goes for record $70.5 mn in NY By Afp Published: 14:36, 12 November 2015 | Updated: 14:37, 12 November 2015 …“

'Blackboard' painting goes for record $70.5 mn in NY By Afp Published: 14:36, 12 November 2015 | Updated: 14:37, 12 November 2015 e-mail It may look little more than blackboard scrawls to the untrained eye, but a Cy Twombly work fetched $70.53 million in New York on Wednesday, setting a new auction record for the painter. A smattering of applause broke out in the room after bidding concluded for the star lot of Sotheby's main evening post-war and contemporary art auction of the season. "Untitled" was produced by the US artist as part of his acclaimed Blackboard series in 1968, using oil-based house paint, wax crayon and pencil on canvas. Artist Cy Twombly, pictured on March 23, 2010, whose work "Untitled," produced as part of his Blackboard series in 1968, fetched $70.53 million in New York, setting a new auction record for the painter ©Francois Guillot (AFP/File) The former army cryptographer painted six bands of repeated loopy lines on a gray background, which was sold by a prominent US collector to benefit a reform temple in Los Angeles. Sotheby's said the price set a new record at auction for the artist, just edging out the previous record of $69.6 million. It marked a phenomenal investment for a picture that British collector Charles Saatchi sold for $3.7 million in 1990. Auctioneer Oliver Barker explained the price by saying that it came from the Blackboard series largely seen as Twombly's greatest achievement, and produced between 1968 and 1970. "They're ones that people have a great affinity to," he told AFP. Twombly was born in Virginia but based himself primarily in Italy from 1957 until his death in 2011 aged 83 in Rome. Another standout of the night was an Andy Warhol acrylic silkscreen of Mao Zedong, from the artist's first series of the late Chinese communist leader, which sold for $47.51 million. Sotheby's said it was the highest price paid for a Warhol of the week of auctions at its showroom and that of archrival Christie's. A Jackson Pollock, "Number 17, 1949," sold for $22.93 million, at the lowest end of its estimate, as did a Lucio Fontana "Concetto Spaziale, Attese" for $16.15 million. "Portrait" by British painter Francis Bacon sold for $15.65 million, rounding out the top five lots. Ten items failed to sell, but there was frenetic bidding for many of the lots, particularly those at the lower end of the market and several went for prices way over their pre-sale estimates. "It was hugely reassuring that we did so well tonight... and wonderfully exciting that so many great works were making great prices and finding such fantastic new homes," Barker told AFP. In total, Sotheby's parted with $294.9 million worth of contemporary and post-war art, well above its low pre-sale estimate of $254 million. Christie's comparable evening sale on Tuesday clocked up $331.8 million in sales and set auction records for seven artists, including Fontana and French-American artist Louise Bourgeois. At Christie's, Fontana's "Concetto Spaziale, La fine di Dio" -- a yellow egg slashed in the canvas -- sold for $29.17 million.

Benutzer:ElviraLarios

2022-03-17T22:06:54Z

ElviraLarios: Die Seite wurde neu angelegt: „My name is Annett Wolf but everybody calls me Annett. I'm from United States. I'm studying at the high school (final year) and I play the Clarinet for 5 years.…“

My name is Annett Wolf but everybody calls me Annett. I'm from United States. I'm studying at the high school (final year) and I play the Clarinet for 5 years. Usually I choose songs from the famous films ;). I have two brothers. I like American football, watching movies and Meteorology. My page; [https://cb.run/9YeN cb.run]