Artworks

Of course I have mixed emotions about the sale by Randolph College of its beautiful painting, Men of the Docks, by George Bellows, to raise money for its endowment. Remedying financial mismanagement elsewhere is not what art in museums is supposed to do, especially as this painting was purchased by students for the college in 1920. That part is very sad.

But the great news is that the National Gallery in London bought the work and paid $25.5 million, finally adding a major American painting to its collection. As Nicholas Penny, the NG director who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite museum directors, said in the release, “We look forward to giving the work a place of honor in our rooms.” (Boldface mine.)

It is about time that great European museums started collecting American art. The Louvre is now showing American art and I recall rumors, too, that it had also recently purchased an American painting or two, but I could not find that as fact with a quick search. What Penny told The New York Times, “I’m a great fan of American painting, but great examples are hard to come by,” is no excuse. There are great paintings on the market, as Alice Walton, for one, has shown. More probably, the museums don’t have the cash — yet some American art historians think Penny got a bargain on the Bellows (Nancy Mowll Mathews, for one, per her post on FB). The money came from a fund created by the late billionaire oilman John Paul Getty.

There was hardly a choice for the NG, but I do like that Penny will place the painting among Manets, Monets and Goyas. Penny told The Guardian, that the “fantastic” painting “will have a revolutionary effect on the collection and an electrifying effect on visitors.” (Here’s what The Independent had to say on the matter.) The Bellows, press reports said, indicated that the NG was moving in a new direction, now collecting paintings in the Western European tradition, instead of those made by artists working in Western Europe. I don’t know why they can’t just call it American art, but…

As for Randolph College, it crowed about what is essentially a fig leaf — that, according to its press release, the deal “mak[es] Randolph College the only U.S. educational institution with a collaborative relationship with the National Gallery.” That means that its students can gain access to the NG’s collections and attend classes there, while “high-level staff members of the National Gallery to lecture at Randolph College [and] a special internship program for Randolph students that will be established in London with the museum.”

When I saw a digital image of the Pontormo portrait of Cosimo I de Medici, which was up for sale at Christie’s yesterday, I fell in love with it. It’s a beautiful pose, a study in black. But then I heard from art historians about how abraded the surface was — some said they could not even stand to look at it.

And surely, the presale estimate was a giveaway: $300,000 to $500,000 for a Pontormo? It would, some experts said, be worth $30 million to $50 million if it were in good condition. The Metropolitan Museum doesn’t even own a Pontormo. The Getty paid more than $35 million in 1989 for Pontormo’s Portrait of a Halberdier — more than $65 million in today’s dollars.

Could varnish, retouching and other poor maintenance choices really destroy the picture that much? Who would do that?

Earlier this week, I went to Christie’s to see for myself — and while I can look at the picture, I did see the obvious problem. It’s flat and one can see the retouching brush strokes. Most of the damage, I was told, was done decades ago, not recently.

So I was very curious to see what happened at the sale. The hammer fell at $600,000 — and with premium the price was $725,000.

So someone still wanted the work.

But, boy is this a lesson in care.

It was just by a sliver. This afternoon at Christie’s, when the Rothschild Prayerbook came up for sale, the final price including the premium was $13.605 million. Last time, in 1999, it fetched $13.379 million.

Considering that the book was sold in London last time, and therefore in pounds sterling, not dollars as today, the price could be construed as lower now. In pounds sterling, the price last time was £8,581,500 and today it was £8,215,583.

I was watching only online, so I could not tell who was bidding — the buyer was on the phone, and there seemed to be one other bidder, possibly in the room. But it’s difficult to know if that bidder was real. Last time, according to reported accounts, there were five bidders — all ardent suitors.

The hammer price was $12 million — exactly at the low estimate of $12 million to $18 million.

This is a bit of a disappointment, if not necessarily a surprise. Experts  outside of Christie’s told me that the illuminated manuscript market is notoriously difficult to discern. That Chinese bidder, who seemed so interested — according to Nicholas Hall, the Christie’s department chair — may not have come through. The Chinese bidding reputation might have suggested that.

On the other hand, maybe the buyer was the Getty — the underbidder last time. I await a press release.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Christie’s