The ArtNews Top Art Collectors

ARTNews' list of the Top 200 Art Collectors for 2007 is out.
“We clearly have an audience with unlimited finances,” said Arne Glimcher, chairman of PaceWildenstein. “This is the offer-you-can’t-refuse market.”

The Latest Developments In The Art Market

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Among the more valuable paintings to be sold on September 19 is Ivan Bilibin's oil painting The Hunt, which is estimated at £120,000 to £180,000.

London is running neck and neck with New York, traditionally the dominant center of the art market, according to figures just released by Christie's. For the first six months of this year, Christie's has achieved sales of £1.63 billion, including auction and private sales - an increase of 31 per cent over the same period last year.
from the telegraph.

China's Red Hot Art Market

RED contemporary abstract painting by R.Marinho regiaart

China's Red Hot Art Market
Stock prices may fluctuate, but prices for art are going straight up.
from businessweek

London Art Auction at Sotheby's Realizes $22,107,745

Together, 29 works from the collection of Antonio and Priscilla Carluccio from the Neal Street Restaurant realised £166,740 against a pre-sale estimate of £77,000-111,000.
David Hockney’s design for the restaurant menu more than doubled its top estimate, selling for £48,000 to an anonymous collector. from Artdaily.

Dealer Paid $325 for a Dirty Raphael that Sold for $37.3 Million

Art dealer Ira Spanierman in his gallery in New York.
Dealer paid $325 for a Raphael artwork. from Bloomberg

... ``There aren't that many buyers for old masters at these prices,'' New York dealer Richard Feigen said in an interview last week. ``The hedge funds pay a lot more for contemporary pictures, but they aren't buying old masters.''

The week's most-expensive picture was New York art dealer Ira Spanierman's Raphael painting of the Florentine ruler Lorenzo de' Medici, sold for 18.5 million pounds at Christie's, or more than 100,000 times the price he paid for it. Unsold lots included a Fragonard oil study with a top estimate of 8 million pounds and two Turner watercolors valued at as much as 3 million pounds each, all at Sotheby's. from Bloomberg

Damien Hirst skull solo show takes $250 million in sales

British artist Damien Hirst's latest solo show "Beyond Belief" at London's White Cube gallery, which closes this weekend, has taken $250 million in sales in just five weeks, the gallery said on Friday. read more (Reuters).

Raphael - Portrait Sells For $37.3 Million

A masterpiece by Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael (1483-1520) sold at yesterday evening’s auction of Important Old Master and British Pictures at Christie’s in London for £18,500,000 ($37,277,500 / €27,343,000), a world record price for the artist at auction and a world record price for an Italian Old Master Picture (by US$). One of only a handful of paintings by the artist to remain in private hands, the work portrays Lorenzo de’ Medici, Duke of Urbino and ruler of Florence from 1513 to 1519. The most important Renaissance portrait to be offered at auction for a generation, and the most important work by the artist to be offered at auction in recent decades, it was bought after a ten minute bidding battle by a private collector biding on the telephone.
from artdaily.org

For the Love of God

Damien Hirst
For the Love of God
2007
White Cube
I've spoken to who have actually seen it say Damien Hirst's $100-million diamond-encrusted skull is a wonder to behold.