By columnist Paul Paradis, Art Historian, Specialist Consultant in French Furniture and Decorative Arts
16 June 2010 
Last Monday, under pouring rain and
crashing thunder, I ran to the Impressionist and Modern Art auction at
Christie’s to witness a potentially historic moment: a rare work by Amadeo Modigliani
(1884-1920, photo below) would be up for the taking.
The staggering estimate of €4 to €6 million would obviously limit the
pool of buyers to a happy few. The
work entitled Tête
(executed 1911-1912) is one of only 27
known sculptures by the artist, and one of only ten held in private hands. The catalog explains the illustrious
provenance 
of the sculpture beginning with its appearance at an exposition in
the Paris workshop of the Portuguese painter
Amadeo de
Souza Cardoso (1887-1918) in 1911, its passage in the prestigious Paris Salon d’Automne in 1912, to its
purchase by Gaston Lévy (founder of a successful chain of Monoprix grocery
stores) at Drouot in 1927. The
sculpture has not been exhibited publicly since that time.
Modigliani considered himself a
sculptor above all else, working primarily in this medium from 1909-1914. He executed his works in taille
directe (direct carving of the stone)
in reaction to Rodin’s use of the technique of modeling an original in clay which is then
reproduced through casting in bronze using a mold, or carved in stone using a
system of a points with a compass. Tête illustrates the blending of several
influences on Modigliani from ancient Egyptian sculpture to Michelangelo, and
African masks which were seminal to the Cubist movement.
Entrance to the Presale Exhibition, Christie’s Paris
Christie’s brought out the big guns
for the presale exhibition which featured a chic mural-sized image of the work
at the entrance to the salon. In a clever twist, selected works for the upcoming
Oceanic and African Art sale were displayed in the same room, driving home the
parallel between Modigliani’s elongated and stylized Tête with African
masks. As I circled the sculpture,
the porous limestone captured the light revealing an almost prehistoric
mystique to the work. Modigliani
used this type of stone (known as pierre de Paris) often as it was
quarried in Montmartre at the time for use in construction. While I continued around the mesmerizing stone
idol, I overheard a Christie’s employee pitching one of the African pieces to
American clients, describing it as “derived from the Western myth of the
Phoenix rising from the ashes”. Aside
from the gratuitous use of the word ‘lovely’ in her description, I thought it
quite poetic. The Modigliani Tête remained coldly unresponsive, although
I did sense a slight ironic grin on her lips.
Three-quarter View of Tête, by Amadeo Modigliani
As I came to find
out, she had good reason to be grinning.
The day of the auction the Salle James Christie was packed to capacity,
a dense row of TV and photo journalists lined the back of the room with huge
telephoto lenses pointed at the auctioneer standing behind his pulpit, with the
knowing Tête placed to his right. The lot directly preceding the Modigliani, a late work by Paul Signac (1863-1935) Fleurs
(Tulipes en Pot) featuring large multicolored brush strokes illustrating
his adherence to the divisionist technique over
the tighter pointillist style of
Seurat, went unsold at €115 000.
All eyes were on the stone lady at this point and the auctioneer opened
the bidding at €4 million, which rapidly climbed to €13 million with the help
of a person in the room and two telephone bidders. At the €17 million mark a sudden momentum bloomed between
three, then four of the 20 agents bidding by telephone. The bidder in the room stayed tough
until the around the €24 million mark then seemed to drop out. A former
colleague from Christie’s then whispered in my ear that the Department had
played at betting amongst themselves on the final result, and had agreed on €20
million. They obviously got it wrong.
The final three
telephone bidders battled it out and the auctioneer paused sufficiently between
each amount to give time for reflection and drama for the audience. A tall Dandy-like Christie’s agent on a
cell phone began to take the lead, topping each counter bid rapidly by €500 000
increments. I started to
feel my chest tightening up and my breath became scarce. The auctioneer suavely kept the
appropriate rhythm (as far as one can in these amounts), and above the €35
million mark the three bidders began to slow. The client of the Dandy held firmly and went on to €38.5
million, as the room became deafeningly silent the auctioneer slammed down the
hammer and ended the fifteen-minute battle. Thunderous applause overtook the room as journalists snapped
and filmed then began to flee to be the first to submit their pieces. The onlookers chattered at full volume as
if the auction had ended and the auctioneer proudly announced (after publicly confirming
with a specialist from the Impressionist and Modern Department) that the
Modigliani had just broken the record for a work of art in France at auction (€43
185 000 including buyer’s fees) formerly held by Les Coucous, Tapis Bleu et
Rose by HenrI Matisse
(1869-1954) which made €35 905 000 (including buyer’s fees) at the Yves
Saint Laurent Pierre Berger sale in February 2009.
Les coucous, tapis bleu et rose by Henri Matisse (Photo: Christie’s Images)
Tête also set a
new record for Modigliani, previously held by the Portrait de Jeanne
Hébuterne sold for $31 368 000 in 2004 at Sotheby’s New York. Until now the highest price achieved
for a Modigliani sculpture was $3.5 million in 2001. Rumor has it that the two under-bidders were European and
American, but the identity of the final buyer is still unknown. Certainly it will be revealed in the
coming days. The noise and chatter
continued for such a long time that one scarcely noticed a Bouquet de Roses by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (a minor painter
one would have thought?) fetch a hammer price of €215 000. Oh the double-edged sword of placing a
work in an auction with a “mega” lot.
Pinballing at Drouot
The auction schedule was particularly dense at Drouot last week
and I was determined not to miss any of the major lots. The presale exhibitions were booming
and I was puzzled that so many people had free time in the middle of the
afternoon to stroll leisurely around the auction haven. France is peculiar that way. The auctioneers Brissoneau Daguerre were presenting a
highly important collection of Meissen and Sèvres porcelain including an
elegant and colorful déjeuner Courteille (dual tea service) created for its namesake, the Marquis de Courteille, the
intendant des finances
(finance minister) for Louis XV from 1748 and head of the Royal Sèvres
Porcelain Manufactory. The
intricate décor featuring brightly painted gilt shells and reserves containing
a dense blue oeil de perdrix pattern dates from the 1760s and was usually the specialty of Sèvres
painters Charles-Louis et Pierre Antoine
Méreaud. The service bears the
Sèvres letter date “M” corresponding to 1765.
Sèvres
Porcelain déjeuner Courteille, offered by SVV Brissoneau Daguerre,
estimate €20 000 - €30 000
On heavy auction days I often find myself darting from
one sale room to the next so as not to miss the interesting lots, much like the
little chrome ball bouncing from hole to obstacle in a pinball machine. It’s the luck of the draw usually
as to when I arrive in one room or another, but last week fate was on
my side as I seemed to pop into a room just in time for an interesting bidding
war or important lot. Rooms 5 and
6 were adjoined for a large sale of 20th century decorative arts and
furniture by the auctioneer Aguttes, and
as I arrived the bidding was climbing for a fan-shaped mirror veneered with
marquetry in exotic wood depicting oriental-inspired birds and branches on an
ivory ground by Ferdinand Duvinage (1813-1874) whose widow patented this
particular technique of intricate cloisonné inlay in 1877. The little treasure, estimated from €22
000 to €25 000 reached an impressive hammer price of €44 000.
Fan-shaped
Mirror by Ferdinand Duvinage (Photo: Aguttes)
Feeling anxious, I slipped out of the adjoined rooms,
crossed the foyer and entered room 4 where the auctioneers Brissonneau and Daguerre
were offering the Sèvres porcelain déjeuner Courteille, but I arrived just as a pair of allegorical paintings
by the brilliant female portraitist Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807)
Beauty yielded to love and quitted by prudence and Beauty tempted by love and counseled by
Prudence arrived on the pulpit. The charming neoclassical works were originally
acquired by the Duc de Courlande in 1779 and made a hammer price of €260 000,
more than double their high estimate. Tired of standing at the entrance to the overflowing room, I decided
to pop back to rooms 5 and 6.
A Pair of Allegorical Paintings by Angelica Kauffman
As luck would have it, I arrived just as another key lot was
presented, a stylish occasional table in pear wood and burr walnut by Hector Guimard (1867-1942),
the Art Nouveau designer-architect better known for the green-painted iron Paris
metro entrances featuring bulbous plant-like lamps. The sinewy legs elegantly twisted in a spiral motion and the
sculpted corners of the surface all hark back to plant life, his main
inspiration. The little table was causing an upset, and a gray-suited gentleman
next to me pushed the bidding up to €160 000 from a high estimate of €20 000.
The onlookers applauded and I rushed off to another room while thinking where
else I could have witnessed the auctioning of such wonderful art from the 18th
to the 20th centuries in a matter of minutes.
An Occasional Table by Hector Guimard (Photo: Aguttes)
In a last ditch attempt to witness a bit more excitement, I ran
down the escalators two levels under (which would technically make me more of a pachinko ball, the vertical Japanese
version of pinball) and stepped into room 16 just in time for the auctioning of
a highly important Transitional commode by the ébéniste Simon Oeben (master in 1769), brother of
the illustrious Jean-François
Oeben (1721-1763). The
imposing piece featured geometrical parquetry, neoclassical ram’s heads on the
corner mounts and rich patera-filled lattice panels on the frieze drawers. Word had it that the owner of the
commode, an elderly woman from Bordeaux with Alzheimer’s, had been ripped off
for years by a team of people including her medium. The commode was discovered in a basement with other booty
worth some € 1.4 million. A judge
ordered the auctioning of the commode and other items to raise money for the
now broke woman. I was pleased when the commode reached €150 000, twice the high
estimate (once buyer’s fees are added).
Perhaps there is some justice in the world after all.
Transitional Commode by
Simon Oeben (Photo: Pescheteau-Badin)
