national
The art of the auction
By libby
June 27, 2004 · 1 Comments
Zamy Steynovitz. Honest, he really said this.
Now I had never heard of this guy, but I had noticed a couple of his pieces early on–not-quite Chagalls.
He explained that the reason the auction prices were so low (were they?) was that the cruise line bought the work outright, that it wasn’t on consignment, and therefore, the artists (did they really buy this from the artists, so many of them dead?) were willing to sell them for less.
He went on to note the unique works (i.e. paintings, not prints) by Harold Behrens ( the auctioneer said, of course, those of you who know Behrens’ work will be excited about this) and Peter Max, whose Statue of Liberty was a typical self-parody (shown at top, about 12″ square, probably acrylic).
About 25 people came to the auction, and the bidding was hardly competitive, with people taking things at base price for the most part.
A print called “Rhapsody in Blue” by Zina Roitman went for its asking price of $146. In the same price range went “Swoon,” by Matt Lively, from Texas(right, sorry about another annoying photo). A cat with sunglasses riding a motorcycle actually excited two bidders and each ultimately took home a print at an only slightly higher price than the base.
An oil, asking price in the $3,000 range, evinced not a bid.
By then I’d had enough champagne and needed to sober up for the wine tasting, so off I went. The wine tasting ultimately cost me more than the art auction, but I enjoyed it more.
Tags: art, auction, reviews, features & interviews
kuenstler-und-feste.com: The auction works in a simple manner. You can preview the art available before the auction and tag anything you may want to see come up for sale.