Gallery Talk

Monet Art Sells for Nearly $36 Million

A view of the River Thames painted by Claude Monet sold for almost $36 million at auction Monday, kicking off a week of big-budget sales on the London art market.

``Waterloo Bridge, Temps Couvert'' (``Waterloo Bridge, Overcast Weather'') was bought by an anonymous American bidder for $35.6 million including buyer's premium during a sale at Christie's auction house.

The price - more than double the work's pre-sale estimate - is the second-highest ever for a Monet at auction. The record of $39.7 million was set at Sotheby's in 1998.

``Waterloo Bridge, Temps Couvert'' is one of a series of views of the bridge and river that Monet painted from his room at the Savoy Hotel near the start of the 20th century.

Another Monet, the water lily painting ``Les Arceaux de Roses, Givenchy,'' sold for $17.8 million Monday, just below its pre-sale estimate.

Via the Guardian

Microsoft's contemporary art collection grows up

Hanging in the halls of Microsoft's sprawling corporate campus are 4,500 pieces of contemporary art, some by such artists as Chuck Close, Takashi Murakami and Cindy Sherman.

The software company spends just a sliver of its billions on art, so full-time curator Laura Matzer is working with what she's got to gain respect for the collection in the art world, while balancing the quirks - like those ubiquitous posters - of working within a 76,500-person global corporation.

"I know my place here. Microsoft is first and foremost a software company," Matzer said.

Microsoft's art collection began in 1987 to brighten the walls of what was then a six-building campus. Before then, financial institutions that wanted to project a "forward-thinking" image were the main corporate collectors of art, according to Susan Abbott, a consultant and author of "Corporate Art Collecting."

Deutsche Bank AG and Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. have two of the best-known corporate collections today. Among the 50,000 pieces in Deutsche Bank's collection are works by Pablo Picasso and Gerhard Richter; Progressive owns a Mao serigraph by Andy Warhol.

Read the full article here

Damien Hirst - For The Love Of God.

British artist Damien Hirst recently revealed his latest piece of work - For the Love of God.

The skull is a platinum replica of a human skull bought by Hirst two years ago in a London taxidermy shop. The skull is thought to be that of a 35-year-old man who lived in Europe during the 18th century.

The platinum skull is encrusted with 8,601 diamonds totaling 1,106.18 carats, the piece is intended to be a celebration of life.

The asking price is £50 million. That said, the diamonds are worth £12 million and it took 18 months to make.