American model Jerry Hall and an English aristocrat are among high-profile sellers at the forthcoming season of art auctions in London as dealers said that rising prices were encouraging sales.
“It’s about letting go of the past,’’ Hall, 54, said in an e-mailed statement. “At a certain age, you just want to get rid of things. It’s good to be in the moment and change.”
Famous collectors are acting as demand for high-quality art picks up.
Given the global economic downturn, ARTKABINETT social network for fine art collectors has appreciated the wonderful buying opportunities during the past couple of years. We ask, is it now becoming a seller's market?
Hall is selling works by Lucian Freud, Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Frank Auerbach, estimated at 1.5 million pounds or more, the New York-based company said today in an e-mail.
The group includes Freud’s 1997 oil-on-canvas, “Eight Months Gone,’’ depicting Hall reclining nude while pregnant with her fourth child, Gabriel. The artist suggested painting the portrait after meeting Hall at a dinner party.
The canvas was given to her after she posed three times a week during the month before the birth, said Sotheby’s. It will be offered at an evening auction on Oct. 15 with an estimate of 300,000 pounds to 400,000 pounds.
Warhol’s Dollars
An Andy Warhol acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas “Dollar Sign’’ that was given and dedicated to Hall by the artist in 1982 is expected to fetch as much as 150,000 pounds. The model was a companion of Warhol and his occasional employee while living in New York during the 1970s. She had a stint hosting Warhol’s cable TV show.
“Andy only had two rules for me,’’ Hall said. “He said never ask them about their work and never ask them anything important. So, for example, I’d ask them what they had for breakfast.’’
The most highly estimated work in the Hall consignment is the 1965 Auerbach canvas, “Head of Helen Gillespie IV,’’ acquired by the model in 1997. The thickly impasted oil portrait is expected to fetch as much as 900,000 pounds, said Sotheby’s.
