Here Be Old Things

New York City Auctions: May 5–11, 2008

Rochers près de Saint-Malo, Maximilien Luce; Christie's

New York City Auctions: April 28–May 4, 2008

Lot 64 Marc Chagall, Enlevement de Chloë, from Daphnis and Chloë; Christie's Prints and Multiples

Society of Ethical Culture flea market on Sunday

Members of the New York Society for Ethical Culture are cleaning out their closets this Sunday, April 20th, and throwing a flea market/white elephant sale. It's a fund raiser to help free those wrongly convicted through DNA testing (but isn't DNA supposed to be accurate? Someone want to start that debate?) Directions to their historic building at 64th Street and Central Park West are on their site. Hurry–the sale runs from only 1:45 until 3:30.

Collection Liquidators auctions black Americana on the internet

I usually only post stories about New York City auctions one can attend in the real, vs. the virtual, world. But this house came across my attention lately: Collection Liquidators, "the world's premier source of black Americana." Located on Lafayette Street, they hold only absentee auctions. In 2006, Antique Trader spotlighted company owner Allen Liffman, (see the "about us" page) who said that his bidders come from all over the U.S., Europe and even the Far East. The next sale is this Saturday, April 19, 2008.

Many collectors are African American themselves, and regard these items, good or bad, as part of their history and emergence. The recent spat over the Diane Arbus photos started in this world. Before Arbus was identified as the artist, Langmuir and Ogunsanya were interested in the photos of Hubert's Dime Museum and Flea Circus primarily as black Americana collectors.

Collection Liquidators include vintage "Klan Kollectibles" in their sales. The thought of cute-sifying the word "collection" with a "k" to match "Klan" seems really "krazy" to me.

high/low auction prices: New York City photography auctions

Christie's Photographs From The Collection Of Gert Elfering

• hi: $241,000 lot 120 Helmut Newton, Sie Kommen–naked and dressed
• lo: $1,875 lot 97 Hans Feurer, Versace

Christie's Photographs By Diane Arbus From The Collection Of Bruce And Nancy Berman

• hi: $115,000 lot 225 Diane Arbus, child selling plastic orchids at night, N.Y.C.
• lo: $6,875 lot 240 Diane Arubs, a lobby in a building, N.Y.C.

Christie's Photographs

• hi: $529,000 lot 454 Irving Pen, Cuzco Children
• lo: $1,875 lot 491 Edward Sheriff Curtis, a hilltop camp, Jicarilla

Christie's Photographs By Ansel Adams From A California Collection (details above)

• hi: $481,000 lot 1058 Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley
• lo: $4,750 lot 1098 Ansel Adams, Ranch Near Petaluma

Sotheby's: The Quillan Collection of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Photographs

• hi: $1,609,000 lot 19 Edward Weston, Nude
• lo: $10,000 lot 2 Aaron Siskind, Gloucester (Glove)   Sotheby's Edward Weston's Gifts to His Sister and Other Photographs
  

• hi: $325,000 lot 81 Edward Weston, Nude on sand, Oceano
• lo: $3,750 lot 118 Brett Weston, Lily leaves and oxalia, Santa Monica   Sotheby's Photographs

Sotheby's Photographs

• hi: $553,000 lot 264 Diane Arbus, A family on the lawn one sunday in Westchester, N.Y.
• lo: $4,375 three lots, including Walker Evans, Weegee, and lot 266 Diane Arbus, The female impersonators, Apollo theater, N.Y.C.

Prices include buyer's premium

Photo of Carla Bruni-Sarkosy sells for $88,000 over estimate

The estimate was $3–4,000. The hammer price, $91,000. Even Christie's was stumped as to why a photo of Carla Bruni, now Madame Sarkozy, soared so high. In the video below, one German bidder explains that he was trying to buy the photo to give as a present to the French president and his wife, but the price just got out of hand.

The next highest-priced portrait above Bruni's was one of Kate Moss by Richard Avedon. Estimated at $30-40,000, it sold for $97,000.

The consignor, Gert Elfering, offered proceeds from the sale of the Bruni print to a doctor who runs hospitals in Cambodia, but Dr. Beat Richner refused the money. "My decision was taken out of respect for our patients and their mothers," he said. "Accepting money obtained from exploitation of the female body would be perceived as an insult".

OK, but did he really have to tell anyone where the money came from? That's what I'd be asking if I were on his board, but hey. Now, a Swiss research institute working on turning used water into fresh drinking water in poor countries will receive the money.

p.s. In the video below, note how many times they pan the camera up Bruni's body. Hmm.

Carla Bruni nude proceeds snubbed by hospital [Telegraph.co.uk]

New York City Auctions: April 21–27, 2008

Lot 46 Circle of Antoine Pesne: a portrait of a young boy with his dog; Doyle, European Paintings

Coming up this weekend: The Aipad Photography Show, and flea market news

From the contemporary to the canonical, photography is on exhibit (and for sale) at the Aipad Photography Show at the Park Avenue Armory. The New York Times review says:

With more than 75 dealers from around the world, this elegant expo presents thousands of pictures representing nearly the full range of the history of photography. . . . Most galleries display miscellaneous selections from their inventories, which can make for an exciting experience. You never know what treasure might be hanging just down the wall.

The people who run the Reclaimed Home blog are tweaking their goods for the Brooklyn Flea. Last week: clean, refurbished handmade items at higher price points. This week: small, dusty, junky items for less than $20. Yeah! Bring it on!

Further out in Brooklyn, Metro Festival Productions runs a series of small flea markets. I haven't included them in my list on the resources page, because they say their focus is on "new and used." But check out their site, maybe it's worth taking a trip out to Neptune Avenue, Brighton Beach, or Avenue U some day. If you go, please report back!

Bayo Ogunsanya confronts author of "Hubert's Freaks" at the Strand Bookstore

Way down deep, I was afraid that he'd be there with a gun.

Monday night I decided to stay home rather than go to the Strand Bookstore to hear Gregory Gibson discuss "Hubert's Freaks," which details the life of Robert Langmuir and his discovery of a trove of Diane Arbus photos. I was a little worried that the man he bought them from, Bayo Ogunsanya, might be there, too. In an unfriendly mood.

And he was. (The camera doesn't turn from the author, but the speaker was identified by Galleycat.) If you can sit through the long video of the reading, you can hear the voice of Ogunsanya in the Q&A portion of the evening. He's peeved. Although, thankfully, unarmed. Perhaps he knew his revenge was coming the next day, when Phillips canceled the Arbus auction.

Auction of Diane Arbus photos canceled

Last month I posted about the controversy surrounding the auction of Diane Arbus photos at Phillips'. Bayo Ogunsanya asked Brooklyn Federal Court to stop the sale, saying he had, in effect, been robbed by their true value by Robert Langmuir, a dealer who bought the photos from him. That post got a lot of comments, some heated.

Yesterday, I stopped by to view the exhibition. Phillips employees were setting up chairs for the 7:00 auction.

This morning, the New York Times says the Arbus auction has been canceled. Phillips' website says that a private sale is pending.

Did someone swoop in with a fantastic offer Phillips could not refuse? Does that even happen in the auction world? Or has Ogunsanya  been successful in stopping the sale? The auction house and attorneys are not returning phone calls. Stay tuned.

Photos from the first day of the Brooklyn Flea

Standing on the steps of the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School yesterday, helping to inaugarate the Brooklyn Flea, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said  "I always said that Brooklyn has everything. But I was wrong. It didn't have a flea market."

Well, apparently Brooklyn was starving for one. Crowds streamed in the doors of the schoolyard all day long. So many people swarmed the tables it was almost impossible to see what they were browsing. There was a long line for waffles that didn't ever shorten. If the chilly weather was keeping people away, then beware summer. I'm betting Les Puces de Paris Saint-Ouen doesn't get this much traffic on a good day.

Brownstoner has a time lapse sequence of the day. There are also comments regarding how people felt about the flea and its mix of goods.

New York City auctions: April 14–20, 2008

Lot 40 Loge de Théâtre à Pékin, 1918, by Alexandr Evgen'evich Iakovlev at Christie's Russia sale

Searching for thoughts and input on this blog.

I started Here Be Old Things as a travel guide to collecting events in New York City. Many people find me through google, but I have a few regular readers (not including you, Mom).

Whether you're just passing through, or check in on a regular basis, what do you like or not like about this blog? How do you think it could be better?

From auctions to flea markets information, this is the type of guide I would like to find if I were traveling abroad. Bit by bit I hope to add more information, including a shops search. So, do you like the weekly auctions listing? Would a calendar work better for you? What sort of news are you interested in?

Shoot me an email, kristi (at) herebeoldthings (dot) com, or post your comments here. Thanks in advance!

Coming up this weekend

The much-anticipated Brooklyn Flea debuts on Sunday. Their blog includes a map on where to find them, subway directions, and even a weather map of the day of the event. I was a little worried they wouldn't have enough antique dealers, but as of today, there are 50 names under the "Antiques + Vintage Clothing" category. Yeah!

Today we head into the celebration of old books with the New York Antiquarian Book Fair at the Park Avenue Armory.

From Art in Review in the New York Times:

Wandering the aisles of the annual Antiquarian Book Fair, at the Park Avenue Armory, is like being a fly on the wall at the ultimate dinner party. Two hundred dealers are exhibiting rare books, manuscripts, first editions and ephemera related to a host of authors, artists and historical figures. . . .

Bits of gossip are mixed in with the polite literary conversation. Among the legal guides and treatises at the Lawbook Exchange are several 18th-century books illustrated with scenes related to famous adultery trials. . . .

Many older rarities can be paged through and pored over: 17th-century wall maps, at Martayan Lan; letters from Mozart and Beethoven, at La Scala Autographs; a Delacroix-illustrated version of “Faust,” at Ursus; even fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, at Michael R. Thompson Bookseller. On Sunday the fair will sponsor “Discovery Day,” during which ticketed guests can bring up to five of their own treasures for appraisal.

Christie's to auction nude photo of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (yawn)

If you work in the marketing department at Christie's and there are some photography sales on the calendar, how do you beat the publicity surrounding Phillip's upcoming Diane Arbus auction?

Piss off the first lady of France, perhaps?