Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:33:22 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Carly Berwick :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/authors/Carly+Berwick istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/take-a-seat-the-art-will-be-fine/33852/ Mon, 5 Jun 2006 00:00:00 EST Art and design have been on a collision course since the early 20th century: The Museum of Modern Art inaugurated its design department in 1930, and just a few years before that the artist Josef Albers created a set of four stacking tables with colors that mirrored his highly geometric paintings. Yet the two fields for the most part have existed in separate commercial galleries, auctions, and fairs. Now, however, art and design are coming together more closely than ever in how they are sold and... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/sothebys-scales-new-heights-with-contemporary-sale/32535/ Thu, 11 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Last night's sale of Contemporary art at Sotheby's opened with a feeding frenzy, as buyers jumped for works made within the past 10 years by the likes of Neo Rauch, Cecily Brown, Lisa Yuskavage, and Andreas Gursky. All of these artists saw auction records set, and the house earned a total of $128.8 million, its biggest ever sale of Contemporary art. Roy Lichtenstein's "Sinking Sun" (1964) and Willem de Kooning's "Untitled XVI"(1975) each sold for $15.7 million, the highest price of the night... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/warhol-heats-up-christies-auction/32446/ Wed, 10 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Andy Warhol reigned supreme at Christie's sale of Postwar and Contemporary art last night. His "Small Torn Campbell's Soup Can (Pepper Pot)" (1962) sold for $11.8 million to dealer Larry Gagosian, leading the house's sale to a booming total of $143 million, with 91% of the 91 lots sold. The total was the second highest for any auction of Postwar and Contemporary art, behind the $157 million Christie's earned last fall, when the house's sale was propelled by works from the blue-chip Lee Eastman... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/whos-up-whos-down-on-the-contemporary-market/32286/ Mon, 8 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Whatever happened to Maurizio Cattelan? The market for the New York-based Italian conceptual artist seemed unstoppable in the fall of 2004, when his auction record was broken three times, resting at $3 million. But Mr. Cattelan's stock plummeted abruptly last spring, when two works estimated to fetch over $1 million each failed to sell at Christie's. This season's contemporary art evening sales feature no Cattelans at all. The rise and fall of Mr. Cattelan at auction illustrates that trendiness... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/picasso-stunner-buoys-big-night-at-sothebys/32128/ Thu, 4 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Twenty minutes into the auction of Impressionist and Modern art last night at Sotheby's, the packed salesroom woke up. An epic duel between a phone bidder and an anonymous man in the room pushed Pablo Picasso's "Dora Maar au chat" (1941) far past its estimate of $50 million, until it finally sold for $95.2 million to the man in the room, whose identity the auction house would not disclose. "Pictures like this are few and far between," a co-chairman of Impressionist and Modern art at Sotheby's... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/van-gogh-leads-banner-night-at-christies/32045/ Wed, 3 May 2006 00:00:00 EST Vincent van Gogh's much-touted portrait "L'Arlesienne, Madame Ginoux" (1890) fetched the highest price in Christie's auction of Impressionist and Modern Art last night, but it was among the evening's biggest disappointments. Estimated to earn between $40 million and $50 million, it sold for $40.3 million to a telephone buyer after tepid bidding. Still, it was the fourth highest price at auction for a Van Gogh. All told, the sale took in $180.3 million, which the house said was its highest total... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/late-works-drive-picasso-surge/31741/ Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST The prize lot of Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and Modern art next Wednesday is Picasso's ferocious 1941 painting of his mistress Dora Maar. Estimated to sell for more than $50 million, it is just one of 10 Picassos in the sale - four of which were made after the artist turned 70. A fractured but more straightforward 1937 portrait of Maar will carry a low estimate of $5 million next Tuesday at Christie's. It is one of seven Picassos in the house's Impressionist and Modern evening sale, which... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/modern-old-master/30478/ Thu, 6 Apr 2006 00:00:00 EST A Venice view by J.M.W. Turner is expected to earn more than $20 million at Christie's sale of Old Master Paintings this morning. If it reaches the auction house's hopes, it will easily rewrite the Turner record at auction - currently at $9 million, for a picture sold in 1984 - and it could even exceed the record for any British picture, currently held by John Constable's "The Lock," which sold for $21.1 million in 1990. If so, the painting would account for nearly half the $50 million... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-buyers-flock-to-asian-art/30077/ Thu, 30 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST China is the tiger, the dragon, the monkey - whatever zodiac power sign you choose - of Asian art. In recent years, mainland collectors have driven prices for ancient and contemporary Chinese art to new heights, while those in Korean and Japanese art have stagnated. Christie's sale of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art yesterday totaled $10.9 million, highlighted by a 14th-century blue-and-white vase that sold for $2 million. The sale and two others held yesterday helped Christie's to a... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/asian-art-arrives/29635/ Thu, 23 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST China, in case you haven't heard, is a big market. As the country lurches into free-market capitalism, a growing portion of its 1.3 billion people have the money to spend on the art of the past 5,000 years.Those buyers are helping to fuel higher prices at auctions of Chinese art, which will be held next week at Sotheby's and Christie's as part of a series of 11 Asian art auctions. Each house is estimating it will sell around $30 million worth of Chinese, Indian, Southeast Asian, Japanese, and... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/bidding-up-for-days-nights-of-art/29574/ Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST The spring auction season builds to a crescendo in early May, when collectors from around the world descend on New York to bid on Impressionist, Modern, and Contemporary masterworks. Up to $800 million worth of art can change hands in two frantic weeks. Before and after are substantial sales of Asian art, Old Master pictures, photography, Latin American art, and contemporary design. MARCH 24 Phillips, de Pury & Company features a "selling exhibition" of ceramics and furniture by Italian... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/on-the-rise-israeli-art-hits-town/29224/ Thu, 16 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Reuven Rubin may not have the cachet of de Kooning or Picasso, but he's a star among collectors of modern Israeli art. Fifteen Rubin paintings go on sale today at Sotheby's, which is holding its annual auction of Israeli and International Art. ("International Art" is a euphemism for early 20th-century European Jewish art.) Rubin's auction record is $442,500, for a 1929 painting of sycamores that sold at Sotheby's Tel Aviv in 1999. The sale moved to New York from Tel Aviv in 2004. "We felt it... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/homegrown-contemporary-art-fair-on-piers/28830/ Thu, 9 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST Bigger and possibly better than the Biennial across town, the Armory Show is New York's hometown contemporary art fair. That means, practically and symbolically, it is devoted to the pursuit of the new. The Armory offers a broad glimpse into the most salable work just whisked from artists' studios, as opposed to the collection of dark scribbles, plywood sculptures, and graffitied rocks currently at the Whitney. The 154 international galleries fill two Hudson River piers - imagine the decks of... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/inside-the-armorys-satellite-fairs/28818/ Thu, 9 Mar 2006 00:00:00 EST The Armory has attracted five satellite fairs, which run Friday through Monday. In addition to Scope, which has hosted a fair of alternative galleries since 2002, there is Pulse, which held its debut fair in Miami in December and will be at the 69th Regiment Armory; DiVA, the video art fair that launched last year in the Embassy Suites hotel in Battery Park; the new L.A. Art Fair, featuring 16 contemporary galleries from Los Angeles in the Altman Building; and Fountain, which consists of three... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/where-connoisseurs-shop-for-art/27840/ Tue, 21 Feb 2006 00:00:00 EST The Art Show is the sober adult at the seemingly endless homecoming weekend staged by dealers and collectors for the contemporary art market. Opening Thursday at the 7th Regiment Armory, the dignified fair is older, at 18, than its main American rivals, the Armory Show and Art Basel Miami Beach, both of which are bigger, brasher, and intently focused on the here and now. With 70 galleries participating, the Art Show is one-third to one-half the size of these fairs, and more tethered to home... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/sale-for-those-who-trade-in-treasures/26491/ Thu, 26 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST More often than not, auction houses try mightily to avoid mentioning that a dealer is a seller.When a professional unloads work, it smacks of surreptitious profiteering or soiled goods.Today, Sotheby's is reversing tradition and hosting an Old Masters sale named "The Dealer's Eye," compiled solely from the inventories of 27 dealers. The seller of each of the 73 lots in "The Dealer's Eye" is clearly identified in the catalog. Some of the more well known dealers include London's Johnny van... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/why-everyone-wants-a-piece-of-washington/26128/ Thu, 19 Jan 2006 00:00:00 EST George Washington is looking good lately, false teeth and all. The first president has weathered the years with his reputation for decency and integrity intact, and with images of him in battlefield regalia in high demand. Four major portraits of Washington have appeared at New York auctions over the past 20 months.This Saturday, Christie's is selling an 8-foot-high portrait of Washington by Charles Willson Peale, completed in 1779, for an estimated $10 million to $15 million. According to a... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/grail-of-american-rare-books/24499/ Thu, 15 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST At the conclusion of Christie's sale of fine printed books and manuscripts this afternoon, a single volume will be offered for $5 million to $7 million.It is a double-elephant folio of John James Audubon's "Birds of America," the grail of American rare books. Approximately 120 complete copies of the original edition are known to exist. One of them, known as the Fox-Bute copy, was sold at Christie's in 2000 to a private buyer for $8.8 million, setting the record for any printed book at auction... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/when-art-lovers-fall-for-design/24253/ Fri, 9 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST Contemporary design is ascending in step with the muscular contemporary art market. Following last month's record-breaking auctions of postwar and contemporary art, more than $40 million worth of glass-topped tables and Z-shaped chairs will have passed through New York's auction houses by the end of this week. That figure is some $300 million less than the art totals, but it is a steady uptick from last June's $19 million worth of design sold at three houses and last December's $24 million... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/where-a-12-bag-of-peanuts-can-fetch-a-fortune/23957/ Mon, 5 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST Within 20 minutes of the opening of Art Basel Miami Beach on Wednesday, the New York gallery Mitchell-Innes & Nash sold a black 1961 Jim Dine painting with a belt across the middle, appropriately titled "Black Belt," to a New York collector, Beth Rudin DeWoody. Similar mixed-media paintings by Mr. Dine, whose work also is owned by MoMA and the Guggenheim, have sold for between $70,000 and $125,000 at auction. Last year's big sale for the gallery came in the waning hours of the fair, when a... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/pre-eminent-art-fair-in-the-americas/23807/ Thu, 1 Dec 2005 00:00:00 EST In four years, Art Basel Miami Beach has become the pre-eminent art fair in the Americas. Launched in 2002 after being postponed a year in the wake of September 11, 2001, it drew 33,000 visitors last year, and organizers expect at least as many attendees this year. Collectors, auction-house specialists, and gimlet-eyed press wandered through the booths of 195 international galleries at the VIP opening and vernissage yesterday in search of aesthetic perfection (at a price). "We feel it's already... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/massive-price-for-a-massive-sculpture/22845/ Thu, 10 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST Sotheby's auctioned off $114.5 million worth of postwar and contemporary art last night, the highest ever total in the category for the house. The sale was led by David Smith's massive stainless-steel sculpture "Cubi XXVIII" (1965), which sold for an equally massive price: $23.8 million, the highest ever for a postwar work. It broke the auction record of $22.4 million set the previous night at Christie's by Mark Rothko's "Homage to Matisse," which had contributed to a $157.4 million sale for... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/record-setting-night/22723/ Wed, 9 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST In the first 10 minutes of Christie's auction of postwar and contemporary art last night, eager bidders paid record amounts for works by each of five contemporary artists. That was just the start of what is best characterized as a very, very big sale. The house took in a staggering $157.4 million, a record for any auction of contemporary art and $23.7 million more than Christie's record sale in the category last May. Mark Rothko's "Homage to Matisse" sold for $22.4 million to a telephone... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/treasures-of-a-punk-princess-on-the-block/22606/ Mon, 7 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST Gloria von Thurn und Taxis was the "punk princess" of the 1980s, a titled German aristocrat who partied with scruffy East Village artists George Condo, Keith Haring, and Kenny Scharf. With a fortune derived initially from the centuries-long monopoly her family held on postal service in Europe, she bought work by such 1980s enfants terribles as Mr. Scharf, Haring, Paul McCarthy, and Richard Prince. Tonight she is selling off works by these artists, who have since come to define the era. The... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/butterfly-collectors-other-contemporary-creatures/22529/ Fri, 4 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST Christie's Postwar and Contemporary department co-head, Brett Gorvy, knows he is in an enviable position. "Christie's won the major estates this season. That allows us access" to other property, Mr. Gorvy said. Two star collections - 17 works from the Lee V. Eastman collection and eight consigned by collector Edward Broida - boost Christie's November 8 evening sale of contemporary art to an estimate of $101 million to $145 million. If it comes in toward the high end of the estimate, it would be... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/picasso-surprise-highlights-sothebys-strong-sale/22515/ Thu, 3 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST The unlikely standout work at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art sale last night was a seductive Picasso watercolor on paper of an angular yellow woman. "Nu jaune," a 1907 study for the artist's "Demoiselles d'Avignon," sold for $13.7 million, more than three times its high estimate of $4 million. The buyer was Olivier Berggruen, the son of famed collector Heinz Berggruen. "I bought it for my family," Mr. Berggruen said. "My father owned at one stage of his life the same subject. I went as... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/toulouse-lautrec-drives-big-night-at-christies/22410/ Wed, 2 Nov 2005 00:00:00 EST A Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec painting sold for $22 million last night at Christie's, helping the auction house achieve its biggest mixed-owner sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in 15 years. Buying was determined from beginning to end, with bidders on the phone and in the room driving up prices for works by Cezanne, Picasso, Leger, and Miro. Only five lots failed to sell as the auction of 63 paintings and sculptures brought in $160.9 million, in the middle of its presale estimate. "It was a... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/collection-that-got-away/22163/ Thu, 27 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST The collection that got away this season for Sotheby's was a group of 13 Impressionist and Modern works once owned by Chicago businessman Neison Harris, who died in 2001, and his wife, Bette, who died this summer. Expected to bring in more than $48 million, it landed in Christie's evening sale, which launches the major fall auctions on November 1. The Harrises were noted Chicago philanthropists who between 1969 and 1985 bought such works as Pissarro's "Paysage, la moisson, Pontoise" (1873)... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/who-is-buying-all-those-bouguereaus/21771/ Thu, 20 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Last April, two paintings by William Bouguereau helped Sotheby's bring in $20 million during its 19th-century European art sale, a remarkable surge for a category that had cruised along with sales of $7 million to $8 million for the previous five years. When Sotheby's holds its 19thcentury sale next week, it will have five Bouguereau paintings on offer, and the entire sale is estimated at $16.8 million to $23.5 million. "Bouguereau is certainly an artist whose performance indicates general... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/turning-up-gems-at-yard-sales-for-the-wealthy/21435/ Thu, 13 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST Photographer Richard Avedon died last October at the age of 81 while on assignment for the New Yorker. By May, Sotheby's was auctioning off the best of his art collection, including a Matisse work on paper. Tomorrow, Avedon's more personal effects - beds, rugs, sculptures by his mother, and Audubon animal prints - go on sale at the auction house. It's been an unusually busy season for Sotheby's head of single-owner sales, Elaine Whitmire. This is the third of four major single-owner sales at... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/five-day-photography-frenzy-kicks-off/21084/ Thu, 6 Oct 2005 00:00:00 EST A five-day frenzy of photography sales launches today at Phillips de Pury & Company. In six separate sales, three auction houses will present nearly 1,000 works, estimated to bring in $25 million. Just a few years ago, photography dealers and curators felt they were still trying to convince buyers that the field was legitimate as an art form. "I started in 1973 and we were still fighting the fight," Peter MacGill of Pace/MacGill said. "Now I would say it's pretty mainstream." Mainstream... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/old-masters-come-to-town/20735/ Thu, 29 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Old Masters are generally insulated from ebullient auction periods. Whereas prices for modern and contemporary works have doubled, tripled, and increased tenfold in a few short years, the Old Masters have ticked upward at a leisurely pace. The supply of available Old Master works decreases year by year, and their prices are driven more by rarity than by faddishness. The Old Masters are well known, staid men of habit - one likes his light autumnal, another prefers his women excessively humble... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/inside-the-home-of-a-fashion-icon/20387/ Thu, 22 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST Geoffrey Beene never courted popularity for the sake of it, remaining "a stealth force on the fashion scene," according to writer James Wolcott. The Louisiana-born fashion designer died last September at the age of 77, with his clothes fondly set in the memories, and closets, of fashionable women around the world. His dresses were worn by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Paloma Picasso and are archived in the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/asian-art-boom-hits-town/20031/ Thu, 15 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST For two weeks each year visions of perfect Tang dynasty horses, Songera ceramics, and Gandhara Buddhas flit through the heads of collectors in New York. The major auctions of Asian art arrive each March and September, with this month traditionally acting as the tasting course to the spring banquet of Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Cambodian, and Pakistani art. But over the past two years, each successive auction - from fall to spring, from New York to Hong Kong to London - has... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/looking-for-rising-stars-in-a-changing-market/19724/ Thu, 8 Sep 2005 00:00:00 EST The world's two major auction houses both cleared more than $1 billion in sales in the first half of 2005. Christie's $1.65 billion worldwide haul of art was a house record and a 31.9% increase over the previous year; Sotheby's took in $1.3 billion in auction sales, which does not include private sales. Overall prices for art rose 13% in the past year, according to artprice.com, which tabulates auction sales. But with the supply of Old Masters and Impressionist works tightening and the heated... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/creative-marketing-helps-christies-through-august/18082/ Thu, 4 Aug 2005 00:00:00 EST On one of the hottest days of a very hot summer, fashion designer Cynthia Rowley stood in the un-air-conditioned front window of Christie's Rockefeller Center headquarters. Surrounded by velvet and brocade cushions provided by ABC Bedding, as well as items from the August 9-10 House sale, Ms. Rowley drew and painted portraits of her fiance, author Bill Powers, for an hour last Wednesday. What could compel a woman who has partied with Kate Moss and advised "America's Next Top Model" to pace in a... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/piece-of-cinematic-history/15962/ Thu, 23 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST Auctions of celebrity memorabilia are inevitably filled with a trace of the macabre. Certain trinkets show all too clearly the depressingly normal affairs of an icon. Two expired California driver's licenses on the block at Christie's sale of property from Marlon Brando's estate next Thursday show an old man with wispy white hair. There are yellowed charge cards for Bullocks, Montgomery Ward, Sam's Club, and DVDs of "Blazing Saddles" and "Citizen Kane." Other items hint at heartbreaking stories... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/better-than-the-real-thing/15552/ Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST The archetypal family man drives his big American car once more around the block to avoid coming home to another pot roast and two screaming kids. Guy Ben-Ner is another kind of family guy altogether: a stay-at-home dad who has made his two kids into the ultimate artistic constraint. The Brooklyn-based Ben-Ner, who represents Israel at the 51st Venice Biennale, has filled the Israeli pavilion with his "Treehouse Kit," a branching wooden tree that converts into a sleeping structure. It comes... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/accessories-for-art/15165/ Thu, 9 Jun 2005 00:00:00 EST Imagine yourself a clean-cut architect in late 1950s Southern California, putting the needle down on Sonny Rollins's "Saxophone Colossus" in your custom music center, while your lady friend nurses her highball. Pierre Koenig's 1959 music cabinet, on sale at Sotheby's yesterday afternoon, offered such a fantasy for a mere $16,800. It seems a small price to pay these days for buyers accustomed to staggeringly average million-dollar-plus sales at contemporary art auctions. Prices are also rising... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/record-night-at-christies/13686/ Thu, 12 May 2005 00:00:00 EST High-quality postwar art pushed last night's sale of postwar and contemporary art at Christie's to record highs. Buoyed by 13 near-impeccable midcentury lots being sold by New York collectors Barbara and Donald Jonas to benefit the Jewish Communal Fund, the sale hit $133.7 million, far surpassing the world record of $102 million for an evening sale of contemporary art, which was set at Christie's last spring. The salesroom was packed and energized for the first two-thirds of the 76 lots, of... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/contemporary-art-market-returns-to-sanity/13644/ Wed, 11 May 2005 00:00:00 EST Contemporary and postwar has been the most active part of the art market for the past few seasons, but buyers at Sotheby's remained sober and controlled last night. In the end, 82% of the 73 lots sold, for a total of $68 million, just above the sale's low estimate. "It was a wonderful sale," Sotheby's auctioneer and worldwide director of contemporary art, Tobias Meyer, said afterward. Pop art reigned at the sale, which emphasized works by Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein, as well... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/brancusi-sends-christies-sale-soaring/13390/ Thu, 5 May 2005 00:00:00 EST At Christie's Impressionist and Modern sale last night the recently rediscovered "Oiseau dans l'espace" ("Bird in Space," 1922-23) by Constantin Brancusi set a record for the highest price paid for a sculpture at auction: $27.5 million. A collective gasp went up, twice, as two determined phone bidders topped each other again and again to possess the marble bird, thought to be the earliest example of what would become a prominent theme for the artist. It was the highlight of a relatively giddy... CARLY BERWICK http://www.nysun.com/arts/major-lots-fail-to-sell-at-sothebys/13308/ Wed, 4 May 2005 00:00:00 EST The air fizzed out of the room at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art sale last night with a soft whimper, as several major paintings failed to sell. With 45 of the 60 works sold, the auction house pulled in $91,294,400, less than half of the sale's high estimate of $184 million. The most notable bust, Wassily Kandinsky's "Zwei Reiter und Liegende Gestalt"("Two Riders and Reclining Figure," c. 1909-10), was the work with the highest presale estimate ($15-25 million). "It was tough to get a...