NEW YORK—The Swann Galleries sale of paintings, prints and drawings, on March 8, including a large trove of works by Jean-Émile Labourer, realized a total of $2.5 million, missing the overall estimate of $2.8 million/4.3 million. Of 792 lots offered, 635, or 80 percent, were sold.
Pablo Picasso’s color linoleum cut, Woman’s Head, 1962, was the top lot realizing $64,800, within the $60,000/90,000 estimate. The overall sale achieved some strong prices despite the numerous lots that sold a bit under their low estimates.
Among the higher prices: Edvard Munch’s lithograph Self-Portrait with Wine Bottle, 1930, which sold for $57,600, compared with an estimate of $40,000/60,000; Edward Hopper’s etching Night Shadows, 1921, which realized $43,200, compared with an estimate of $30,000/50,000; Paul Cezanne’s pencil drawing Man with Hat, ca.1890, which sold for $40,800 (estimate: $15,000/20,000); James McNeill Whistler’s etching The Piazzetta, 1880, which sold for $33,600 (estimate: $20,000/30,000); and Thomas Hart Benton’s 1944 lithograph Wreck of the Ol ’97, which sold for $31,200 (estimate: $8,000/12,000).
Kahlil Gibran’s 1916 watercolor Rape by a Centaur, sold for $22,800, far surpassing the estimate of $2,000/3,000.
The first part of the auction was a single-owner sale devoted to etchings, engravings, woodcuts and watercolors by Laboureur. Of 170 works offered, 140, or 82 percent, were sold.
The highest price was $9,000, compared with an estimate of $3,000/5,000, for the 1902–11 color woodcut Ernest, Garcon de Restaurant. That portion of the sale realized $225,540, falling within the $199,050/304,650 presale estimate.