Sotheby's Sale of The Hascoe Family Collection of Czech Art Realizes $18,032,738

Written by Stephan Fairchild Tuesday, 14 June 2011 21:28

London - Sotheby’s Sale of The Hascoe Family Collection of Important Czech Art brought £11,103,903 / $18,032,738 / 303,326,131 CZK, far exceeding the pre‐sale estimate (£4.17‐6.25 million / $6.7‐10 million / 114‐170.8 CZK million). The auction achieved sell through rates of 92% by lot and 99.4% by value and set 13 new artist records. 74.9% of works sold achieved prices above the high estimate.

Commenting on the results of today’s sale, Tessa Kostrzewa, Deputy Director of European Paintings at Sotheby’s London, and Filip Marco, Head of Sotheby’s Prague Office, said: “Today’s sale brought a landmark auction of Czech art to an international audience and succeeded brilliantly. Norman and Suzanne Hascoe assembled one of the most important private collections of Czech modernist art in existence and the market has responded with extraordinary enthusiasm. Today’s sale will be remembered for many years to come, with records set for many of the most important Czech artists of the 20th century.”

Headlining the auction was František Kupkaʹs oil on canvas Movement. This museum quality painting witnessed intense competition from a number of buyers in the saleroom and on the telephone banks. Setting a new record for the artist at auction, the work finally sold to a round of applause to an anonymous buyer on the telephone for £1,497,250 ($2,431,534 / 40,900,488 CZK), doubling its pre‐sale high estimate (est. £500,000‐700,000). Painted between 1913 and 1919, the work is one of the finest examples of Kupka’s paintings from this key period in his artistic career, when his interest in cosmology and the interplay between the pictorial arts and music was at its strongest. The price more than doubled the previous record for the artist at auction. Today’s sale offered 20 works by Kupka, and five of these featured in the top 10 prices in the auction. The sale brought five of the six highest prices for Kupka at auction, including the top two.

Emil Filla’s Sculptress in the Studio soared above its pre‐sale estimate of £100,000 150,000, to sell for £623,650 / $1,012,808 / 17,036,293 CZK. Another top‐selling lot of today’s sale was Josef Čapek’s double‐sided work Sailor and Phantomas, painted between 1917 and 1920, which sold for £565,250 / $917,966 / 15,440,976 CZK (estimate: £150,000‐200,000). The price achieved established a record for the artist at auction.


Other notable sale prices:

• František Foltýn’s powerful Imperialism, which sold for £433,250 ($703,598 / 11,835,122 CZK), a record for the artist at auction

• Still Life with Fruit by Bohumil Kubista made £397,250 ($645,134 / 10,851,707 CZK) against an estimate of £300,000‐500,000, a record for the artist at auction

New Artist Records:

• Lot 11
Otto Gutfreund
Cubist Head
bronze
Estimate: £8,000‐12,000
Sold for £34,850 ($56,596) (952,000 CZK)

• Lot 16
Bohumil Kubišta
Still Life with Fruit
oil on canvas
Estimate: £300,000‐500,000
Sold for £397,250 ($645,134) (10,851,707 CZK)

• Lot 20
František Foltýn
Imperialism (Imperialismus)
oil on canvas
Estimate: £120,000‐180,000
Sold for £433,250 ($703,598) (11,835,122 CZK)

• Lot 23
Josef Čapek
Sailor and Phantomas: A Double‐Sided Work
oil on canvas
Estimate: £500,000‐700,000
Sold for £565,250 ($917,966) (15,440,976 CZK)

• Lot 39
František Kupka
Movement
oil on canvas
Estimate: £500,000‐700,000
Sold for £1,497,250 ($2,431,534) (40,900,488 CZK)

•Lot 65
Bohumír Matal
The Lovers
oil on canvas
Estimate: £12,000‐18,000
Sold for £103,250 ($167,678) (2,820,488 CZK)

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