Just one week ago, I attended my first auction ever at The Clinton Inn Hotel in Tenafly, NJ. This particular art auction was conducted by National Estate Marketing in Hackensack, NJ, and was billed as a "divorce auction."
What got me in the door of this art auction was the color advertisement which boasted "the most comprehensive collection of Salvador Dali's work to be auctioned." Of course, I just had to be there.
For the past year or so, a number of television auction shows have sprung up, and I have become a fan of each. What I found at this auction was quite different than I expected.
The auctioneer would not sell anything unless there were at least two bids, and you could not bid against yourself. As a result, many items did not sell, because only one person in the room bid. By the way, there were only about 25 people in attendance.
Although there was no reserve price for any item, the auctioneer refused to sell an item unless he got the price that he wanted. He frequently allowed a bidder to set the start price, but if the bids did not live up to the auctioneer's expectation, he would not sell the item. As a result, many things did not sell.
When one bidder's item was removed from the auction, he questioned the auctioneer about this policy. He said that a bidder cannot retract a bid, so the auctioneer should not be able to retract an item with a bid on it. This bidder was a latecomer, so he didn't hear the auctioneer's rules before the auction. Nevertheless, the bidder had a good point.
The artwork at this auction was incredible, and consisted mostly of Spanish artists. There were many prints by Dali, Picasso, Miro, Warhol, and a number of oils, a couple of which were by Pissarro. There was much more, but I was only interested in the Salvador Dali prints.
All art was beautifully-framed, and most of the Dali prints had a letter from Bruce Hochman attached to the back, and many also had a cutout in the backing board with a stamp and signature from Bruce Hochman presumably on the bottom of the print.
The Dali prints were from a wide variety of print suites, a large portion of which were from
Divine Comedy,
Twelve Apostles,
Caprices de Goya,
Pantagruel, and tarot prints.
Bidders put stickers next to the items they were interested in, and this is how the auction order was determined. As a result, none of the tarot prints or the
Caprices de Goya actually went up for auction, because nobody in the room expressed interest.
The Dali prints that did sell went for huge prices, IMO.
Below are some highlights:
- Currier and Ives as Interpreted by Salvador Dali: "American Yachting Scene" (Field catalog #71-5D, p. 164) sold for $6500. In the past year, I saw another print from this series sell for about $1000.
- Medicine and Science engraving of "Enrico Fermi" (Field catalog #70-5H, p. 59) sold for $1750.
- Two Divine Comedy lithographs sold for $700 each, and another did not sell. Not sure which images these were, but the titles were "Apotheosis of the Virgin Mary," "Golden Age," and "News of the Lower." Many other Divine Comedy prints never even made it to auction.
- Time photolith "Desert Watch" (Field catalog #76-1E, p. 178) sold for $5500.
- Les Amours Jaunes etching "A la memoire de Zulma (To the memory of Zulma)" (Field catalog #74-15C, p. 96) sold for $2400. Another print titled "Le poete contumace (The rebel poet)" (Field catalog #74-15A, p. 96) did not sell.
- Shakespeare II etching "Henry VIII" (Field catalog #71-1E, pp. 64-65) sold for $1750.
- An engraving from Le Bestiaire de La Fontaine (either #74-1F or #74-1G, pp. 92-93) sold for $3250.
- Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel lithograph #73-7D (edition of 250) sold for $3000; another lithograph (not sure which) sold for $2000. There were six prints from this suite at the auction: D, J, P, W, O, and another.
- A light blue lithograph from The Twelve Apostles (Knights of the Round Table) suite sold for $1100 (possibly Field catalog #72-14I, pp. 180-181).
Frankly, these prices are way too high. I am suspicious that there were shills in the audience, but I may never really know. I went to this auction hoping for a good deal, but no deal was to be found. Hopefully there are better finds out there for next time.
