Sotheby’s annual sales total up 13.1% from last year
The past year, marked by a record-breaking $110.5 million Basquiat sale, was a successful one for Sotheby’s. The auction house has announced an annual sales total of $4.7 billion, a 13.1% increase compared to last year.
Sotheby’s is dominating the Asian art market, with sales totalling $850 million, with Asian collectors having contributed $1.6 billion of Sotheby’s global sales total. Online sales represented 23% of lots sold in 2017, amounting to $180 million.
Ed Ruscha's Light Leaks © Sotheby's
The Richard Avedon Foundation calls for the withdrawal of “inaccurate” biography dedicated to the artist
The work Avedon: Something Personal, written by Norma Stevens and Steven M.L. Aronson and billed as an “intimate biography” of the late photographer, who passed away in 2004, was judged by the foundation as “inaccurate” as well as deeply misleading.
The foundation is asking Spiegel & Grau (a printer of Random House) to stop marketing and distributing the book. Its director, James Martin, has said: “Much of the book needs to be corrected or retracted, if not entirely disavowed and discontinued. Without correction, this book is a huge disservice both to Avedon and to those who are genuinely interested in his life and work.” Read more via Artdaily.
