The Art Auction Action : Tuesday Opener Seen as Market Bellwether

Hundreds of paintings, drawings and sculptures valued at a total of $325 million will go on the block during New York’s spring auction season. A three-week series of sales--featuring such star items as Andy Warhol’s Pop painting “210 Coca-Cola Bottles,” Georges Braque’s modern still-life “Atelier VIII,” and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Impressionist confection “La Loge”--will open on Tuesday night with a $20-million contemporary art auction at Christie’s.

The semi-annual event is a closely watched ritual that attracts an international array of collectors to Sotheby’s and Christie’s, the world’s largest auction houses. But more is at stake than the fate of specific pieces in these particular sales. Offering a public view of what is generally an intensely private business, the sales are considered bellwethers--if not completely accurate indicators--of the art market.

And it’s a market that bears watching. After prices soared out of sight in the late ‘80s and plunged 18 months ago, auction house officials and private dealers have struggled to restore confidence in the market while battling the recession.

“It’s a whole new market,” says Alexander Apsis, head of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s. But art world insiders generally agree that the nature of that new market is still being sorted out. While potential sellers nervously wait for a safer time to consign works from their collections, auction house agents scour the country in search of fresh, attractive treasures that they can offer at affordable prices.

Last fall’s sales indicated that a new reality was settling in and that some collectors were beginning to take advantage of the return to pre-boom prices, but about one-third of the items offered did not sell. This spring the auction houses are holding their breath to see if they have come closer to the mark in delivering what collectors want, at prices they are willing to pay.

The trend is toward smaller works suited to sophisticated private collectors, Apsis said. His assessment is borne out by the May auction catalogues. Three drawings by Camille Pissarro, valued at a mere $8,000 to $20,000, are in Sotheby’s May 13 auction of Impressionist and modern art. Multimillion-dollar estimates were common in similar sales a few years ago, but they are relatively rare this month. The highest priced works in Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art auction are paintings by Henri Matisse and Joan Miro, each valued at $2 million to $3 million.

Another telling sign of the times is that Christie’s has not predicted the selling prices of the three most valuable paintings in its May sales: Braque’s “Atelier VIII,” Pablo Picasso’s “Compotier et Guitare” and Renoir’s “La Loge.” All three are labeled “estimate on request,” meaning the price is a moving target.

In the past, auction houses occasionally have declined advance publication of estimates for big-ticket works to allow for fluctuations in the market, but estimates are generally revealed just prior to the sales. This season, Christie’s is protecting itself by remaining silent on the subject.

The Renoir, a 10 3/4 x 8 5/8-inch Impressionist portrayal of a female model and the artist’s brother in a theater box, is a hot topic of speculation, however. This painting was sold for a whopping $12.1 million in 1989, when the art market neared its peak, but it is unlikely to match or exceed that price on May 12.

The Braque and the Picasso, on the other hand, have not been on the market for many years. The two paintings are among prime pieces in this season’s biggest attraction: Christie’s May 11 auction of 20th-Century paintings, sculpture and works on paper from the collection of the late William A. McCarty-Cooper. A society decorator who received a $40-million inheritance--including an art collection--from renowned Cubist art historian Douglas Cooper, McCarty-Cooper housed the collection in Los Angeles until his death last year. Many of the objects in the upcoming auction were exhibited last year at the County Museum of Art.

Christie’s will launch the May auctions on Tuesday night with a sale of 117 contemporary works from the estate of Swedish businessman Fredrik Roos. Germans Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke, Americans Susan Rothenberg and Julian Schnabeland Italian Francesco Clemente are among artists represented.

Following the Roos sale, 44 works consigned by various owners will be offered. Most highly valued, at $2.2 million to $2.8 million, is Warhol’s 7x9-foot painting, “210 Coca-Cola Bottles.” Another Pop work, “Laughing Cat,” by Roy Lichtenstein, was sold for $319,000 in a 1988 auction of Warhol’s vast collection. On the market again, the cheerful image of a blue and white cat on a yellow background is expected to bring between $350,000 and $450,000.

On Wednesday night, the crowd of contemporary art collectors and dealers will move to Sotheby’s for another $20-million sale. Among highlights from the 1950s are Willem de Kooning’s painting “Woman,” and Ad Reinhardt’s black “Abstract Painting,” valued at $500,000 to $700,000 each. Notable works from the 1960s include an untitled painting from Cy Twombly’s “Bolsena” series ($1.75 million to $2.25 million) and Brice Marden’s diptych “The Dylan Karina Painting” ($600,000 to $800,000).

Next week, Christie’s will lead with its McCarty-Cooper sale on May 11, followed by an auction of 53 Impressionist and modern artworks on May 12. Sotheby’s primary sale of Impressionist and modern material is May 13.

The following week will bring sales of everything from tribal and pre-Columbian art to works by Latin American artists and Old Masters. The highlight is Sotheby’s May 21-22 auction of paintings, French furniture and European silver from the collection of Jaime Ortiz-Patino, grandson of Bolivian “Tin King” Simon I. Patino.