Author Description

Richly illustrated, immensely informative, and thoroughly accessible, Sotheby's Art at Auction: The Art Market Review 1992-93 provides a fascinating guide to a wide range of current art world issues, as well as offering a glittering summary of the Sotheby's season. This season's volume begins with a look at some of the debated issues that have surfaced recently in the art world. Specially commissioned authors investigate such areas as cultural heritage, corporate patronage, art on television, the growth of the art market in Asia and the history of picture hanging. This is followed by a review of the highlights of Sotheby's auction sales from 1992-93. Notable sales this season include a number of modern paintings of the highest quality: Cézanne's famous still life Les Grosses Pommes, two splendid Matisses--one from 1912 when the artist was in Morocco, and another from 1946--and Kandinsky's Sketch I for Composition VII. One of the great events of 1992 was provided by the sale of the dazzling Thurn and Taxis collection of jewellery, silver and objects of vertu, which included a snuff box made for Frederick II of Prussia. Also remarkable was the sale of antiquities amassed by Norbert Schimmel, acknowledged as the most important collection of it's kind to appear on the market in twenty years. Among the records set this season was that made by Man Ray's Glass Tears, which achieved the highest ever price at auction for a single photograph. The auction world record for a piece of Chinese porcelain was also established this season, by a Wucai wine jar, and a bullfighting scene by Goya set a new record for the artist. Completing this year's Art at Auction is a further series of specially commissioned articles which investigate subjects from the art world at large, such as new restoration techniques, and the stories behind the discovery of important works of art. With its detailed coverage of art world issues, and a beautifully illu