Table by Diego Giacometti Makes Top Price at Bonhams
Diego Giacometti (Swiss, 1902-1985) 'Table Torsade' circa 1965, signed 'Diego' twice to the stetchers, patinated bronze and glass, height 40cm x width 127 x length 63cm. Sold for £108,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium. Photo: Courtesy Bonhams
LONDON.- A table designed by Diego Giacometti sold for £106,000 at Bonhams, New Bond Street today (10 March 2010), as part of its Post War and Contemporary Art and Design sale. Entitled Table Torsade, and cast circa 1965, it had belonged to the late English actor James Mason (1909-1984) since the late1960s.
Austrian painter Arnulf Rainier’s Der Psychiatrist likewise far surpassed its estimate of £8,000 – 12,000, selling for a remarkable £54,000.
Following a fierce bidding battle, David Hockney’s "Richard Neville Naked" sold for £27,600. The picture was used, alongside drawings of Neville’s co-editors of 'Oz' magazine, Jim Anderson and Felix Dennis, to raise funds for the Oz obscenity trial in 1971, in which Neville, Anderson and Dennis were prosecuted for publishing a sexual Rupert Bear cartoon parody in an issue of the magazine edited by a group of school kids.
Other lots hotly contended for included Banksy’s "Lenin on Rollerblades", 2003 which sold for £16,800, and Marc Quinn’s "Heliotrop Morphology", 1997, which sold for £10,800.
An unrecorded fruitwood and vellum cabinet by one of the most important Italian architects and designers of the 20th century, Gio Ponti, sold for £14,400.
Gio Ponti, an important and unrecorded fruitwood and vellum cabinet, circa 1941-42, with brass fittings, the mirrored interior with a series of fitted drawers, also with original key, the frame impressed 'N5B' height 166cm x width 137cm x length 48cm. Sold for £14,400 inclusive of Buyer's Premium. Photo: Courtesy Bonhams
Meanwhile Richard Hamilton’s "The Release", portraying Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, sold for £22,800 against a pre-sale estimate of £10,000 – 15,000 in the Pop and Op Art sale, also at Bonhams, New Bond Street.
Banksy (British, born 1975), 'Lenin on Rollerblades', 2003, stencil spray paint signature to the side of the canvas, stencil spray paint on canvas, 40.5 x 30.5cm (15 15/16 x 12in). Sold for £16,800 inclusive of Buyer's Premium. Photo: Courtesy Bonhams
David Hockney R.A. (British, born 1937) 'Richard Neville Naked', 1971, initialled, titled and dated 'Feb 1971', black ink on paper, 43 x 35cm (16 15/16 x 13 3/4in). Sold for £27,600 inclusive of Buyer's Premium. Photo: Courtesy Bonhams
Arnulf Rainer (Austrian, 1929) 'Der Psychiatrist', 1967, signed, dated and titled, mixed media on paper, 78.5 x 158cm (30 7/8 x 62 3/16in).Sold for £54,000 inclusive of Buyer's Premium. Photo: Courtesy Bonhams