Though a city rich in traditional Americana and American history Boston also has a foothold in the world of contemporary art. The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA), though a 70 year old institution, is now located in a striking new building on Boston’s waterfront. The experience of visiting the museum is as much colored by the artistic framing of the water views and the posture of the building almost hovering over the water as it is by the artwork displayed on the interior walls. During my weekend visit I saw four exhibits as well as excerpts from the ICA’s permanent collection. Now on view are “Bourgeois in Boston” comprised of a group of works by Louise Bourgeois from the collection of Cambridge, MA collector and ICA trustee Barbara Lee; Dave Muller’s “As Below, So Above” an installation on the Art Wall at the entrance to the museum tracing the development of rock music; an installation work by Kader Attia’s as part of the ICA’s emerging artists series entitled “Momentum 9”, and “Design Life Now” an exhibition that exhibits notable works of American design from the past three years ranging from clothing to sports equipment and everything in between. Now on view from the permanent collection are photographs by Rineke Dijkstra, a film Julian Opie, and a stunning mirrored glass piece by Josiah McElheny.

On the other side of the spectrum you can take a step back in time by visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum on the Fenway. In Ms. Gardner’s former home which was opened to the public as a museum in 1903 one can see precious works of art ranging from portraits by esteemed portraitist John Singer Sargent to works by Titian, Botticelli, Giotto, Pierro della Francesca, Fra Angelico, Rubens, Veronese, Raphael and Rembrandt. A visit to this museum, complete with an impeccably landscaped interior courtyard is like taking a trip to a fine European city in the breadth of offerings and richness of historical importance of these works. Interspersed with these masters are Ms. Gardner’s vast collections of antique lace, Asian porcelain and screens, and antiques from her world travels. In addition to these items is a contemporary art exhibition space on the first floor.

If you are seeking a unique contrast in works of art I recommend a visit to both museums as well the the Museum of Fine arts just beside the Gardner.

In light of yesterday’s Provenance post I thought I would share a recent auction result that perfectly exemplifies the effect of provenance upon the value of an object. Christie’s London sold the Rothschild Faberge egg today for $16.5 million (BP 8,000,000) within the pre-sale estimate provided by the auction house. The pink Imperial egg with clock and automaton of a cockerel (a small enamel rooster that rises from the top of the egg) on a base was one of fifty produced by Karl Faberge’s workshops in St. Petersburg but only three (including the present egg) had the automaton and clock mechanisms. This egg, dated 1902, was composed of diamond, pearl, enamel and gold.

Not only did this Faberge egg come from a prominent collecting family but its provenance was also well documented. A codicil to a will of Baroness Germaine de Rothschild describes the original gift of the object as an engagement gift from her fiance’s sister, Beatrice Ephrussi (nee de Rothschild). The egg then passed by descent to the present owner, today’s seller. Christie’s catalogue entry recounts extensively the relationship of the Rothschild family members with Faberge objects.

This is a wonderful example of important provenance.

Provenance is a very important concept in art collecting and one which I often explain to clients in going through the purchasing process.

Merriam-Webster defines provenance as “the history of ownership of a valued object.” In practice provenance encompasses which galleries, collectors or museums have owned and traded the work of art in its lifetime. This ownership history information allows a buyer to purchase a work of art with some level of assurance that the piece has come through known hands to arrive at its current location. Good provenance, or a clean linear tracking of the works ownership through time, is one indication that the seller has good title to the work and that the work has not been stolen. Often news articles relating to stolen works of art reference questionable or shoddy provenance which means that either the listed or identified provenance for a work of art is missing some key information or dates or that it seems to be forged in some way perhaps to cover up illegal activity.

Often buyers use provenance as a factor in assessing the value of a work of art. Some works that have traded hands many times are worth slightly less for this extensive ownership history. However, if a work was part of an esteemed art collection in the past that element of positive provenance would perhaps increase the value of the work.

For example, assume there are two similar works of art by the same artist created at around the same time in the same place and of the same medium. One was sold by the artist to a prominent art dealer for his personal art collection where it has remained ever since. The other was purchased from the artist by a collector and has since been owned by six collectors and has appeared at auction four times. The art market may assess a higher value to the first work as it has been privately held for all this time. The second work, in this scenario, though still valuable has a more colorful provenance and therefore will probably not be seen as rare or as special. In addition, the fact that the first has been kept in a single collection may perhaps mean that it is in good condition and has not bounced around in crates and boxes from gallery to auction to hang on walls all over the world.

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Contemporary art had a fantastic week in New York last week. Certainly any pre-auction jitters were laid to rest as the art market seemingly ignored Wall Street’s daily ups and recent downs and pronounced its belief in buying high priced Contemporary art.

Christie’s sold $325,006,000 worth of art last Tuesday night at their Post War & Contemporary auction followed by Sotheby’s sale which brought in $315,900,000 and Thursday night’s Contemporary sale at Phillips totaling $42,316,600. All three auction houses also had Contemporary day sales following their night sales which amounted to another $170,525,300.

What/who are the big names this time? Buyers paid over $10 million for works by Jeff Koons (a lot at Christie’s brought $11.8 million while a lot at Sotheby’s set a record for the artist at $23.5 million — both sold to Koons’ dealer, Larry Gagosian); Jean-Michel Basquiat; Francis Bacon (one lot sold for $33 million and another for $45.9 million at Sotheby’s); Mark Rothko; Warhol (“Liz” sold for $23 million at Christie’s and a self portrait sold at Sotheby’s for $12.4 million); Lucien Freud; Gerhard Richter and Willem de Kooning.

Christie’s and Sotheby’s kicked off the Fall auction season with their Impressionist & Modern Art evening sales this week with Christie’s November 6 sale totaling $394,977,200 and Sotheby’s November 7 sale bringing in $269,741,600. Christie’s sold 74 of its 91 its offered (only 7 lots bought in) while Sotheby’s successfully sold 56 out of its 76 lots.

Christie’s sold three lots for over $30 million (including buyer’s premium). Those were: Henri Matisse’s L’Odalisque, harmonie bleue for a record $33,641,000, Amadeo Modigliani’s Portrait of the Sculptor Oscar Miestchaninoff for $30,841,000 and Pablo Picasso’s 1955 portrait entitled Femme Accroupie au Costume Turk (Jacqueline) for $30,841,000.

The top two lots sold at the Sotheby’s sale were Gauguin’s 1892 Tahitian painting Te Poipoi (Le Matin) for $39,241,000 against an estimate of $40,000,000 – $60,000,000 and a Picasso sculpture of Dora Maar, Tete de femme (Dora Maar), for $29,161,000 (the highest price paid at auction for a Picasso sculpture) against an estimate of $20,000,000 – $30,000,000.

Though perhaps the bidding was not as heady and carefree as some in the art world had hoped the sales were successful and many good prices achieved for top quality works with good provenance and reasonable estimates. The Post War and Contemporary auctions begin in New York next week with Christie’s leading things off on November 13th followed by Sotheby’s on the 14th and Phillips on the 15th. Many will be looking to those sales as a gauge of the state of the market having not been given a definitive answer at the Impressionist Modern sales. It will be interesting to see how the Contemporary market responds to the poor performance of the stock market midweek.