The art of Nicolas de Staël is extremely genuine, not related to schools, because it is the expression of his obsession with painting. Nervous and touchy, capable of the greatest joy and of the greatest despair, the artist has constant doubts about the quality of his work. The rejection of one of his paintings by a usually enthusiastic admirer is for him a drama of the highest intensity.

In his abstract period his painting is laid with a knife in thicknesses that accumulate until the desired effect is achieved. This masonry effect pleases the fans of the Ecole de Paris. De Staël defies this sympathizing public when he suddenly renounces pure abstraction by stating that painting must be neither abstract nor figurative.

This hypersensitive artist is now looking for all the themes that can dazzle him. The outbreak of this new phase of his art is a football match on March 26, 1952 at the Parc des Princes, one of the first to be played by night under floodlight. In the rest of his short career he will look everywhere for the brightest colors that he will often associate with musical rhythms.

De Staël wants to see again the beautiful sunlight of Provence : he spends the summer of 1952 in a cabin in the Lubéron. He is inspired by a vase of roses by van Gogh for looking at the flowers.

On June 7 in Paris, Christie's sells a still life of flowers, oil on canvas 147 x 98 cm painted by De Staël in 1952, which is his largest format on this theme and indeed the culmination of his search for floral expression in that summer. It is estimated € 3.5M, lot 28.

The Allosaurus is the champion of the carnivorous dinosaurs of the Jurassic 155 million years ago in the vast region of current-day Wyoming where all the discoveries of their fossils are made. An adult specimen can reach ten meters.

These fossils of skeletons arouse a growing craze. A juvenile specimen 3.80 m long was sold for € 1.4M including premium by Binoche et Giquello on April 11, 2018 from an estimate of € 500K.

When paleontologists begin to release a new fossil in 2013 they immediately believe that it is an allosaurus. After the completion of its excavation in 2015 and of its preparation in 2017 they observe that this beast was different from allosaurs by a slightly larger quantity of teeth. The bone structure also has a few unprecedented characteristics including an extended shape of the pubis.

This dinosaur 2.60 m high, nearly 9 m long and 70% preserved was an old adult. It was probably dead by a fall in the river and not in a landslide because its bones were not compressed during the fossilization, allowing for example to construct with accuracy the three-dimensional shape of its muzzle. Its bone pathologies are discernible.

It has been inspected by specialists but it remains to find its actual place in the evolution of theropods. Its next owner will be invited to contribute to its scientific designation.

After a public exhibition on reservation from June 2 to 4 on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower, this fossil will be sold by Aguttes in Neuilly-sur-Seine on June 4 in duplex with its showroom. It is estimated beyond € 1,2M, lot 1. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.

Art lover, Tsar Alexander I is sorry for the decay of the imperial porcelain factory of St. Petersburg, one of the oldest in Europe, created by the Empress Elizabeth in 1744.

His very effective head of cabinet the Count Guryev is commissioned for restoring to this production a prestige worthy of the emperor. He hires skilled technicians and artists from Berlin and Sèvres. Painter on porcelain in Sèvres from 1802 to 1813, Swebach is in Saint Petersburg from 1815 to 1817.

The activity of the factory during the reign of Alexander is dominated by the plates decorated in a neoclassical style. The collections of its museum include a small gilt porcelain vase 57 cm high painted in enamel by Swebach with a hunting scene copying an oil picture from the imperial collection. This piece already has the shape with ovoid body and two added handles and the type of decoration that will make the greatest fame of the monumental presentation porcelains during the next reign.

The technological development of this production line is attributable to the reign of Alexander. When he dies in autumn 1825 the factory realizes a vase to pay tribute to him, with his profile on one side and the word Russia inside a globe on the other side. This 2 m high piece of porcelain was an unprecedented technical feat throughout Europe.

On June 5 in London, Sotheby's sells a pair of vases 1.37 m high with handles, lot 414 estimated £ 1M. Each vase is decorated with a landscape signed by a painter of the factory, respectively Kornilov and Stoletov, and dated 1825.

The original pictures in the style of Karl von Kügelgen have not been identified. 1825 is certainly the date of the porcelain painting. They do not carry an imperial monogram and must be positioned at the end of the reign of Alexander. The access to power by Nicholas I was close to trigger a civil war and an operation of prestige for this new Tsar appears indeed as unthinkable at that date.

The game theory developed in the 1940s by John von Neumann applies to interactions in which each participant ignores the strategy of others. The purpose of the theory is to predict the conclusion by considering the relevant elements of the situation and the axiom that all games result in a balance.

Mathematicians have proposed models for situations involving several cooperative or non-cooperative players. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded in 1994 to Harsanyi, Nash and Selten for work performed in the 1950s and 1960s.

Thomas Schelling was not a mathematician but an American expert in political behavior. In his seminal book The Strategy of Conflicts published in 1960, he reorients the game theory into practical considerations, studying the impact of promises, threats, surprise attacks and mutual mistrust.

As advisor to several US presidents, he is particularly interested in the fact that nuclear deterrence actually leads to a balance of cooperation between antagonistic parties without increasing the risk of open conflict. The influence of his theories on the strategies of contemporary foreign policy is considerable, even if the press that reports events for the general public cannot appreciate it.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded in 2005 to Aumann and Schelling. Schelling's Nobel medal and certificate are sold by Nate D. Sanders in an online auction ending on May 31, lot 1.

In the logical continuation of the cabinets of curiosities of their predecessors, connoisseurs of the Age of Enlightenment marvel at baroque works built by nature without human intervention.

In 1769 an agent of the Dutch East Indies Company returns from Batavia where he had spent five years. He brings with him various goods that will interest the European market including an exceptional nacreous freshwater pearl weighing 2373 grains, 578 carats according to the measurement system in period, which is still today one of the three largest known specimens.

The pearl is a sensation in the auction sale of his deceased estate in Amsterdam in 1778, not only for its size but also for its blistered shape visualizing a sleeping lion above a flat striated base that evokes the finial of a carved jade seal of the Qianlong Emperor. A real size engraving has been edited for that auction.

It is bought at that sale for 2100 guilders before fees by a Dutch banker acting as art broker for Empress Catherine the Great to whom he delivers it in the following year. The pearl reappears circa 1863 when a woman, probably the daughter of a Danzig shipowner, tries to sell it to the King of Italy. It is bought by a Dutch associate of the jeweler of the king. The project of integrating it into a Fabergé surprise egg to be offered by the Tsar to the Tsarina is canceled by the fall of the Russian empire.

This 70 x 43 x 39 mm sleeping lion pearl weighing 118 grams is offered with its ancient gilt brass box fitting to its dimensions. It is estimated beyond € 340K for sale by Venduehuis in The Hague on May 31, lot 1778. Here are the links to the site of the auction house and to an article shared by Den Haag Centraal.

After the Franco-German War of 1870 the two countries strengthen their respective alliances. Russia which has critical needs in industrial development is looking for investors in France. From 1888 to 1914 the Russian loans known as Emprunts Russes are immensely popular with small French savers.

From 1892 military agreements followed this economic cooperation between France and Russia. In 1904 and 1907 Great Britain made alliance with both countries.

Tension is rising in the Balkans and a new step forward would be useful. In August 1913 a delegation led by Général Joffre, supreme head of the French armies, is received by Tsar Nicholas II.

According to the principles of diplomacy this delegation is welcomed with the highest honors. Joffre is decorated with the Order of St. Alexander Nevsky which is the highest Russian men's honor after the Order of St. Andrew.

Joffre's chief deputy for this mission is Général d'Amade. To respect the hierarchical prerogatives, d'Amade receives a distinction slightly inferior to that of Joffre, the Order of the White Eagle, with an additional imperial honor rare at this time for this distinction which consists in crimping the badge and the plaque with a diamond pavement.

These two jewels in gold, silver gilt, diamonds, rubies and enamel are for sale together by Millon in Paris Hôtel Drouot on May 30, lot 424. The press release by Drouot announces an estimate between € 600K and 800K. The 11 cm high badge weighing 140 g is decorated with the two-headed eagle and the imperial crown. The box and ribbon are included in this single lot.

The first printed book, in 1455, had been the Latin Bible, or more exactly the Vulgate of St. Jerome. Fust is the sponsor, Gutenberg the publisher and Schöffer (Schoeffer) the technician and probably the foreman. After the commercial failure of that operation Fust and Schoeffer remain associates in Mainz. After the death of Fust in 1466 Schoeffer becomes his successor and son-in-law.

After having been one of the most important Fathers of the Church, Jerome becomes indeed the subject of an intense investigation. By a research in ecclesiastical and monastical libraries, a Benedictine monk known as Adrianus Brielis increases to 200 items the corpus of epistles written by Jerome.

This outstanding work is classified thematically by Brielis and published by Schoeffer in 1470 in two successive editions, incorporating new discoveries and significant reworks in the second edition.

The first workshops of movable type printing in southern Germany are inseparable from the industry of the copyists but also of the illuminators. Once printed, the specimens were illuminated by hand in more or less extent to be marketed at various prices.

On July 7, 2010, Christie's sold as lot 10 for £ 940K including premium a deluxe copy printed in Mainz in 1470 by Schoeffer of the Letters (Epistolae) of St. Jerome (Hieronymus) gathered by Brielis. It is now estimated € 600K for sale in Paris Hôtel Drouot by OVA - Aristophil operated by Aguttes on June 16, lot 26.

It is a large-size book on vellum 48 x 33 cm. This extensively illuminated copy is in a remarkable original condition, still in its binding in two volumes made in period in Erfurt.

This copy from the first edition has been extensively amended in handwriting to add the modifications in preparation for the second edition, providing a fair view of the concurrent practice of editing and printing for that operation. For sure the expensive double printing including red ink for the rubrication did not invite for a scrap of the obsolete copies.

The discussion above is mostly based on my 2010 post.

A highly rare Portuguese-Venetian manuscript portolan atlas from the time of the Great Discoveries is estimated $ 1.2M for sale by Christie's in New York on June 14, lot 15.

I discussed it as follows before it passed at Christie's in London on November 19, 2014 :

The Mediterranea is a coveted sea but the Ottoman domination pushes the Western trade outside it. The time has come to travel the coast of Africa to seek new paths to the Orient. Portugal is geographically well positioned for this new exploration. The age of the great discoveries is starting. 

Navigation at sea is dangerous. Portolans are used to transmit the knowledge of the seafarers. These charts provide some major advantage over enemy ships and are considered as highly strategic. 

The portolan is not a map in the modern geographic meaning. It is a document that sets islands and coasts and identifies the ports. The sailors are guided by the lines of the compass rose from focal points mostly in sixteen wind directions. 

Christie's sells a manuscript on vellum of a portolan atlas of the coasts of Atlantic and North Sea, consisting of seven double-page 39 x 50 cm charts in a Venetian backless binding of the period.

The view of the coasts is complete from Sierra Leone and Guinea in the South to Jutland and Scotland in the North. It includes the discoveries made in the coast of Africa by Cadamosto, a Venetian serving the Portuguese, and by Pedro de Sintra in 1460. 

One page is signed, located and dated : Gratiosus Benincasa Anchonitani, Venice, 1468. The Benincasa portolan anticipates by thirteen years the first Portuguese mission of African circumnavigation. Benincasa is one of the best cartographers of his time and his work in the Mediterranea are among the sources used to compile the Cornaro atlas in Venice around 1489.

The copy of The Birds of America by Audubon owned until 2012 by the Dukes of Portland is one of the finest in existence. It was sold for $ 8M including premium by Christie's in New York on January 20, 2012, lot 1.

It is now estimated $ 8M for sale in the same auction room on June 14 as lot 1, as a charity to benefit the conservation of the natural environment.

I narrated it as follows in 2012 :

The complete version of Audubon's The Birds of America, published in London, includes 435 plates engraved from 1827 to 1838, hand-colored from the watercolors of the author and bound in four volumes. Made in a quite large 'double elephant' folio format 98 x 65 cm, it is the masterpiece of illustrated books. All birds were carefully illustrated in life size.

The introduction at auction of a full version in good condition is an event. Two of these prestigious copies came from original deliveries by subscription. They were respectively sold for $ 8.8 million including premium at Christie's on March 10, 2000 and for £ 7.3 million including premium by Sotheby's on December 7, 2010.

At the end of the operation, Audubon's list included 161 subscribers. Its printers, Lizars and Havell, had planned it slightly wider, and it is likely that a few remaining copies have been assembled in volumes in 1838 for new customers while retaining the chronological order of publication.

The copy from the library of the Dukes of Portland is probably one of those assembled without subscription, and it remained in exceptionally fine condition. It may be considered like an original edition by the bibliophiles as most of the first plates are in first state, as evidenced by watermarks and through the variants in the legends. The five octavo volumes of texts are included in the lot.

Zao Wou-Ki appreciates in the 1970s that the universe is not limited to the fight of his inner passion. To continue to encompass everything from creation to unlimited expansion, he revisits the black inks of the Song and creates many wash paintings on paper.

Towards the end of the decade he enters a new phase by transposing his observations on ancient art to the oil on canvas. The shades of the wash subtly fill the light areas that bring the peace and the void that he had always psychologically missed. He chooses for the rest of his image vibrant colors in brushstrokes of great sharpness that he builds like a speedy writing.

The overall effect of 8.11.79 is a mountain range well centered between sky and lake. This painting 90 x 117 cm is small for this artist at that time. It was sold by Christie's on November 25, 2017 for HK $ 50M including premium over a lower estimate of HK $ 12M.

On May 27 in Hong Kong, Phillips sells as lot 5 a 250 x 260 cm oil on canvas painted in 1979, titled 4.1.79.

Composed in three parts like the other example above, this painting which looks from far away like a wash is an almost monochrome abstract mountain in a swirling surrounding of white mist. The closer inspection reveals the brightly colored lines and stains intermingled in the central part that brings to the whole its natural illusion.

Please watch the video shared by Phillips.

SOLD for HK$ 70M including premium