Surrealist Head On Block or Breton translated into Euros (fwd)
Alan Sondheim
Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 07:27:32 -0400
From: Pierre Joris <jo...@ALBANY.EDU>
Reply-To: UB Poetics discussion group <POE...@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU>
To: POE...@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU
Subject: Surrealist Head On Block or Breton translated into Euros
Surrealist's art collection fetches £32m
Paul Webster in Paris
Saturday April 19, 2003
The Guardian
After two weeks of turbulent auctions -
inevitably described as surrealist - the sale of André Breton's
personal art collection has fetched €46m (£31.8m), twice the pre-sale
estimate.
The auctions, which went on late into the night to accommodate
telephone bidders from the US, were disturbed by opponents of the
state's refusal to buy Breton's rented flat near Pigalle, in the north
of Paris, where the surrealist manifesto was drawn up in 1924.
Since the poet's death in 1966, at the age of 70, the flat has been
preserved along with thousands of artworks, photographs, a collection
of primitive art and personal souvenirs.
Led by intellectuals including the philosopher Jacques Derrida,
protesters disturbed some of the sales to campaign for state
intervention. Even without their presence the event was often chaotic.
More than 50,000 people viewed the 6,249 lots while hundreds of
spectators packed the saleroom during the 21 sessions. Bidding was
often wild, with records set for paintings by Magritte, Miro and Arp
and several others when state museums stepped in to outbid private
buyers.
The most contested part of the sale was a collection of photographs by
Man Ray and lesser known photographers.
One specialist collector, Jean-Claude Vrain, was outbid 100 times by
museums which spent nearly €12m to cream off the best items.
Mr Vrain said: "I am angry because the state ignored objects connected
with Breton's political activities as a faithful, anti-Stalinist
Trotskyist."
The biggest official buyers were the Jacques Doucet Museum in Paris,
where Breton left his personal letters, and the National Museum of
Modern Art at the Pompidou centre, which had previously acquired some
of Breton's artefacts as part of death duties.
Marcel Fleiss, the leading dealer in Breton mem orabilia, said the
auction had resurrected interest in the surrealist movement and given
long-delayed recognition to neglected artists.
He said: "Breton's magic has done what I haven't been able to do in 30
years.
"I have been selling 90% of these artists all that time and even in my
dreams I could never sell them at these prices."
The star of the sale was a portrait of Breton by Victor Brauner which,
at €180,000, fetched five times its reserve price. The painting will be
exhibited at the City of Paris Modern Art Museum.
Breton's daughter, Aube Elléoüet-Breton, decided to sell her father's
collection two years after the death of his widow, Elisa.
___________________________________________________________
Pierre Joris
6 Madison Place And they call reading a sin, and writing is a crime=
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Albany NY 12202 And no doubt this is not entirely false.
h: 518 426 0433 They will never forgive us for this Somewhere Else.
c: 518 225 7123
o: 518 442 40 85 =
-- Thomas Bernhard
email: jo...@albany.edu
http://www.albany.edu/~joris/
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