Paris, Loudmer, 1997.
4to, [72] pp., ill.
One of the final sales of Guy Loudmer's legendary Paris auction house.
Catalogue of the auction "Important Modern and Contemporary Paintings; Primitive Arts," held in Paris on 15 December 1997 by the auction house of Guy Loudmer (1933–2019), one of the leading Paris commissaires-priseurs of the 1980s and 1990s.
Lots 1–182 comprise paintings and sculpture by Modern Masters (Marc Chagall, Fernand Léger, Salvador Dalí, Le Corbusier, Max Ernst, Man Ray, André Derain, Giorgio Morandi, Nicolas de Staël, Victor Brauner, Constant Permeke); Post-War artists (Andy Warhol, Lucio Fontana, Jean Fautrier, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Asger Jorn, Henri Michaux, Fernando Botero, Alighiero Boetti); Nouveau Réalisme and its circle (Christo, Jean Tinguely, Arman, César, Raymond Hains, Martial Raysse); as well as Russian-born artists in Paris (Serge Charchoune, André Lanskoy, Chana Orloff) and the Japanese painter Tsuguharu Foujita. Lots 190–269 are devoted to African and Oceanic art.
Botero's Niño, offered in this sale, reappeared at Christie's on 30 September 2022.
The sale took place at a dramatic moment for the auction house. In late October 1997, less than two months earlier, Guy Loudmer had been charged with aggravated breach of trust and taken into custody in connection with the Bourdon affair: he was accused of misappropriating tens of millions of francs from the proceeds of the 1990 sale of the Bourdon collection, dubbed the "sale of the century." His son and partner, Philippe Loudmer, fled to Israel in December 1997. Guy Loudmer spent six months in pre-trial detention and in September 2001 received an eighteen-month suspended sentence and a fine of 500,000 francs. The scandal ended his career as a commissaire-priseur; his firm went into judicial liquidation in 1998, and he continued to work in the art market as a consultant and dealer.
Binding & condition
Original pictorial wrappers. Good: lightly rubbed, dogears.
