Over the Top but Great: An All Gold Sotheby’s Sale
Going, going, gold....
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‘The Midas Touch’ is the first ever auction dedicated entirely to gold. The pieces will be on view at Sotheby’s from 12-17 October 2018 at 10 am.
Among the treasures will be a 1977 gold Ferrari, a bust of Kate Moss in solid 18-carat gold by Mark Quinn, Napoleon’s coronation throne and a gold monochrome canvas by Yves Klein.
Over the Top Things We Love: An All Gold Sotheby’s Sale
Marc Quinn, Song of the Siren, 2010
Sotheby’s will tell the story of the single metal that has seduced, obsessed and intoxicated mankind for over six millennia. Fascinating pieces of jewellery, fine art and decorative arts will illuminate gold’s allure in ‘The Midas Touch’ gold auction.
Song of the Siren offers a supreme example of Marc Quinn’s renowned series of sculptures depicting the supermodel Kate Moss, whose head is reincarnated here in vibrant 18-carat gold. Both the image and persona of Kate Moss has served as muse for Quinn’s sculptures since 2006, and has—according to the artist himself—carried on the long lineage of archetypal female images ‘stretching from the Venus of Willendorf in prehistoric times, through Nefertiti’s bust in Egypt, images of the Virgin, and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus in the Renaissance, to Warhol’s Marilyn’. The exemplarily detail of Quinn’s sculptural portrait offers serious allusions to the discourse of female iconography in art history.
Paul Mak (Ivanov Pavel Petrovich),Figure,£8,000 – £12,000.
A marker of wealth but also faith, a mythological but also practical material, gold has endured where other fashions faded. In a world that speaks over 6900 languages, the language of gold remains universal. Taking collectors on a journey through the great civilisations of the world, The Midas Touch puts artists next to artisans, sculptures next to sacred objects, contemporary painting next to ancient jewellery, to present an unrivalled history of nature’s most bewitching creation. – Sotheby’s
‘The Midas Touch’ collection ranges from personal objects such as a rare Venetian gold presentation medal of Doge Francesco Morosini (1688-94), estimated at 6,000 – 8,000 GBP to Jacobello del Fiore’s The Madonna of Humility, a gothic and refined jewel owing to the skill of one of Venice’s leading artists in the 15th century.
Kelley Walker, Untitled (Recycle Sign), £20,000 – 30,000.
