ITAÚ IS ABOUT TO SET THE NEXT AUCTION RECORD FOR A FEMALE ARTIST
Louise Bourgeois‘ famous Spider sculpture, purchased by Fundação Itaú in 1996 after the São Paulo Biennial and then exhibited at MAM SP from 1997 to 2017, will be auctioned at Sotheby’s New York on May 18th. It is expected to fetch up to U$40 million, setting probably the top auction record for a female artist sculpture at auctions.
According to a statement by Fundação Itaú, the artwork will be auctioned to fund Itaú Cultural’s operations – the money from the sale will go entirely towards strengthening the structure and perpetuity of the São Paulo cultural center.
Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), is a French artist, naturalized American major of the XX and XXI century. Her monumental sculpture Spider is among the masterpieces of the Modern Art History.
The Spider is Bourgeois’ most well-known motif, first appearing in her drawings of 1947. According to Sotheby’s, after she began turning the spiders into sculptures beginning in the mid-1990s, the works became “increasingly intricate and technically complex.”
The spider figure is an ode to her mother, who died in 1932, who was a tapestry weaver. Spiders are “useful and protective, just like my mother,” Bourgeois said in 1995.
This work was a major highlight of the 23rd Bienal de São Paulo in 1996, dedicated to the French artist. In that same year, the Fundação Itaú acquired the sculpture for $450.000 through the intermediation of the Brazilian Art Critic and Curator Paulo Herkenhoff. The work still belongs to this Brazilian foundation.
THE SPIDER’S MARKET
A Bourgeois Spider from 1996 sold for $32.1 million in May 2019 at Christie’s in New York and another 1996 Spider was sold by Hauser & Wirth in June 2022 at Art Basel in Switzerland for $40 million.
Itau‘s Spider could break the price record for a female artist. Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 (1932), by Georgia O’Keeffe, which sold for $44.4 million in November 2014 at Sotheby’s is the record to date.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, 1932
Female artist current record at auctions
Other Bourgeois’ Spiders can be seen in public locations all around the world and have been acquired by significant cultural institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Dia Art Foundation in New York, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, and the Tate Modern in London.
Maman, 1999
Bronze, marble, and stainless steel
927 x 891 x 1023 cm
at Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao
BRAZIL SELLING THE SPIDER – A WEB OF COMPLEXITIES
Unlike the controversial surrounding the sale of the Pollock by the Museu de Arte Moderna (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro in 2019, which was strongly criticized by Brazilian public opinion, the sale of the Spider by Louise Bourgeois by Itau Cultural has not yet created any controversy.
Refreshing our memories, the Pollock, insured for $25 million at MAM was initially acquired for $20 million by a private client in Brazil so that the painting could remain in its country of origin. However, the collector abandoned the purchase a few months later at the time of payment. Afterwards, the painting was sent to New York to be auctioned at Phillips and as missing the reserve price of $18 million it finally went in an after sale for an amount that remains unknown.
Louise Bourgeois‘ spider, although belonging to the collection of the private initiative institution Fundação Itaú has remained permanently exhibited at the MAM in São Paulo for more than 20 years and has been loaned and exhibited in many renowned institutions in South America during the last quarter of the century, including Oscar Niemeyer Museum, Inhotim Museum; Fundação Iberê Camargo; and Museu de Arte do Rio.
Spider at Fundação Iberê Camargo where it stayed for 2 months in 2019
This raises the question of the importance of this work of art as part of the Brazilian collective heritage and the consequences of its departure from the country.
Would it have been possible to imagine that one of the most iconic sculptures of the 20th century – one of the few works of this “caliber” present in the Brazilian territory – could remain there, allowing the same level of public access as provided by Itaú? Its eventual acquisition by a private Brazilian collector would not necessarily guarantee this condition in the framework of a private collection, but the Brazilians could still appreciate it through loans for exhibitions in the Latin American territory.
The Foundation as a private Institution is fully exercising its ownership rights by proposing Spider to the most performing auction house, enjoying the opportunity of a flourishing market for this masterpiece of the artist. Remembering that the Spider of Bourgeois is already the second worldwide record for a sculpture of a female artist, expecting to become the number one, if fetching $45M on this special occasion.
Spider at MAR – Museu de Arte do Rio where it stayed for 3 months in 2020
One can wonder about the responsibility of the opinion makers of the art world in front of this choice, although several High Wealth Revenues Brazilian collectors would have been able to buy such a work of art if it had been offered for sale in Brazil.
Most likely Spider will remain in foreign lands, especially when we consider the dissuasive and hyper-protectionist Brazilian system that determines that a national buyer would have to pay an import tax equal to 50% of the cost price to repatriate the masterpiece.
“I came from a family of repairers. The spider is a repairer. If you bash into the web of a spider, she doesn’t get mad. She weaves and repairs it.”*, said the artist.
Let’s hope that this sale will be the opportunity to repair Brazilian law so that the Brazilian collectors are not prejudiced by the legislation that prevents them from acquiring and repatriating the pieces that are auctioned abroad, even though they have been part of the Brazilian heritage for years.
*Louise Bourgeois quoted In “Spider,” France Morris, Ed. Louise Bourgeois. London: Tate Modern, 2007, P. 272.