Sotheby's.

Here are the three pieces that just sold this month:

Sotheby's - Auctions - Calendar - Looking Closely: A Private Collection
Sotheby's - Auctions - Calendar - Looking Closely: A Private Collection
Sotheby's - Auctions - Calendar - Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale


I slum it on the RE side:
Luxury Real Estate & Homes for Sale | Official Sotheby's International Realty® Site

Not knowing that a "litho" is a print, I bet they just love ya! :D

not necessarily. there's a difference between a hand lithograph ,and an offset lithograph.

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beer holder! No really. Alcohol is probably responsible for more auction-buyer's remorse than you could imagine. Of course, it's kinda hard to go wrong @ $12.00. :D

More info...

No... it's not the melanoma on my back. A close up of the black section in the hull of the largest sailboat.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298997457.jpg

Finally got up the nerve to take it out of the frame. On the reverse:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298997582.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1298997599.jpg

Hard to tell from the photo:

Is the artwork behind glass?

Is the artwork mounted behind a mat (with a window cut out through which the artwork is viewed)?

If not, is the artwork flat against the glass? High quality artwork is never mounted that way because condensation will eventually damage the artwork.

The last pictures apear to be the artwork still attached to its frame with glazing points and the backing paper torn away. It looks like the side of the artwork is bent up to fit into the frame. Not very professional; usually the artwork is taped to the back of its mat at the top and only extends a minimal ammount past the window. If there's no mat and the artwork is valuable, the framer would have put spacers around the edge of the glass to prevent contact.

If the artwork is a signed and numbered, hand pulled lithograph, see Eric Coffey's post as to value range.

If it's an offset litho, it's a cheap poster (which I suspect, given the quick and dirty framing job).

I hope I'm wrong, though. SmileWavy

Finger crossed that you have a treasure...

Good luck Lee! This will be fun to follow.;):cool:

Seems to me that even great art can be mismounted.

Charlie Sheen/Denise Richard come to mind.

I was gonna say Berlusconi

Any updates? After looking at the pics, the signature "in the plate" is not a great sign. Probably the easiast way to rule out a print (and confirm a reproduction) is to look at it under magnification. If you can see any kind of benday pattern (dots), then it's a fugazi.

Ben Day ... Benday Dot Technique Explained » ATom1746 Blog ...who knew?

No dots. Just what appears to be ink layered on top of other ink. If you look at the section of black in the photo (which is magnified 200x) you can see the second layer of black along the top. Not sure what that means.

I've tried to find examples of what various types of art (lithograph, serigraph, etc) should look like under strong magnification, but have struck out.

Zentrum Paul Klee in Switzerland will give me their opinion for 150 Swiss Francs, plus 1000 Francs if it's real.

neat find....... maybe............. ........

Need to find one of them antiques roadshow things ;)

Send the info to Pawn Stars and have them review it, you may be on TV!

I just got an email back from our in-house valuation department (appraisers) specializing in this period.

Here is the response:

"The method used to print this work is silkscreen, which does not have the mechanical dots of more contemporary methods of reproduction. My sense is that there was a number of silkscreen reproductions made of Klee’s work in the 1960s and/or 1970s. I doubt it was much earlier than that as you really don’t see silkscreen much before the 60s, although it was certainly around.

In any case, I am afraid this is a reproduction that does not have any value.

Sincerely,

Blake Koh"

Wow Eric! I really appreciate you running this by an expert. Please tell him I said, "Thank you." You saved me a lot of time and trouble as I was about to cart this thing all over town having it checked out.

Let me know when you're free for lunch... I definitely owe you one. SmileWavy

Should have taken the 993.