Sotheby's November 29 sale of American paintings includes Edward Hopper's famous 1955 oil painting Hotel Window. An evocative exploration of the isolation in American urban life by one of America's most widely admired artists, it depicts an elegantly dressed older woman seated on a navy couch in an anonymous hotel lobby while staring out of a darkened window. This large and superbly composed canvas is estimated to sell for $10m./$15m. CHRISTIE'S EVENING sale of Impressionist and Modern Art in New York on November 9 is expected to be a knockout; the famous restituted Klimts will lead the way. I haven't yet seen the catalog but the one of the day sale has just arrived and is chock-full of good things, and at reasonable prices. There are many fine works by Vuillard (one may reach $1m.), Bonnard, Van Dongen, Kokoschka and Chagall. There is a wonderful Sonia Delaunay tapestry, a superb composition, that may top $35,000. CHRISTIE'S OCTOBER week of Contemporary Art sales in London realized an outstanding combined total of 44,011,980 ($81,906,295). One of the biggest takes was nearly 10m. (nearly $18m.) for the contemporary and Pop Art collection of Yoav Harlap, an importer to Israel of Mercedes and other automobiles and an investor in high-tech companies. Nearly all his 35 lots sold, among them works by Oldenburg, Yves Klein, Tinguely, Manzoni, Fontana, Basquiat, Haring and others. Harlap now intends to collect younger artists. Harlap has been quietly collecting European and American art for decades and his top lot, Andy Warhol's over-reproduced Flowers, soared past its top estimate to go for 3.7m. Tom Wesselmann's daring Great American Nude reached 1.4m., triple its estimate. Wesselmann's prices have soared since his recent death.
