Nude Clara Bow Portrait at Auction

[Jeff Crouse]

I second the notion that we wait until the Bonham's auction catalog is made available and then go from there. Indeed that was the very intent that prompted me to put the info regarding Bonham's on the thread 2 days ago. Perhaps a researcher from Bonham's will stumble across this conversation (yes, they have been known to do Internet searches), leading the auction house to double/triple/quadruple check their sources and confirm, with evidentiary proof, that the portrait is the real deal. And if such confirmation is not forthcoming, to remove it from auction. From a purely dollars and cents perspective, the auction houses are mindful that if they don't do their homework they risk becoming nothing more or less than ebay. In other words, redundant. In other words, out of business.

[sc1957]

My theory: Lugosi simply wanted to put a picture of a naked woman on his wall. He claimed it was Clara Bow so it would be "art," and that would make it acceptable for public display.

Prove me wrong!

[Gene Zonarich]

Bonham's may simply offer this item as a portrait once owned by Bela Lugosi with an intriguing, but unproven back-story, and nothing more. Let the buyer beware. Any and all publicity churned up by a news article, including internet speculation, months before the auction date is probably more than welcomed by Bonham's, as it is likely to bump the price upward from the bid opening. As others have said, let's wait for the auction catalog to see how the item is presented.

[Jeff Crouse]

This should tilt the discussion significantly: Yesterday I reached out to David Stenn about the portrait controversy to specifically ask his learned opinion. (If having to explain the authority of David Stenn on all things related to Clara Bow is needed, then there's something of a grand canyon-size gap in your CB education.) In brief, he said that the portrait is definitely NOT Bow and that he can state without reservation that she never posed nude for a portrait in her life. Without going over point by point what he communicated to me, he guessed that perhaps Bow was used a inspiration for the model seen in the painting, but, regardless, is certainly not the actress herself.

For my money, it ALWAYS pays to consult experts, and as a result of my own intense curiosity, sense of due diligence, and years of painstaking professional training and experience, this is exactly what I have done. But, as always, you are free to draw your own conclusion, and I'm sure you will. I had personally wished that the woman in the painting was Bow, yet when the world's leading scholar on her says otherwise, you are naturally compelled to adjust your view accordingly and thus honor reality. Perhaps some might argue that not even someone of the stature of David Stenn is not the final word on the subject, but, golly sakes, he's at the very least a damn, damn good authority -- the best there is.

[Mitch Farish]

I second the notion that we wait until the Bonham's auction catalog is made available and then go from there. Indeed that was the very intent that prompted me to put the info regarding Bonham's on the thread 2 days ago. Perhaps a researcher from Bonham's will stumble across this conversation (yes, they have been known to do Internet searches), leading the auction house to double/triple/quadruple check their sources and confirm, with evidentiary proof, that the portrait is the real deal. And if such confirmation is not forthcoming, to remove it from auction. From a purely dollars and cents perspective, the auction houses are mindful that if they don't do their homework they risk becoming nothing more or less than ebay. In other words, redundant. In other words, out of business.

I don't think anyone disputes that Lugosi had the picture made, said it was Clara Bow, and hung it on his wall. No one disputes that Lugosi's wife said Clara Bow was his lover, (they sure did a good job of keeping the affair secret if they had been seeing each other from the summer of '28 to the fall of '29). The only known facts are that Clara and Bela met after a performance of Dracula, and that he was later an occasional guest in her home, along with a host of others, including Jack Oakie. That's all.

[WaverBoy]

This should tilt the discussion significantly: Yesterday I reached out to David Stenn about the portrait controversy to specifically ask his learned opinion. (If having to explain the authority of David Stenn on all things related to Clara Bow is needed, then there's something of a grand canyon-size gap in your CB education.) In brief, he said that the portrait is definitely NOT Bow and that he can state without reservation that she never posed nude for a portrait in her life. Without going over point by point what he communicated to me, he guessed that perhaps Bow was used a inspiration for the model seen in the painting, but, regardless, is certainly not the actress herself.

For my money, it ALWAYS pays to consult experts, and as a result of my own intense curiosity, sense of due diligence, and years of painstaking professional training and experience, this is exactly what I have done. But, as always, you are free to draw your own conclusion, and I'm sure you will. I had personally wished that the woman in the painting was Bow, yet when the world's leading scholar on her says otherwise, you are naturally compelled to adjust your view accordingly and thus honor reality. Perhaps some might argue that not even someone of the stature of David Stenn is not the final word on the subject, but, golly sakes, he's at the very least a damn, damn good authority -- the best there is.

And there we have it; you can't do much better on Bow than the word of David Stenn. The painting belonged to Bela Lugosi, but it ain't Clara Bow. Hopefully the auction listing will be revised accordingly.

[WaverBoy]

I emailed Greg Mank about what David Stenn told Jeff Crouse, and he said thanks for the email and that he'd definitely be keeping an eye on the situation.

[Jeff Crouse]

I also intend to alert a contact I have at TCM and inform him of this news, and hopefully he can pass the information along accordingly to the folks overseeing the auction. It will definitely not bode well for TCM to be on the receptive of a lawsuit that claims the item was sold with inaccurate or misleading information.

[The Blackbird]

At least there's no truth to the rumour Clara Bow owned a nude portrait of Bela Lugosi.

[Doug Sulpy]

She did, but since it didn't look anything like him no one noticed.

[Rick Lanham]

It's in the next auction...

[The Blackbird]

"I've got your RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE right here!"
[Talk about ONE BODY TOO MANY.....]

[Doug Sulpy]

"Is that a stake in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?"

[ajabrams]

I looked at an email sent to me by TCM about the Bonham's Auction and the catalog still identifies the painting as a nude portrait of Clara Bow owned by Bela Lugosi. I'm sorry, but to me, it looks nothing like Ms. Bow and I'd bet it isn't her at all.
I wonder how they inftend to substantiate this claim....

[Brooksie]

The full auction catalogue is now online at http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21427/. The listing for the Clara Bow is below (emphasis is mine; the poor copy editing is not mine, but it suggests to me that the sentence was a late addition).

(Fromhttp://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21427/lot/138/):
A Geza Kende portrait of Clara Bow owned by Bela Lugosi
Oil on canvas, signed and dated at lower right ("Geza Kende / 1929"), displayed in original carved giltwood frame. Depicting a nude Clara Bow sitting on a pale drapery backdrop. Bearing a partial period label on the reverse from The Painters and Sculptors Club of Los Angeles.

In 1929, Lugosi was touring the United States appearing in the play Dracula, soon to be optioned by Universal for a film adaptation. One of the audience members at a Los Angeles performance was the silent film star Clara Bow. Sound films had recently taken hold in Hollywood and Bow was anxious about whether her thick Brookyln accent would appeal to audiences. Having read in the press that Lugosi spoke his lines phonetically without knowing English, Bow was determined to find out more about the Hungarian actor. Bow biographer David Stenn describes their meeting: "Clara sat transfixed through Dracula, and when the final curtain fell, she made a beeline for Lugosi's dressing room. 'How d'ya know your lines?' she immediately asked him. Lugosi, who still spoke no English, gesticulated that he learned from cues by other actors. Without further ado, Clara invited him home'" (Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild, NY: 1988, p. 140).

Their relationship was brief but apparently had a lasting impact on Lugosi as he commissioned a fellow Hungarian, artist Geza Kende, to paint this portrait of Bow. It is not believed that Bow posed for the painting herself, but rather than Lugosi commission a portrait in her likeness. The painting appears in famous 1930s photographs of Lugosi in his study, and indeed he kept it until his death in 1956. The companion painting, a portrait by Kende of Lugosi himself, sold at Heritage Auctions in 2004 for $86,250. A beautiful painting, associating one of film's greatest early stars and the iconic Dracula.
Overall: 44 1/2 x 40 in.;

Unless they have some correspondence from the artist or details of the commission, I'm still a little puzzled as to why they're so certain it's meant to be Clara. Pretty picture, but as a portrait, I would have asked for my money back.

There are some very nice items in the auction, as might be expected, but the general rule for a collector is the higher profile the auction, the higher the prices. I didn't come near winning anything in the Debbie Reynolds auctions, but items in lower profile celebrity auctions (for example, the Douglas Fairbanks Jr one a while back) can sometimes go for a song. It is arranged thematically rather than chronologically, so various silent-era items are scattered throughout.

[Jeff Crouse]

Very interesting indeed!

[Mitch Farish]

The reason I doubt the whole Lugosi/Bow affair is the timing. She did not meet Lugosi in '29 but in the summer of '28. Lugosi married in the fall of '29 and his wife divorced him after three days, saying that he and Bow were still going at it. That's a whole year that this affair was kept secret. What are the odds of that ever happening in Hollywood? It didn't happen, folks; although it probably satisfied Lugosi's vanity to make people believe it did happen, hence the "portrait."

[JFK]

Lot 138W
A Geza Kende portrait of Clara Bow owned by Bela Lugosi
Sold for US$ 30,000 inc. premium

The iconic lead statuette of the Maltese Falcon from the 1941 film of the same name
PLEASE NOTE: no online bidding for this Lot.
Sold for US$ 4,085,000 inc. premium

William Conrad- Wikipedia excerpt
In 1961 Conrad moved to the production segment of the film business, producing and directing for Warner Bros. film studio. His most notable film was Brainstorm (1965), a latter-day film noir that has come to be regarded as "a minor masterpiece of the 1960s" and "the final, essential entry in that long line of films noirs that begins at the end of the Second World War." Conrad was the executive producer of Countdown (1968), a science-fiction thriller starring James Caan and Robert Duvall that was the major studio feature début of director Robert Altman.
Conrad received one of the two original lead-metal falcon statues used in the classic The Maltese Falcon film (1941), as a token of appreciation from Jack Warner, the head of Warner Bros. The falcon sat on a bookshelf in Conrad's house from the 1960s. Standing 11.5 in. (29.2 cm) high and weighing 45 lbs. (20.4 kg), the figurine had been slashed during the making of the film by Sydney Greenstreet's character Kasper Gutman, leaving deep cuts in its bronze patina. After Conrad's death the statue was consigned by his widow Tippy Conrad to Christie's, which estimated it would bring $30,000 to $50,000 at auction. In December 1994, Christie's sold the falcon for $398,500. In 1996, the purchaser, Ronald Winston of Harry Winston, Inc., resold the prop to an unknown European collector "at an enormous profit" — for as much as $1 million.

[Frederica]

Selling prices for items sold yesterday at the TCM Bonhams auction are here:
http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21427/#" target="_blank" target="_blank#MR0_page=1&MR0_length=90&MR0_category=results&MR0_currency=USD&m0=0

A quick and dirty shows the biggest sellers were the Maltese Falcon ($4.05 mil...damn, just squeaked by my bid), the 1940 Buick Phaeton from Casablanca ($461K), the Givenchy hat worn by Audrey Hepburn in Funny Face ($87.5K), and a Nautilus Divers Helmet from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ($81,250K). Sharper eyes than mine may catch higher prices.