Jean-Jacques Sempé: From Mao to Mozart Poster

Cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé (1932-2022) was completely at home in the world of music. His movie poster for the French-language version of From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1979) expresses the joys and challenges of music making in the monumental shadow of Mao. An example came up for auction yesterday at Eldred's in Hanover, Massachusetts. Spoiler alert: It did not find a capitalist buyer.

Jean-Jacques Sempé
Eldred's, July 21, 2023, accessed July 20, 2023

https://www.eldreds.com/auction-lot/movie-poster-by-new-yorker-cartoonist-jean-jacque_C6A4F8FBD8

There was no activity on July 9, twelve days prior to the sale.

There were still no bids on July 20, fifteen hours before the sale.

Ultimately, there was no sale:

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Mao by Miguel Covarrubias

Miguel Covarrubias's Portrait of Mao Tse-Tung is expected to sell for about $300,000 in Hong Kong on April 2, about twice what the oil painting fetched in 2006 in Singapore. No doubt the art collectors in Hong Kong living under authoritarian Chinese Communist rule will bid aggressively on this piece, eager to express their gratitude to Mao for their current inability to vote or to have a direct say in their future. Or perhaps they can simply appreciate Mr. Covarrubias's iconic image of Mao for the fine portrait it is, making a clear distinction between the artwork and its subject's awful political legacy.

Miguel Covarrubias, Portrait of Mao Tse-Tung

http://www.sothebys.com/en/catalogues/ecatalogue.html/2012/sea-modern-ctmp-paintings-hk0383#/r=/en/ecat.fhtml.HK0383.html+r.m=/en/ecat.lot.HK0383.html/340/

Added April 2, 2012

Miguel Covarrubias, Portrait of Mao Tse-Tung, 2006 sale

http://www.artvalue.com/auctionresult.aspx?PK_Resultat=1933557

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