Jeff Koons

Life and work

Jeff Koons was born in 1955 in York, Pennsylvania, and trained at the Maryland Institute College of Art before studying briefly at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He is an American sculptor and painter associated with the Neo Pop movement, known for taking everyday and commercial objects, balloon animals, vacuum cleaners, inflatable toys, basketballs and classical statuary, and remaking them at monumental scale or in polished, reflective materials. Since the early 1980s his practice has moved through a sequence of distinct series, from the vacuum cleaner assemblages of The New, through Equilibrium, Banality, Made in Heaven, Celebration, Easyfun, Popeye, Antiquity and Gazing Ball, each built around a recognisable set of motifs drawn from popular culture. Koons runs a large studio in New York that fabricates his work with industrial partners and skilled craft workshops, a method closer to a design house than a traditional artist's studio, and it is this combination of pop imagery, luxury materials and serial production that has made him one of the most discussed and most collected living artists.

Editions and unique works

The market for Koons separates sharply along one line, whether a piece is a unique large scale sculpture or an editioned multiple. The unique steel works in the Celebration series, oversized balloon animals in mirror polished stainless steel, are singular objects or exist in a handful of colour variants and have driven the artist's highest results. Alongside them Koons has produced editioned works in porcelain and painted stainless steel, made with the French manufacturer Bernardaud in Limoges and other publishers, in sizes closer to tabletop objects than to museum sculpture. These editions, including versions of Balloon Dog, Balloon Rabbit and the Puppy vase, are numbered and issued in runs of a few hundred to a few thousand per colourway rather than made as unique works, and it is this category, not the monumental steel pieces, that circulates most often at general auction and that LLB Auction has itself brought to sale.

What a specialist examines

On an editioned Koons piece a specialist checks the incised or printed signature, the edition number against the total run, and the publisher's stamp on the underside, most often Bernardaud's mark for the porcelain works. Condition matters more here than with painted works: chrome and glaze finishes show scuffing, chips and hairline cracks readily, and the original presentation box, once part of the object as sold, affects value when it survives intact. Provenance should trace back to the publisher or an authorised dealer, and any exhibition history should be checked against the shows listed under Career. For a unique sculpture, fabrication records, studio documentation and the body listed under Career become the reference points instead of an edition number.

Market position

Koons trades at auction across a wide range because the market treats unique sculpture and small editions so differently. At the smaller end of that range, editioned porcelain multiples have sold for figures such as 5,080 USD and 19,050 USD at Phillips in New York, and 5,632 GBP and 20,480 GBP at Bonhams in London, while a Puppy vase edition sold for 6,400 USD at Bonhams in Los Angeles. These are the kinds of works closest in scale and medium to what LLB Auction has itself sold. The unique large scale sculptures occupy a separate, far higher tier of the market and are not represented among the figures in this record.

Preparing a valuation request

A seller should have the original invoice or gallery receipt, any publisher paperwork issued with the edition, and clear photographs of the signature, the edition number and the underside or base of the piece. The original presentation box and any accompanying literature should be kept together with the work whenever possible. A condition report noting chips, scuffing or restoration is useful before consignment, along with the exhibition or publication history if the piece has one. Buyers and sellers should also confirm that a piece is an authorised edition from a named publisher rather than a later reproduction, since unauthorised copies of popular Koons subjects such as Balloon Dog are known to circulate outside his publishing relationships.