Christie’s Paris Contemporary Art Evening Sale totaled 13.9 million euros ($15 million) including fees on Wednesday, led by works by Pierre Soulages, Jean Dubuffet and Joan Mitchell.
The house called the auction a “white glove sale” as 100% of the 26 lots on offer were sold. However, two lots, including a monochrome work by Yves Klein and The justiciary by Martial Raysse were withdrawn before the sale. This put the sell rate at 93% when accounting for withdrawals.
The hammer total was 11 million euros ($12 million), in pre-sale estimates of 8.2 million euros ($8.8 million) to 12 million euros ($13 million ). Pre-sale estimates before withdrawals were €9.5–14 million ($10–15 million). Wednesday’s sales total was down from that of the June 2022 Contemporary Art Evening Sale, which reached 16.9 million euros ($18 million).
The highlight of the evening was Soulages’ work on canvas from 1990 Painting 130 x 290 cm, November 21, 1990, which sold for €1.8 million ($1.9 million). This was followed by Dubuffet’s work on paper The internal life of the mineral, which sold for €1.4 million ($1.5 million), beating the upper end of the pre-sale expectation at €650,000 ($701,004). Both were fresh at auction. Also note Mitchell’s work on canvas Untitled (circa 1955), which fetched nearly 1.2 million euros ($1.3 million), more than seven times the price reached in November 2009 when the work went up for sale at a sale Christie’s in New York and sold for 169,000 euros ($236,462). (Sales prices include buyer’s premium unless otherwise stated.)
Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985), The internal life of the mineral1959-1960 © Christie’s Images Limited 2023.
The sale also set two artist records. The painting of Josef Sima royal blue day (1968) sold €806,400 ($869,677), more than double the high-end presale expectation, and Fabienne Verdier’s 2006 diptych Asceticism sold for €403,200 ($434,838), just over double the high estimate.
Meanwhile, rival Sotheby’s fetched a combined total of 16.5 million euros ($17.7 million) at its nightly contemporary art sales in Paris on June 3, which was in line with expectations. The event was a combination of the Contemporary Art sale, which raised 13.8 million euros ($14.8 million) after hammering for 11 million euros ($12 million) and the sale of paintings post-war and African and Oceanic art from the collection of Michel Lequesne, a one-time sale to one owner that totaled 2.7 million euros ($2.9 million) after hammering for 2 million euros ($2.2 million).
Among the best lots in the Sotheby’s sale were a work by Yves Klein fetched €2.6m ($2.8m), an abstract work by Zao Wou-Ki (€1.6m/$1.7m) and a work by Soulages (€1m/$1.1m). million). It also set a record for Swiss artist Gérard Schneider for the sale of his work Opus 21Bwhich came out for €342,900 ($369,731) after a reportedly prolonged bidding war.
Josef Šíma (1891-1971), royal blue day1968 © Christie’s Images Limited 2023.
Hopes for the Parisian market have been high, especially after Brexit and the inaugural edition of Paris+ by Art Basel last year. Auction houses are also bolstering their calendar of 20th and 21st century art sales in the French capital. In addition to the regular Spring and Autumn Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Christie’s has added a Modern Art Evening Sale each of the Spring and Autumn seasons and sales of the day for each category of contemporary and modern art.
Christie’s Paris aims to host specialist auctions and highlights sales of sole proprietor collections, which account for more than half of the house’s business in the city, according to a Christie’s spokesperson. Notable sales over the past 12 months include Avant-Garde(s) including Thinking Italian, in October, which totaled 66.7 million euros ($72 million), setting a record for Parisian sales in this category, and an auction series of designer Hubert de Givenchy’s private collection in June, which achieved a combined total of $119.7 million.
Sotheby’s, for its part, should announce at least one new Parisian sale in the near future.
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