Christie’s fetched $426.6 million ($506.5 million with fees) in its two-part sale in New York on Thursday (May 11), a decent result “considering the world we find ourselves in,” in as Chairman of the 20th and 21st Century Departments Alex Rotter put it after the sale. “We felt we were going into a situation that could be difficult,” he said, referring to an economic picture clouded by lingering concerns of a possible recession and banking crisis, and interest rates significantly higher. higher than at the last major US auction. season in November. Rotter added, “the art market needed a boost.”
And indeed, the auction house has received a significant boost from a set of significant collections that have been consigned for the spring sales run that kicked off on Thursday. The evening began with a dedicated auction of 16 works that belonged to the late president of Condé Nast SI Newhouse. Each lot sold, bringing in $150.5 million ($177.7 million with fees). The group was led by a small, intense self-portrait by Francis Bacon from 1969, which sparked a contest between Christie’s specialists who pitched phone deals that pushed it past its high estimate of $28 million. The online collector with Olivier Camu, vice-president of the auction house for impressionist and modern art, won with a winning bid of $29.7 million ($34.6 million with fees) .
Francis Bacon, self-portrait1969 Christie’s Images Ltd
Other top lots from the Newhouse sale included a vivid 1937 Picasso portrait by photographer Lee Miller, which slashed its low estimate of $20 million to $21 million ($24.5 million with fees), and a modestly sized but dynamic painting by Willem de Kooning, Orestes (1947). The De Kooning was expected to bring in at least $25 million, which he did, hammering in $26.5 million (with fees, the price came in at $30.8 million).
The opening lot of the sale, a typically supernatural wall relief from Lee Bontecou, the singular American sculptor who died last November, came close to breaking her auction record of $9.1 million. The spirited bidding sent the untitled work of Steel, Wire and Textile (made in 1959-60) past its high estimate of $5 million, eventually hammering in $7.2 million (8, $6 million with fees).
Lee Bontecou, Untitled1959-60 Christie’s Images Ltd
A suite of three large canvases by Jasper Johns fares less well, each hammering away for less than its low estimate. Even so, there was no risk of a serious flop because every lot in the Newhouse Collection sale was guaranteed.
Things got more interesting at the evening sale of 56 lots of 20th century art which immediately followed, during which two works were withdrawn and ten lots went unsold, with a rate of sale by 81%. Just over half of the lots (28 out of 54) were backed by guarantees.
Henry Rousseau, Flamingos1910 Christie’s Images Ltd
The star lot of this sale – and of the whole evening – was a large stylized tropical landscape by Henri Rousseau, Flamingos (1910), which Christie’s is expected to sell for $20-30 million.
Like many of the evening’s rematch lots, it enjoyed strong bidder turnout in the crowded Rockefeller Center auction room, with multiple specialists and a young man on the phone sitting in the fourth row “holding up the entire room. spellbound,” according to auctioneer Jussi. Pylkkänen said so. In the end, an online telephone bidder with Conor Jordan, Vice President of Impressionist and Modern Art, recorded the winning bid of $37.5 million ($43.5 million with fees). This result was more than 10 times the previous auction record for a Rousseau, set in 1998. (Shortly after losing the painting, the underbidder headed out with mega-dealer Larry Gagosian, who was sitting nearby.)
The other two auction records broken on Thursday evening came at more modest prices. The little luminous canvas The fountains (1926) by transcendental painter Agnes Pelton – whose traveling retrospective was presented at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2020 – exceeded its high estimate of $2.5 million to hammer in $2.8 million ($3.4 million with costs), more than 13 times its previous auction record. And a luminous ceramic sculpture by Ken Price, Mr. Green (1961), more than doubled its high estimate to sell for the hammer price of $440,000, or $554,400 including fees, ahead of its previous record of $509,000.
Agnes Pelton, The fountains1926 Christie’s Images Ltd
The Price sculpture was part of a suite of nine proposed works that had belonged to the late Chicago collectors Alan and Dorothy Press. These works collectively grossed $37.2 million ($44.4 million with fees), despite one of the band’s major works, Philip Guston’s dark and late canvas. Pull (1979) – falling short of its low estimate of $6 million and ending up unsold. Another Guston from the Press collection, Chair (1976), sold below its low estimate ($12 million) for a hammer price of $8 million ($9.6 million including fees) to a young woman sitting at the back of the auction room. Apparently a big fan of post-war figurative painters (or bidding on behalf of one), she later seized upon Alex Katz’s large and warm portrait of his wife, red band (1978), with an offer equal to his low estimate, $2 million ($2.4 million with fees).
While the Presses collection produced mixed results, a group of seven works by David Hockney, Georgia O’Keeffe and Edward Hopper from the collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen generated the evening’s most sustained fervor. . The seven works hammered prices higher than their high estimates thanks to competition from customers in the room and on the telephone lines. The two most expensive of Allen’s three Hockney landscape paintings were purchased by the same bidding client through senior specialist Cristian Albu, for $16.5 million and $12.4 million (with fees, $19.3 million and $14.6 million, respectively).
The best of the evening, Georgia O’Keeffe, Black Iris VI (1936), sold for $18 million ($21.1 million with fees) Christie’s Images Ltd
The seven works from Allen’s estate fetched a total of $75 million ($88.8 with fees), pushing his collection total to take another decimal place. last November’s $1.6 billion tallyat $1.7 billion.
“People want history with their paintings,” Rotter said after Thursday’s sales, pointing to the marketing power of bringing individual and couple collections to market. “We are the house of collections.”
Rival auction house Sotheby’s will attempt to claim that title on May 16 with its standalone auction of works from the late Warner Bros Records executive’s collection. Mo Ostin. Sotheby’s expects the 15 lots from the evening sale to fetch up to $120 million. Christie’s, for its part, will sell 214 works from the collection of the late Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston trustee Gerald Fineberg on two sales on May 17 and 18 that the auction house says could fetch as much as $270 million.
Christie’s, Phillips and Sotheby’s believe their New York spring sales could pay off over $2.2 billiondespite the current economic headwinds.
