New York’s spring auction season kicked off tonight with a double-header at Christie’s, beginning with a 16-piece installment from the late media mogul SI Newhouse’s collection, followed by the corresponding 20th Century evening sale, which spanned 56 lots.

The auctions brought in $178 million and $328.8 million, respectively (with fees considered; unless otherwise noted, final prices include buyer’s premium, but not estimates). The $506.57 million total marked a healthy if measured start to the auction season amid economic uncertainty. The Newhouse sale was a white glove as expected, while the 20th Century sale had an 80% sell-through, with two pieces withdrawn and seven lots abandoned.

In an economic environment of mixed messages – as inflation appears to be easing, meaning the Federal Reserve may end interest rate hikes, investors remain buffeted by bank failures and geopolitical uncertainty – all eyes were on the auction in the first major test of the season. Among those in the room to read the economic tea leaves were David Benrimon, Larry Gagosian, Jeffrey Deitch, David Mugrabi, Joe Nahmad and Dominique Levy.

Newhouse’s lots have garnered some of the highest expectations, despite being the third installment since the late publishing mogul’s death in 2017 to hit the secondary market.

But the spring auctions had somewhat subdued expectations overall. By comparison, last fall combined pre-sale estimates reached $2.1 billion to $2.9 billion, largely due to the many successful offers from the collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. . The possible count swollen over $3 billion. This month, total estimates are $1.3 billion to $1.9 billion.

By hitting the middle of the overall estimate, the outcome of the Newhouse sale should quell any immediate panic the art market has caused. The auction saw $178 million in art trade on less than two dozen lots.

But, overall, while the records were indeed breaking records, the number of lots that were exceeded and those that were below their low estimates were starting to raise eyebrows in the room. Even the hottest lots offered at most a mannered volley between two or three games.

The evening began with the Newhouse sale. “We saw 16 works over 100 years, so we all got to see the world through his eyes,” said Max Carter, Christie’s vice president for 20th and 21st century art, who embarked on the fray for several clients.

Four lots were backed by third-party guarantors. This included photographer Lee Miller’s 1937 portrait of Pablo Picasso, titled L’Arlesienne (Lee Miller). This was the first time the coin hit the auction block. Newhouse bought it directly from PaceWildenstein in 1999 and has stuck with it ever since. The piece surpassed its low estimate of $20 million and sold for $25.6 million.

Pablo Picasso, L’Arlesienne (Lee Miller) (1937). Estimated between 20 and 30 million dollars, it sold for 24.6 million dollars. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023.

Several other pieces crossed into eight-figure territory, including the small but mighty 1969 Newhouse Self-Portrait by Francis Bacon, which sold for $34.62 million (est. $22 million to $28 million ); by Ed Ruscha Burning gas station (1966–9; est. $20–30 million), which grossed $22.3 million; and Picasso Still life at the window (1932; est. nearly $40 million), for $41.8 million.

The most impressive lot of the sale was that of Willem de Kooning bold and dramatic abstraction Orestes (1947), which Newhouse acquired in 2002 from Sotheby’s. He bought the piece when Tobias Meyer, who would later become his adviser, was Sotheby’s chief auctioneer and global head of contemporary art. Tonight, the piece sold for nearly $31 million, eclipsing its estimate of over $25 million. It is the sixth highest price obtained by de Kooning at auction, with the high point of his work at $68.94 million, paid at Christie’s in 2018 for The woman as landscape (circa 1954–55).

Christie’s continued to push sole proprietor provenances during the second leg of the evening, with seven more works from Paul Allen’s notoriously lucrative collection hitting the block, accounting for $88.9 million in sales and carrying the profit net from the Microsoft co-founder’s collection at $1.7. billion, which is—the biggest sale in the history of the art market so much bigger.

The first was Felled trees by David Hockney, one of three pieces by the artist in the Allen collection offered for sale that evening, prompting auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen to fondly recall the original Allen sale as “a point culmination of all our careers at Christie’s”. This relatively new Hockney, painted in 2008, fetched $10.8m, more than double its low estimate of $4m. The two others-the two landscapes—sold to telephone bidders for $19.4 million and $14.7 million.

Bidding records were set for two artists at the sale. The previous record for a Ken Price was broken for carving Mr. Green (1961), which grossed $554,000 out of an estimate of $150,000–200,000. Even more shockingly, Agnes Pelton’s record has been broken 13 times, with the chart ethereal The fountains (1926) raking in $3.4 million on his estimate of $1.5–2.5 million, selling to a customer on the phone with Marc Porter, president of Christie’s Americas.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Trinity Square (1878-9). Estimated between 4 and 6 million dollars, he made 11.9 million dollars. © Christie’s.

Ironically, it was noted that Christie’s specialist Sarah El-Tamer wore a Roy Lichtenstein-inspired sweater that had the word “CRASH” in bright red letters as she communicated with bidders on the phone. Although a representative confirmed to the press that the outfit was not intended as a cryptic message, there was a good dose of irony that when she pulled a black shawl over the garment, a series of works began to arrive well above their estimates, including two Georgia O’Keeffe flower canvases from the Allen Collection, which sold for $21.1 million, respectively, out of an estimated $5-7 million (Black Iris VI) and $13.1 million out of an estimated $6-8 million (Calico White Pink). Shortly after, there was a long bidding war over the property of Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Trinity Square (1878-1879), which made $11.9 million from a high estimate of $6 million – a surprising performance for a work that does not date from the 20th century.

Georgia O’Keeffe, Black Iris VI (1936). Estimated between $5 and $7 million, it sold for $21.1 million. © Christie’s.

But the star lot of the evening was that of Henri Rousseau Flamingos (1910), one of the artist’s “jungle paintings”, which he produced in the last year of his life. The artwork more than doubled its low estimate of $20 million, fetching $43.54 million, the most expensive artwork sold of the entire evening. The sale shattered the artist’s existing record of $4.4 million, set thirty years ago, simply because another piece has not been auctioned since.

“Flamingos has been part of the legendary Whitney collection since 1949 and it could easily be another century before we see a work of this caliber hitting the market,” Vanessa Fusco, Co-Head of the 20th Century Evening Sale and Head of the Impressionist and Modern Art Department, said in a statement. “Tonight was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime moment and a career high.”

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