For anxious market watchers after Wednesday night disappointing evening auctions at Christie’s and Phillips, Thursday evening auctions at Sotheby’s brought modest relief, at best.
A slew of withdrawals and a handful of past lots were met with a glut of professional sales – and, at times, genuinely vigorous bidding – at key points in the night’s festivities on York Avenue. Overall, the results support the notion of an art market in transition, or even in correction.
The most disturbing surprise of the evening came early. In Sotheby’s first of two consecutive sales, The Now auction was effectively hampered mid-sale by the withdrawal of its cover lot, Yoshitomo Nara’s foggy dayswhich was expected to sell for between $12 and $18 million.
The removal of the board prompted a series of audible gasps from those present, capping a tough run that saw two of the previous three lots bought.
Another lot, an untitled painting by Wade Guyton with a low expectation of $1.2 million, was pulled later in the auction. Together, the pair carried a pre-sale estimate of $13.2 million, nearly a third of Sotheby’s low estimate for the entire auction.
Four lots were also purchased, the most expensive being a monumental painting by Laura Owens estimated to sell for at least $1.5 million; instead, it rose to $1.4 million.
This left the hammer total for The Now at $30.1 million, well below its pre-sale total of $42.4 million, and the total of $37.2 million, including the bounty, still nearly $5.2 million south of that number. (Presale estimates exclude buyer’s premium.)
Sotheby’s fared better in the contemporary portion of the evening’s auctions, thanks in large part to strong (or nearly strong) performances from all five lots carrying estimates of at least $10 million. The quintet hammered in for a total of $96 million, barely below their low estimate of $98 million. (After fees, the five works earned $106.4 million.)
Top seller was Louise Bourgeois’ first massive cast Spider, which hammered its low estimate of $30 million (about $32.8 million with fees) after about 90 seconds into the auction. This arguably made Sotheby’s sculpture lighting in its galleries more dramatic than the competition in the saleroom. The winner was an online telephone bidder with Sotheby’s Executive Vice President and President of Americas Lisa Dennison.
Installation view of Louise Bourgeois Spider (1996) at Sotheby’s. Photo by Eileen Kinsella
The second most valuable work of the evening was that of Jean Michel-Basquiat It is time, a rare ovoid canvas imitating a vinyl record and paying homage to the great jazz Charlie Parker. Carrying an unpublished presale estimate in the region of $30 million, the job hammered in for $25.5 million ($28.6 million including premium), just a handful of offers above its opening price of $23 million.
In total, the Contemporary Evening sale generated a hammer total of $145.8 million, about $9.1 million below its presale low estimate of $154.9 million. (Including fees, cumulative sales were $167.5 million.) Five lots were pulled before the block could be mounted, all of which were expected to sell for at least $1 million. The remaining 28 lots have all found buyers.
“The selectivity of the market stood out,” David Galperin, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of contemporary art, said after the sale. “Where there were great works at the right price, there was incredible depth [of bidding].”
Sotheby’s The Now and Contemporary evening sales marked the latest offerings in a hectic spring auction cycle in New York. But unlike some recent auction seasons, there are no simple conclusions to draw from the past two weeks.
At best, the signals are mixed. But even though the long-awaited correction in the art market is in fact taking hold, some experts believe that the sales results rather indicate a back to reality than the impending gloom.
“Given the headwinds, I think the house has done a commendable job of matching interest levels with reserves and making the difficult decision to withdraw lots that were unlikely to get offers,” he said. said artistic adviser Benjamin Godsill. “Now that we are out of the free money era, I think more conservative estimates should (and will be) on the agenda in the future.”
Indeed, the sometimes spirited bidding and uneven results had a silver lining: “It was real tonight,” Galperin said.
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