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01764

Not for (Their) Profit

If you found yourself in auction withdrawal following a crowded week that saw the big three houses pull in three-quarters of a billion dollars at their contemporary evening sales, Saturday night you were in luck. White Columns, the nonprofit gallery, hosted its annual fundraiser, an emerging art auction that, despite the fact that it was held in their tiny space below West 14th Street, closely resembled the bigger ones. Read More

Auctions

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Basquiat-11

Phillips Nets $86.9 M. at Contemporary Art Sale, Buoyed by Record $16.3 M. Basquiat

A work on wood by Jean-Michel Basquiat set a new record for the artist at auction, selling for $16.3 million with premium at an otherwise by-the-numbers sale on Thursday evening at Phillips de Pury & Company, where auctioneer Simon de Pury hammered down a total of $75.9 million ($86.9 with premium), squeaking by at exactly the low estimate on a sale that was estimated to go as high as $110.7 million. Read More

Auctions

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Roy Lichtenstein, Sleeping Girl, 1964

Lichtenstein and Bacon Lead $266 M. Sale of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s

An iconic painting by Roy Lictenstein set a new worldwide auction record for the artist at Sotheby’s early this evening, creating one of the few dramatic moments in what was, at times, a humdrum sale. The Lichtenstein, Sleeping Girl (1964), which sold for $44.9 million, tied for the auction’s top spot with a Francis Bacon painting of the artist’s lover George Dyer from 1976, created shortly before Dyer killed himself. Read More

Auctions

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Mark Rothko, Orange, Red, Yellow, 1961

Christie’s Nets $388.5 M. in Highest Contemporary Art Auction Ever, Led by Record $87 M. Rothko

Tonight auctioneer Christopher Burge hammered down an impressive $388.5 million total with premium during Christie’s post-war and contemporary auction, his last sale at the rostrum. It was the highest sum ever recorded for a contemporary art auction, and easily surpassed the sale’s $330 million high estimate.

The packed room was lively and saw a frenzy of bids for the key lots, led by a Mark Rothko work, Orange, Red, Yellow, from 1961 that hammered at $77.5 million ($86.9 million with the buyer’s premium), a new world record for any contemporary work sold at auction, and a new record for the artist. Artist records were shattered throughout the evening with a total of 11 new artist highs by the end of the 59-lot sale. Read More

Auctions

8850-Munch-The-Scream-e1336013995741

Sotheby’s Hauls in $330.6 M. as Munch ‘Scream’ Soars

Drizzle and union protesters couldn’t dampen the spirits at Sotheby’s historic Impressionist and modern auction this evening, where auctioneer Tobias Meyer brought in an impressive sum of $330.6 million with buyer’s premium. The amount marked the house’s second-highest total ever, which was bolstered by the sale of the last Edvard Munch Scream not in a museum to a telephone bidder for $119.9 million.

Of the 76 lots on offer, 15 went unsold, a solid sell-through rate of 80 percent by lot. Forty-seven of the lots sold within or over their pre-sale estimates, and the Munch marked the only artist record set. That $330.6 million sum was on the high end of the sale’s $246.3-$323.4 million estimate. The Munch represented about a third of that total. Read More

Auctions

Edvard Munch's "The Scream," 1895. (Courtesy Sotheby's)

Munch ‘Scream’ Sells for Record $119.9 M. at Sotheby’s

Tonight at Sotheby’s, about an hour into the house’s enormous Impressionist and modern evening sale, a tuxedo-clad Tobias Meyer brought his hammer down on Edvard Munch’s The Scream (1895), selling it for $119.9 million with buyer’s premium to a telephone bidder. That makes it the most expensive work ever sold at auction, a fact that Mr. Meyer announced to an applauding crowd. Read More