Edward Hopper Tops Sotheby’s $35 M. American Art Sale
This morning, Sotheby’s American Art sale brought in $34,787,625, with 88 percent sold by lot, the highest total for an auction of American Art at Sotheby’s since May 2008. Read More
Auctions
Mary Cassatt Leads $27 M. American Art Sale at Christie’s
Christie’s American paintings, drawings and sculpture sale last night brought in a total of $27,198,600, and was 85 percent sold by value and 77 percent sold by lot. Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
Here Are the Top Lots From Christie’s Spring Imp-Mod
Christie’s Impressionist-Modern Sale Nets a Safe $117 M.
Christie’s opened up the spring auction season earlier this evening with a sleepy Impressionist-Modern sale in which auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen hammered down a solid total of $102.7 million, a down-the-middle sum for the 31 lots, which carried a total estimate of $90.5 million to $130.2 million. Read More
