Fright Night: Warhol’s “Self Portrait,” 1986, the top lot at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s turned in a solid performance at tonight’s contemporary auction (which I watched from home, via live feed), with only three of the 53 works failing to find buyers. Bidders on the much touted red Rothko (displayed directly behind auctioneer Tobias Meyer during the entire course of the sale) were apparently unruffled by the legal kerfuffle that had erupted over it a couple of days earlier. At a hammer price of $28 million, the painting outstripped its presale estimate of $18 million to $25 million. But its final price, $31.44 million (including the buyer’s premium), was a far cry from the record-setting $72.84-million Rockefeller Rothko, auctioned at Sotheby’s three years ago, when the market was booming.
In a sale where bidders often dragged their feet before coming up with the next increment, the most riveting buyers’ battle was over the penultimate lot—the third Basquiat offered from the artist’s estate. “Stardust,” a jazz-themed 1983 portrait of a saxophonist, inspired a duet between determined players whose extended riff was finally drummed to a close at $6.4 million ($7.25 million with premium), straying far from the $1.8 million to $2.5 million presale estimate.
Top honors of the night did NOT go to the Rothko, as the auctioneers had anticipated, but to an eerie, violet-colored Andy Warhol self-portrait, 1986, knocked down at $29 million ($32.56 million with buyer’s premium), trouncing its presale estimate of $10 million to $15 million. The seller was reportedly fashion designer Tom Ford.
The sale total with buyer’s premium was $189.97 million. Hammer total: $166.32 million, exceeding the presale estimate of $113.85 million to $161.75 million. The auction was a very robust 94.3% sold by lot, 97.6% sold by value.
Taken together, the Christie’s and Sotheby’s contemporary evening sales were indicative of a recovering market for works prudently priced. And estimate-defying prices were achieved tonight for several artists: Richard Tuttle ($1.76 million, an auction record for his work), Ellsworth Kelly ($4 million, an auction record for his sculpture), Maurizio Cattelan ($6.92 million, an auction record for his work).
The complete list of results is here.