Lichtenstein, “Sleeping Girl,” 1964, sold at Sotheby’s tonight for $44.88 million, an auction record for the artist
As I had predicted (at the end of this post), the balance of power between the Big Two auction houses shifted at the contemporary sales this week (compared with last week’s Impressionist/modern sales). It was all a matter of who had the best consignments.
Sotheby’s, which triumphed in its “Scream”-headlined sale last Wednesday, tonight phoned in a humdrum contemporary sale, compared with Christie’s Rothko-ignited fireworks of the night before. It looked like Sotheby’s auctioneer, Tobias Meyer, at first tried to adopt Christopher Burge‘s dynamic, brisk style, which had worked so well for the Christie’s auctioneer. But you can only do so much when the bidding is grudging.
You know that it’s a humdrum sale when the runaway works are two seven-figure Calders—a standing mobile with a hammer price of $2.5 million (compared to a high presale estimate of only $700,000) and a hanging mobile knocked down at $5.2 million (high presale estimate: $3.5 million). These were far outstripped by Christie’s $16.5-million ($18.56-million with buyer’s premium) standing mobile of the night before, which broke the auction record for a Calder. That record had already been recalibrated earlier in the same Christie’s sale by a $10.39-million hanging mobile.
Eleven of the 57 lots offered tonight at Sotheby’s failed to find buyers, resulting in a hammer total that, at $235.01 million, was near the low end of the $215.6-303.9 million presale estimate. The total with premium was $266.59 million, compared with Christie’s $388.49 million, which was a record for any contemporary art auction. Sotheby’s sale was 80.7% sold by lot, 90.3% by dollar.
Still, two $44.88-million (with premium) works—a Bacon and a Lichtenstein (above)—are nothing to sneeze at. The latter, which set an auction record for the artist, lacked the cartoon bubble-text of the last two record holders. Still, gentlemen do prefer Roy’s blondes. “She is beautiful,” was how Meyer introduced her to the crowd.
Auction records were also set for Twombly (a 1970 blackboard, selling for $17.44 million, with premium) and four less frequently auctioned artists: Glenn Ligon, Isa Genzken, Ai Wei Wei, Mark Bradford.
The sale’s second-highest price was $37.04 million (with premium) for a 1963 “Double Elvis [Ferus Type]” by Warhol. But Andy‘s “Campbell Soup” (a box of powdered mix, not a can) was left on the shelf (unsold) and his “Ten-Foot Flowers,” 1967-68, barely bloomed, apparently attracting just one $9.5-million bid (which got it). This was likely to have been the prearranged “irrevocable bid” from a third party that was announced in the catalogue entry for that lot.
A 1992 Richter, whose $15-million hammer price ($16.88 million with premium) easily outstripped its high estimate of $10 million, still fell short of another colorful abstraction (from 1993) by the artist that set an auction record for the artist at $21.81 million when it sold at Christie’s last night.
I was glad to see Joan Mitchell, one of only three artists left stranded last night at Christie’s, fetch a $2.99-million price for her “Le Temps des Lilas,” 1966, one of her two works offered at Sotheby’s (the other of which, dauntingly monumental, failed to sell).
The takeaway from this spring’s auction season is that prices are generally solid, with spectacular sums now available, once again, for superlative works. Notwithstanding the plight of the 99%, the super-rich seem to be overcoming their recession-driven reticence about lavishing exorbitant resources on highly coveted acquisitions.
It’s not so much, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it,” as, “If you’ve got it, you may as well enjoy the best things in life” (which sometimes, like it or not, cost big bucks).