CultureGrrl

Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentary

Rumbler Bumble: Christie’s $15.5-Million Léger “Sells” (but doesn’t)

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In one of the biggest auction gaffes I’ve ever seen, Andreas Rumbler, who last night conducted Christie’s modestly successful Impressionist/Modern sale (enlivened by the record-breaking price for its stellar Manet), astonishingly declared that the second-highest estimated work, Léger‘s “Construction Workers with Tree” had sold when it hadn’t—an error that was perpetuated in the live online feed for the sale that I was following from home, which listed as “passed” three works that failed to sell, but not the Manet.

It wasn’t until I read the live tweets emerging from the post-sale press conference that I learned the truth: The Léger had been bought in. Failing to disclose that high-ticket failure during the sale runs contrary to professional practice and potentially affects bidder confidence (or lack thereof) on subsequent lots.

Connor Jordan, Christie's TK, at press preview with Leger, "Construction Workers with Tree," 1949-50 Photo by Lee Rosenbaum
Conor Jordan, Christie’s deputy chairman, at press preview with Léger, “Construction Workers with Tree,” 1949-50
(Presale estimate: $16-22 million)
Photo by Lee Rosenbaum

It seemed to me that something was off-kilter when I viewed the sale’s live feed on Christie’s website. Here’s what I had live-tweeted about the Léger:

A lot more air might have “gone out of the room” if the attendees had known what actually had happened. I had taken “selling to the book” to mean that the auctioneer had executed an order bid for the Léger that was recorded in his book at the podium. When I learned the truth, I tweeted this:

When I inquired last night about this mix-up, a Christie’s spokesperson told me this:

The auctioneer declared in error that the work had been sold in the book. The Léger [Lot 28] is not included in the reported results of the sale [my link, not hers].

The spokesperson also told me that the sale’s reported 87% sell-rate by value did properly count the the Léger’s $15.5 million as part of the 13% that was unsold by value.

The Léger was offered subject to a guarantee from the auction house, which means that Christie’s had either promised an undisclosed minimum price to the consignor (regardless of whether the bidding actually reached that level), or had made an advance to the consignor secured solely by the consigned property. In other words, depending on the undisclosed level of the guarantee and on how much a potential buyer may have been willing to pay for the work after the auction, Christie’s could have lost money on this high-profile consignment.

The previous night, there was another Impressionist/Modern gaffe: Sotheby’s auctioneer Henry Wyndham, who frequently kept his head buried in his book, rather than scanning the audience, had to reopen the competition for Monet‘s “Garden at Vétheuil” after the hammer, because he had failed to notice someone who was still trying to participate. (I’ve seen this happen before.) This most likely incensed whoever had good reason to believe he had just won that prize at an attractive price. It was ultimately knocked down at $6.6 million ($7.56 million with buyers premium), against a $4-5 million presale estimate of the hammer price.

I think we may need a school for auctioneers. The best I’ve ever seen were the deft Christopher Burge at Christie’s and (for those with long memories) the brisk John Marion at Sotheby’s, both of whom were charismatic performers who knew how to get the crowd on their side, build momentum and coax bidders to go beyond their limits. These days, excitement and spontaneity have (for the most part) left the salesroom.

an ArtsJournal blog