Christie’s, the recent market leader in major contemporary art sales, has less to crow about this week: Its uneven sale last night (during which I was on flights back home from Hawaii) made Sotheby’s contemporary sale tonight look good. (For my report on Christie’s erratic “Artist’s Muse” sale Monday, headlined by the immodest Modigliani, go here.)
As you’ll learn in my Twitter recap and analysis, below, Sotheby’s sale, as compared to its counterpart at Christie’s, had a lower total for fewer works, under the steady hand of auctioneer Oliver Barker. But with presale estimates and reserves that were realistic rather than aspirational, the results were solid instead of erratic.
Here are Sotheby’s two stars, as I saw them during the auction house’s preview exhibition:
Photo by Lee Rosenbaum
And here’s my Twitter report: