I’ve asked Sotheby’s to explain a puzzling assertion that its spokesperson made to me and also to the NY Times‘ Robin Pogrebin at the end of tonight’s sale of the late A. Alfred Taubman‘s old masters: “The success of tonight’s sale,” according to a Sotheby’s email, “reduces our estimated auction guarantee shortfall by half, to approximately $3 million [from $6 million].” In addition to that shortfall from the $515 million guaranteed by Sotheby’s to the Taubman estate, the auction house is out the $6 million in expenses attributable to the Taubman sales.
This was, by far, the strongest performer last night, trouncing the previous auction record for the artist—a work that had been on loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts from 1996-2002, and again from 2005-2015 (which may have helped boost its price):
Sold for $5.18 million (presale estimate: $1.5-2 million)
But the overall “success” of the sale (as described in the email from the auction house’s spokesperson) is debatable: Its hammer total of $20 million failed to reach the $21-million low estimate of hammer total. 17 of the 67 lots failed to find buyers. I have asked the Sotheby’s spokesperson to explain how a sale that fell below expectations could have had such a positive effect in reducing anticipated losses from the $515-million guarantee for the Taubman Collection. It doesn’t seem to compute.
I’ll update if and when I get a response. In the meantime, here’s my Twitter recap and analysis of the latest episode in Tales from Taubman: