Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s Worldwide Head
of Contemporary Art, was very pleased with the sale total of
$128,104,500. Photo: Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- “We are very pleased with our sale total of $128,104,500,” said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s
Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art. “The results came within our
pre-sale estimate of $120.8/171.4 million, and we had a strong
sell-through rate of 84.5% by lot, with 58 lots offered and 47 lots
sold. These results follow the impressive total of $54.8 million
achieved last night for works from the Collection of Allan Stone,
bringing our overall two-day total to $182,910,000, securely within our
overall estimate of $153.6/218.2 million.”
“It was a good night for Andy Warhol,” [1] said Alex Rotter, Director of
Sotheby’s New York Contemporary Art department. “We sold six out of the
seven Warhol works on offer tonight, together bringing over $31
million. The sale was led by Sixteen Jackies, which sold for
$20,242,500. There was extremely competitive bidding for Shadow (Red),
which was vied for by four bidders and sold for $4.8 million, more than
five times the high estimate. We saw solid prices for Statue of Liberty –
$3,442,500 – and Round Jackie from the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans –
$3,722,500.”
Jeff Koons’ Pink Panther, one of the most important works by the
artist ever to have appeared at auction, sold for $16,882,500 [2]. The price
is many multiples of the $1.8 million the work fetched when it last
appeared at auction in 1999. The porcelain sculpture is the artist’s
proof from an edition of three, with the other examples in the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and a
prominent private American collection.
The sale saw a number of strong prices for art from the last 30
years, including Eroica I by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Painted in 1988 – the
final year of the artist’s life – the work sold for $5,906,500 (est.
$3.5/4.5 million). Shades by Mark Tansey, which depicts an allegory from
Plato’s Republic, fetched $3,442,500 (est. $3/4 million). Leading a
group of photographs in the sale was Rhein I, one of Andreas Gursky’s
most famous images, which sold for $2,098,500, comfortably in excess of
the high estimate (est. $1/1.5 million). Two sculptures by Anish Kapoor
were sought after tonight, with Turning the World Upside Down #4
fetching $2,434,500, in excess of the high estimate (est. $1.5/2
million), and Untitled from 2009, which also exceeded the high estimate
to sell for $962,500 (est. $550/750,000).
Leading the mid-20th century section was one of the largest and most
important works from Lucio Fontana’s iconic body of work ever to appear
at auction: Concetto Spaziale from 1965 sold for $6,242,500 (est. $6/8
million). David Smith’s Voltri-Bolton II, a steel sculpture from 1962
was purchased by the Colby College Museum of Art for $2,994,500, nearly
reaching the high estimate of $3 million. The work had been tucked away
in a private collection since 1979. In addition to Round Jackie, works
from the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans included three significant
paintings by Jean Dubuffet from 1945-54; they were led by the Portrait
de Édith Boissonnas that sold for $1,142,500, well over the high
estimate (est. $600/800,000).
Works by Alexander Calder were also in demand this evening: The
Tree, a large standing mobile exceeded the high estimate to sell
$3,386,500 (est. $2/3 million) while Constellation with Bottles from
1943 fetched $3,106,500 (est. $3/4 million).
* Pre-sale estimates do not include buyer’s premium
Reader Notes:
[1] Although I believe that Andy Warhol would be very pleased
with the renown and increased respect his work has achieved since his
passing, I also think that the high auction prices would have been a
double-edged sword and something of an irritant for him, as they would
be for any artist precluded from sharing directly in this future revenue
stream. Obviously, high auction sales enhance both reputation and
initial artwork selling prices, but human nature is human nature. That
being said, I think Warhol would have regarded it as an even better
night if he could have been there -- or anywhere -- in person. He died tragically and much too young.
[2] I reproduced the Jeff Koons' reference in mice-type
in order to simulate the size of his talent and achievement. Like the
New York Times' art critic Michael Kimmelman, among others, I believe
that Koons represents "one last, pathetic gasp of the sort of
self-promoting hype and
sensationalism that characterized the worst of the 1980s" and that
Koons's work is "artificial," "cheap" and "unabashedly cynical.". They
say that you shouldn't say anything if you can't say anything nice, but
Koons has always burned me up and consideration of his Pink Panther as
anything other than worthless junk annoys me.
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