It was a story of two auctions at Sotheby’s New York on Monday night time (14 November), with a robust consequence for a single-owner sale of works from the gathering of the late Whitney Museum president David Solinger (1906-1996) adopted by a humdrum night sale of Fashionable artwork. The mixed whole introduced in a complete hammer sum of $336.3m ($391.2m with charges), although the 23-lot Solinger sale carried out much better towards expectations in contrast with the 44-lot Fashionable night public sale.
A connoisseur’s assortment
The Solinger assortment public sale was a sold-out, white glove affair, bringing in a hammer whole of $116.3m ($137.9m with charges), close to the higher finish of Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate vary of $86.7m-$118m (estimates don’t embody public sale home charges). Remarkably for a serious single-owner sale on this period, not one of the heaps within the Solinger trove had been backed by ensures or got here with irrevocable bids, a pointy distinction to current high-wattage auctions akin to these of the collections of Harry and Linda Macklowe that Sotheby’s carried out in November 2021 and final Might and the $1.6bn Paul Allen gross sales Christie’s held final week, by which each lot was assured and lots of held irrevocable bids.
“Maybe Sotheby’s felt that, with a view to be equal to what was happening at Christie’s with the Paul Allen assortment, they wanted to place their greatest foot ahead when it comes to presenting a collector who was comparable,” the New York-based adviser Beverly Schreiber Jacoby says. “Regardless that the greenback quantities is probably not the identical as with the Allen assortment, Solinger is a collector who was additionally a really dedicated and vital artwork world participant.”
Solinger’s involvement within the artwork world—because the president of the Whitney who was instrumental within the development of its former Marcel Breuer constructing on Madison Avenue, as a lawyer representing many well-known artists and as a educated painter—might have contributed to his assortment’s public sale efficiency. All however a handful of heaps noticed aggressive bidding, and almost half (11 of 23) bought for hammer costs above their excessive estimates.
The sale opened dynamically, with sculptures by Jean Arp and Alexander Calder and a portray by the Pittsburgh-born modernist William Baziotes all exceeding their estimates. The Calder specifically, Sixteen Black with a Loop, a traditional cellular from 1959 that hung over the saleroom, shortly surpassed its excessive estimate of $4m to promote for a hammer worth of $7.1m ($8.4m with charges). Like a number of of the night time’s prized heaps, it went to a collector in Asia.
Alberto Giacometti, Trois hommes qui marchent (grand plateau), 1952 Courtesy Sotheby’s
Alberto Giacometti’s handpainted bronze sculpture Trois hommes qui marchent (grand plateau) (1952) was among the many sale’s highest-priced works and finally marched proper previous its $20m excessive estimate. It will definitely hammered at $26m ($30.1m with charges), with a bidder in Sotheby’s York Avenue saleroom prevailing over three telephone bidders.
Two heaps later, the work with the Solinger sale’s highest estimate, Willem de Kooning’s good, intricate Collage (1950, est $18m-$25m), set off a bidding conflict amongst collectors on the telephones with 4 completely different specialists. In the long run, the consumer on the road with Sotheby’s senior vice chairman in New York Bame Fierro March landed the lot with a $29m bid ($33.6m with charges). That consequence set a brand new file for a De Kooning work on paper, although his work have fetched a lot increased sums at public sale (his Untitled XXV from 1977 bought for $66.3m, with charges, at Christie’s in 2016) and in non-public gross sales (mega-collector Ken Griffin reportedly paid leisure mogul David Geffen $300m for the 1955 portray Interchange).
Willem de Kooning, Collage, 1950 Courtesy Sotheby’s
The remainder of the Solinger sale noticed strong outcomes, although a set of works by Paul Klee largely did not spark a lot curiosity, and one of many assortment’s star heaps, Pablo Picasso’s Femme dans un fauteuil (1927, est $15m-$20m), bought after only one bid for a hammer worth of $8.4m ($9.9m with charges). Grimly, the sale’s third-to-last lot appeared to learn from the so-called “loss of life impact”: Peinture 92 x 65 cm. 7 février 1954 (1954, est $800,000-$1.2m), a prismatic black-on-gold composition by Pierre Soulages, the French abstractionist who died final month at age 102, set off a contest between 9 bidders and finally bought for $2m ($2.4m with charges) to a collector on the road with Sotheby’s Los Angeles-based non-public gross sales specialist Jacqueline Watcher. (The identical bidder additionally snapped up a small, crimson Klee work on paper earlier within the sale.)
No second wind
After a quick intermission following the Solinger sale, Sotheby’s Europe chairman Oliver Barker returned to the podium for the Fashionable night public sale, though lots of the energetic bidders from earlier within the night appeared to have opted for dinner as an alternative. The second public sale got here with vital monetary guardrails: 25 of the 44 heaps had been assured and 21 had irrevocable bids. A number of the heaps additionally benefited from provenance comparably stellar to the Solinger sale: 4 of the heaps, together with a serious Picasso, had been coming from the gathering of the late Museum of Fashionable Artwork (MoMA) president William S. Paley (1901-1990) and being bought to learn that museum and different charitable organisations.
Regardless of all of the encouraging indicators, the sale was a disappointment, with eight heaps failing to promote (together with an André Derain panorama from Paley’s assortment) and two extra withdrawn earlier than the public sale. In the long run, the sell-through charge was 82% by lot, bringing in a complete hammer worth of $220m ($253.3m with charges), effectively beneath the pre-sale estimate of $232m-$287.5m.
Elaine de Kooning, Cost, 1960 Courtesy Sotheby’s
Even so, the public sale notched some notable outcomes, particularly for girls artists. It opened with an ecstatic Elaine de Kooning portray, Cost (1960), which shortly surpassed its $600,000 excessive estimate to promote for a hammer worth of $850,000 ($1.1m with charges), a brand new file for the Summary Expressionist’s work. A stunning 1928 portrait by Artwork Deco grasp Tamara de Lempicka depicting the Greek-born duchess and humanities patron Romana de la Salle bought for a $12m hammer worth, firmly inside its $10m to $15m estimate. With charges, the worth got here to $14.1m, good for De Lempicka’s second-highest public sale consequence thus far.
The sale’s star lot, a traditional canvas from Piet Mondrian’s De Stijl interval, Composition No. II (1930), arrived with an on-request estimate of no less than $50m. It had final appeared at public sale in 1983 at Christie’s in London, the place it was acquired by a Japanese financial institution (it was subsequently bought, by way of Acquavella Galleries, to the current vendor).
Piet Mondrian, Composition No. II, 1930 Courtesy Sotheby’s
“The market could be very completely different immediately than it was in 1983,” Jacoby mentioned earlier than the public sale. “If it’s arising on the market at this second, it means that there’s somebody who has been recognized already as a possible purchaser.” In the long run, there gave the impression to be precisely one somebody involved in shopping for the Mondrian. It bought for a hammer worth of $48m ($51m with charges) to a collector in Asia who positioned a solitary bid by way of Sotheby’s chairman for Switzerland Caroline Lang. Even so, the consequence was ok to set a brand new public sale file for the Dutch Modernist’s work.
The largest lot of the night time from Paley’s assortment, the Picasso nonetheless life Guitare sur une desk (1919), had beforehand been on long-term mortgage to MoMA. It shortly surpassed its on-request estimate of no less than $25m due to a two-way bidding conflict between collectors on the telephones with Sotheby’s head of personal gross sales for the Americas Courtney Kremers and the public sale home’s senior vice chairman in New York Brad Bentoff. The latter’s consumer finally prevailed with a profitable bid of $32m, which got here to $37.1m with charges.
Pablo Picasso, Guitare sur une desk, 1919 Courtesy Sotheby’s
That was the public sale’s eighth lot, and thereafter the going obtained rocky, with works by canonical artists together with Schiele, Degas, Rodin and Pissarro failing to promote. A number of extra heaps hammered effectively beneath their low estimates after only one bid, together with two of the sale’s largest trophies. Giacometti’s 1962 portrait of his muse, Caroline (est $15m-$20m), elicited only one bid, hammering at $14m ($15.9m with charges). Three heaps later, the truly and symbolically enormous Henry Moore sculpture Reclining Determine: Pageant (1951)—which was commissioned by the newly fashioned Arts Council of Nice Britain as a sculptural centrepiece for the Pageant of Britain in 1951—did not spark any festivities. It bought after only one bid for a hammer worth of $27.5m ($31m with charges), effectively in need of its $30m to $40m estimate.
Apparently sensing the slackening temper within the more and more sparse saleroom, Barker moved swiftly by means of the latter half of the sale. He fielded simply 5 bids throughout the public sale’s eight last heaps, half of which didn’t promote.
The night’s dichotomous outcomes appeared to strengthen a few of the classes taken from the final a number of public sale cycles, whereas difficult others. The success of the Solinger assortment appeared to verify the facility of packaging gross sales round a single, visionary collector or amassing couple. However the efficiency of Solinger’s non-guaranteed assortment, in distinction to the combined outcomes for the numerous guarantee-backed heaps within the Fashionable night public sale, may replicate the procedural high quality of auctions with a majority of assured heaps, which might really feel like non-public gross sales carried out in public.
Following Sotheby’s combined outcomes on Monday, consideration shifts to Phillips for Tuesday’s (15 November) night sale of twentieth century and modern artwork, adopted by Sotheby’s modern and ultra-contemporary night gross sales on 16 November and Christie’s back-to-back gross sales of twentieth and twenty first century artwork on 17 November.
