Sotheby’s night gross sales doubleheader in New York on Tuesday (16 Could) racked up $363.9m ($427m with charges), with works by Gustav Klimt and René Magritte notching the best costs.
The night started with the single-owner sale of works from the gathering of late music business govt Mo Ostin (1927-2022), which was adopted by the night sale of Fashionable artwork from varied homeowners. Damaged down, Ostin’s assortment realised $104.8m ($123.7m with charges), close to the low finish of Sotheby’s pre-sale expectations of $103.3m to $155.3 million, whereas the Fashionable artwork sale snared $258.1m ($303.1m with charges), falling wanting the public sale home’s estimate of $272.1m to $378.7m. (Estimates don’t replicate purchaser charges.)
Christie’s equal sale on 11 Could—combining a devoted sale of works from the property of publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse and a multiple-owner public sale of Twentieth-century artwork—introduced in a complete of $426.6m ($506.5m with charges).
Out of the 63 heaps supplied throughout two Sotheby’s gross sales on Tuesday night time, 9 heaps failed to seek out consumers for an general and glossy sell-through charge of 88.3%. Home and third social gathering ensures, also called “irrevocable bids”, powered that statistic and accounted for twenty-four of the 54 heaps that offered. Six heaps from the Fashionable artwork part of the night have been withdrawn earlier than the sale for undisclosed causes.
Cecily Brown, Free Video games for Could, 2015 Courtesy Sotheby’s
The Ostin motion started with Cecily Brown’s expressionist Free Video games for Could (2015), which hit $5.5m ($6.7m with charges) towards a pre-sale estimate of $3m to $5m. The next lot, Willem de Kooning’s juicy work on paper Two Figures (1946-47), hammered at $4.8m ($5.8m with charges), simply wanting its $5m low estimate.
The hands-down star lot among the many works from Ostin’s property was a rarefied Magritte, L’Empire des lumières (1951). Ostin acquired the portray from fellow leisure magnate David Geffen in 1979 for an undisclosed value, however at a time when the public sale excessive for the artist was underneath $250,000. It fetched $36.5m ($42.2m with charges) towards an estimate of $35m to $55m. It offered to an unidentified phone bidder, as was the case for many of the night’s heaps.
René Magritte, L’Empire des lumières, 1951 Courtesy Sotheby’s
A second Magritte entry, the Surrealist mountain panorama with trompe l’oeil shattered glass Le Domaine d’Arnheim (1949), went for $16.2m ($18.9m with charges) (est. $15-25 million). Ostin, who represented music legends from Frank Sinatra to Jimi Hendrix, acquired it privately (once more) from Geffen in 1990.
Although not as scorching or excessive because the $67.1m Jean-Michel Basquiat portray that offered at arch-rival Christie’s on Monday night, the artist’s richly symbolic Moon View (1984) went for $9.1m ($10.7m with charges) towards a pre-sale estimate of $7m to $10m. It previously hailed from the Eli Broad assortment and offered privately to Ostin in 2010. The identical bidder snagged the Basquiat and Magritte’s L’Empire des lumières.
The blue-chip entries loped together with Cy Twombly’s graffito-scrawled abstraction Untitled (1962), which was a seeming cut price, hammering at $10m ($11.8m with charges), effectively under its $14m low estimate. Pablo Picasso’s large-scale Mougins townscape, Paysage (1965), realised $6.5m ($7.8m with charges), just under its $7m low estimate. And Joan Mitchell’s elegant Summary Expressionist composition Untitled (1958) made $6.8m ($8.1m with charges) towards an estimate of $7m to $10m.
Arshile Gorky’s deliciously spare but poetic Portrait of Y.D. (1945) hammered at $2.1m ($2.5m with charges), effectively under its low estimate of $3m. The identification of Y.D. is up for debate, probably referring to Marcel Duchamp’s sister Yvonne or the artist’s shut musician buddy Yenovk der Hagopian. It final offered at public sale in Could 1987 for $520,000. Ostin acquired it privately from Los Angeles vendor David Tunkl in 2006.
The Ostin sale noticed only one work go unsold and took near an hour to dispatch 15 heaps, as if the ranks of phone bidders have been attempting their hardest to go low-cost with cut up bids.
The bigger and decidedly extra numerous Fashionable artwork sale that adopted (after a 25-minute break) started with a postcard-sized Picasso watercolour and ink work from the artist’s Neo-Classical interval, Saltimbanque accoudé (1922), which offered for $1.2m ($1.5m with charges), squarely inside its pre-sale estimate of $1m to $1.5m. The sale shortly moved to bigger works at greater value factors with Mark Rothko’s luminous Untitled (1959), which introduced $3.8m ($4.6m with charges), simply shy of its $4m low estimate.
Gustav Klimt, Insel im Attersee (Island within the Attersee), 1901-02 Courtesy Sotheby’s
Hardly ever current in night auctions, Danish grasp Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Vermeer-like Inside. The Music Room, Strandgade 30 (1907) offered for a record-breaking $7.6m ($9.1m with charges, greater than doubling its $3m low estimate. Klimt’s shimmering lake-scape, Insel im Attersee (Island within the Attersee) (1901-02), was the highest lot and offered to a Japanese phone bidder for $46m ($53.1m with charges), a end result squarely consistent with the public sale home’s unpublished estimate of round $45m. The underbidder for the Hammershøi was New York artwork advisor Todd Levin. The Klimt was backed by an irrevocable bid.
Works by US artists have been additionally on the block, together with Edward Hopper’s sunlit countryside view Cobb’s Barns, South Truro (1930-33), which was deaccessioned by the Whitney Museum of American Artwork. It offered for $6m ($7.2m with charges), falling wanting its $8m low estimate regardless of its institutional provenance. It was loaned for a time to the White Home throughout Barack Obama’s presidency.
Again on French soil, Paul Gauguin’s floral nonetheless life Nature morte avec pivoines de chine et mandoline (1885) was on supply the Ambroise Vollard Assortment (the storied French artwork and artist provide vendor) after being restituted to his heirs in February. It realised $8.8m ($10.4m with charges) towards a pre-sale estimate of $10m to $15m. It went to an unnamed phone bidder in Asia, in keeping with Sotheby’s.
Pablo Picasso, Femme nue couchée jouant avec un chat, 1964 Courtesy Sotheby’s
From that very same interval, Vincent van Gogh’s languid Jardin devant le Mas Debray (1887) offered for its low estimate of $20 million ($23.3m with charges). It got here backed with an irrevocable bidm as did the playful late Picasso Femme nue couchée jouant avec un chat (1964), which made $19.5m ($21.2m with charges), simply wanting its $20m low estimate.
The Picasso final offered at Christie’s London in July 1998 for £1.1m. The web proceeds from its sale go to the Artwork of Giving, the artwork and medical analysis charity of collectors Jan and Maria Manetti Shrem.
Picassos of varied intervals have been in ample proof all through the sale. The jaunty Femme au chapeau jaune (Dora Maar) (1939) introduced $13.5m ($15.8m with charges) towards a pre-sale estimate of $15m to $20m.
Although hardly “fashionable”, an Outdated Grasp outlier crashed the crowded social gathering when Peter Paul Rubens’s helmeted Portrait of a Man as Mars (round 1620) offered to yet one more phone bidder for $22.5m ($26.1m with charges), firmly inside its $20m to $30m estimate.
Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a Man as Mars, round 1620 Courtesy Sotheby’s
Of the comparatively few sculptures on supply, Alberto Giacometti’s beautiful bronze idol Femme Leoni from a lifetime forged relationship from 1960 offered for $24.5m ($28.4m with charges) and an enormous trio of granite kinds by Isamu Noguchi, Household (1956-57), sparked a bidding frenzy. It will definitely hammered for a report $10.4m ($12.2 with charges), obliterating the artist’s earlier highwater mark at public sale of $4.9million. It was additionally backed by an irrevocable bid.
Even with that prime notice, the night’s general efficiency, whereas strong, lacked a lot fizz, in keeping with Man Jennings, a senior director of the London-based High quality Artwork Group. “Hardly something bid above the excessive estimate and we’re feeling much less exuberant than six months in the past,” he stated.
In tandem with New York’s buzzy spring artwork truthful season, the night public sale motion continues Wednesday (17 Could) with Phillips’s Twentieth century and modern artwork sale and Christie’s single-owner public sale of the late Gerald Fineberg’s assortment.
