Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, art news Newsletter about the art market and beyond.Register here Receive it every Wednesday.
Two days before a New York art auction, one of the most shocking things I saw happened before any bids were made.
Minutes before Sotheby’s ultra-modern evening auction “The Now” was about to begin, a photographer tripped over a pillar and nearly dropped his entire hand into a Jean-Michel Basquiat and In a large, untitled work by Andy Warhol. Estimated at $15 million, the 1984 collaboration came close to disaster, clearly shocking several staff members.
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Thankfully, Lot 105 was not damaged. The work was sold for $19.4 million, setting a record for a Warhol-Basquiat collaboration and the fourth highest price of the night.
Even if the crisis is averted, the atmosphere in the two days leading up to the May auction in New York is still filled with anxiety among buyers and consignors. “The room just didn’t feel exciting,” said art consultant Dane Jensen. art news.
The next night, two auctions at Christie’s took on the feel of a near-disaster, days after the auction house’s website was taken down due to a “technical security issue.” The de la Cruz series and the 21st Century Evening Auction still maintain a high transaction rate; the YouTube live broadcast is carried out as planned, and online bidding continues to be conducted through Christie’s online remote bidding platform.But several art consultants told art news It is difficult to know how many people were prevented from taking part in the operation, especially for such a well-known estate. “Even one less bidder can have a huge impact on how a piece performs,” Jensen said.
Large guarantees and irrevocable bids helped smooth things over and improve sell-through rates, but many lots by famous artists sold for less than their low estimates. Other lots were withdrawn and some did not sell at all. In Phillips, Frank Stella Letter 2 to the Deaf and Mute (1974), from the private collection of gallerist Marianne Boesky, is estimated to sell for $5 million to $7 million. Unable to find buyer. Although Christie’s describes it as “the most important and ambitious painting” of Mark Tansey’s career, Santa Victoria Mountain #1 (1987), which was estimated to fetch between $8 million and $12 million, also failed to sell.
Mounting bids from several experts to seal the deal also dampened the mood, with auctioneers such as Sotheby’s Europe chairman Oliver Barker exclaiming: “It’s like pulling teeth, oh my God.”
As a result, several art consultants interviewed art news As New York’s big auction week begins, we’re also noticing mixed preliminary results.
On Monday night, art consultant Ivy Shapiro told art news While some sales soared, for the most part, Sotheby’s performance was lackluster. “It’s cautious, but stable. If people want something, they want it.
Jensen said the pageantry of art auctions can blind people to how long things have been going poorly in different parts of the art market, such as stagnant demand for high-profile post-war artists. It is commonly believed that an artist’s worth rises after his death, but this is not always the case, as Stella, who died on May 4, proved. Ifafa No.1“”, an important canvas of shapes he created in 1964, was auctioned at Sotheby’s with a low estimate of $14 million, and the price was just above that. “There’s probably no reason why the painting didn’t sell,” Jensen told us. art news. “It’s just because the market is down.”
There are still highlights, especially paintings and sculptures by artists of color, queer artists, and women. At Christie’s, Ana Mendieta (sold twice in the same auction), Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Reggie Burrows Hodges (Reggie Burrows Hodges) and Diane Arbus both set records.Kent Monkman Triples Auction Record to $381,000 in 2020 Phillips Painting storm. At Sotheby’s, works by Faith Ringgold, Justin Caguiat and Lucy Bull all sold for more than $1 million. A new record was set.
Sotheby’s massive contemporary day sale on May 14 also saw several paintings far exceeding their high estimates: Paintings by Emmi Whitehorse Chapter 534 Untitled Priced at $127,000, estimate $15,000 to $20,000; Alex Katz’s possible $1.88 million, estimate $500,000 to $700,000; Salvo’s Untitled Sold for $406,400, estimated $40,000 to $60,000; Olga de Amaral Pueblo X Sold for $698,500, estimated at $250,000 to $350,000; and Antonio Oba’s Sankofa – Characters with Alpargata Priced at $228,600, with an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. The Whitehorse and Salvo works, both without guarantees or irrevocable bids, sold for more than six times their high estimates.
One of the most astute comments about the precarious state of the art market came just as auction week was about to begin.superior Please note In a podcast recorded last week and aired on Sunday, dealer Lock Kresler observed that what we see today is very different from what we saw after the 2008 recession, when the art market recovered quite quickly. “We didn’t see a crash,” he said, “but we didn’t see anything like that out the window.”
