Christie’s London Evening sale of Contemporary art had few star lots—but only one that failed to find a buyer—yet it managed to pull in a total £56.2 million ($72.8 million), down little more than a quarter from the previous year’s comparable sale. Two lots, one by Christopher Wool and one by Glenn Ligon, were withdrawn before the sale, leaving nevertheless an outsize number of lots—56—for the time and venue. Christie’s managed the sale exceptionally well, including convincing the consignor of a Gerhard Richter constellation painting to accept a price two-thirds of the low estimate.
Overall, the sale continues to reinforce the impression that the Contemporary art market has compressed toward works in the so-called middle market price band, below $5 million.
The night’s top lots were the late West Coast collector Richard L. Weisman’s commissioned portrait of Muhammad Ali by Andy Warhol, which made £4.97 million. It was the lead lot among the ten sports figures depicted by the artist at Mr. Weisman’s request. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jack Nicklaus, and O.J. Simpson were also legendary personalities from the series who sold better than their estimates. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Mosque sold for £3.9 million, falling below its low estimate but still ranking among the most valuable lots of the evening. The same was true of Sigmar Polke’s untitled work, which reached £3.13 million while also failing to reach the low estimate. David Hockney’s 2006 landscape Walnut Trees sold well at £3.25 million, to come fourth among the lots sold by value.
Albert Oehlen’s Mission Rohrfrei (Down Periscope) from 1996 continued the artist’s market run, being the first of the top ten lots to achieve its price through aggressive bidding. The final price of £3.19 million reflected a hammer price of £2.65 million that edged slightly above its £2.5 million high estimate.
Sotheby’s London contemporary evening sale offered little excitement at the top of the market even as it made £92.5 million ($119.8 million). Three of the 46 lots offered in the sale failed to find buyers (one, a Richter abstract in primary colors, was withdrawn before action began), giving the sale a strong and well-managed 93 percent sell-through rate. That doesn’t mean the sale lacked interest: A work by A. R. Penck set a new record for the German artist, and paintings by Eddie Martinez, Wayne Thiebaud, and Gunther Uecker were bid well above estimates. A sculpture by Maurizio Cattelan, newly notorious after the banana feeding frenzy at Art Basel Miami Beach, was also a surprise hit.
Of even greater interest is the fact that the total was almost exactly the same as the previous year—£93.2 million ($120.7 million)—which came from the sale of 19 more lots. Overall, making the same money with 30 percent fewer lots is worthy of notice.
Among the top 10 lots in the sale were works by David Hockney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francis Bacon, Christopher Wool, and Yves Klein, each selling for £6 million ($7.78 million), but none hammered for prices much beyond the low estimate. The top of the contemporary art market remains well-priced, and some observers found the Hockney sale at a healthy £23,117,000 ($29,820,930) to be a disappointment. The guaranteed work had a few bids but saw no great competition.
Further down the lots were a painting by Adrian Ghenie that made £4.2 million ($5.42 million), with fees, over a £3.5 million ($4.53 million) high estimate; Marlene Dumas’s Cathedral sold for £3.1 million ($4.06 million), which represented a price within the estimate range; and Bridget Riley’s 1963 Op Art black-and-white work Shift sold for a solid £2.7 million ($3.52 million).
Monday, February 10
Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Sets Opening Date
At last night’s Academy Awards, Tom Hanks announced that the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles will open its doors on December 14, 2020. The institution, which is dedicated to the history and future of filmmaking, will occupy a Renzo Piano-designed building on the city’s Miracle Mile.
Rothko Chapel to Reopen June 2020