This post was originally published on artnews.com
The marquee New York evening auctions came to a close on Thursday with a strong $106.5 million sale of 21st century art at Christie’s, led by a $23 million drawing by auction stalwart Jean-Michel Basquiat, setting a record for a work on paper by the artist. The atmosphere in the packed auction house was lively, and bidding was deep as buyers fought for their treasures in person, via phone, and online; after two withdrawals, every one of the 42 lots on offer sold.
The presale estimate was $74 million to $108 million; the $87 million hammer total, which does not include the house’s fees, came in solidly within estimate. Six lots were guaranteed by the house; some 17 lots bore third-party guarantees, meaning more than half the sale was pre-sold.
The equivalent sale last year hammered at $88.4 million, which was seen as disappointing because that amount fell about $8 million short of its $96 million presale estimate. With premium, last year’s sale netted $107.5 million across an identical 42 lots. Tonight’s outing, coming within estimate, suggested that at the end of two weeks of auctions, the auction market is bouncing back from a historic slump.
The night saw eight auction records set, for Firelei Báez, William Eggleston, Denzil Forrester, Sasha Gordon, Roni Horn, Ana Mendieta, Hilary Pecis, and Sarah Sze. Additionally, besides the Basquiat, medium-specific records were set for a Louise Bourgeois work on paper and for a Keith Haring sculpture.
Basquiat’s Untitled (1982) was estimated at $20 million to $30 million, making it far and away the night’s priciest lot. After two and a half minutes, it nearly met its low estimate to hammer for $19.5 million. The price with fees of $23 million set a new record for a work on paper; the previous high for such a work was $15.2 million, achieved by the 1982 Untitled (Head) at Sotheby’s New York in 2020.
Untitled shows a half-length image of a distressed-looking figure seemingly wearing a laurel wreath, a symbol of triumph in classical iconography. The drawing was off the market since 1996, when the unnamed seller purchased it from dealers Enrico Navarro and Tony Shafrazi. The work notably did not carry a guarantee despite the high price.
Experts assessed the sale in positive terms.
“A strong sale, well curated,” New York dealer Dominique Lévy told ARTnews after the 80-minute auction. “Strong prices for young artists, great results for artists normally quiet at auction like Roni Horn, and an appetite for quality. However the mood remains selective and knowledgeable.” To her point about young artists: that record-setting work by Firelei Báez, her auction debut, tripled its high estimate to fetch $567,000. The Horn, estimated at up to $1.2 million, hammered at $1.5 million ($1.8 million with fees).
Investor Max Dolgicer was also upbeat.
“It was a very strong sale with no surprises,” he said. “It wasn’t as glamorous as Tuesday, but those sales don’t come around all the time.” The same house had a rousing $486 million sale on Tuesday night, including lots from designer and philanthropist Mica Ertegun and led by a record-smashing $121 million René Magritte.
Two works, a Diane Arbus photo and an Eric Fischl painting, were withdrawn, presumably for lack of interest. All the remaining works sold; 15 went for prices at or above their high estimate, while 12 sold within estimate and 15 failed to meet their low estimates.
Three works came from ARTnews Top 200 collectors, according to Artnet News: newsprint magnate Peter Brant consigned the Basquiat and a Koons vacuum cleaner sculpture (as well as the withdrawn Fischl), while Greek Cypriot industrialist and Top 200 collector Dakis Joannou consigned a Koons Large Vase of Flowers.
The night’s second-priciest lot was David Hockney’s Four Empty Vases (1996), which had been off the record since 1997. Estimated at $3.5 million to $5.5 million, bidding topped out at $7.1 million to a bidder in the room—or $8.6 million with fees—after a three-minute contest.
Jeff Koons had a good night, with his works accounting for two of the top 10.
The artist’s Large Vase of Flowers (1991), which came in at number three for the night, is a polychromed wood sculpture standing just over four feet. It was estimated at $6 million to $8 million and bore a third-party guarantee. After two and a half minutes, it hammered at $6.8 million, or $8.2 million with fees. Joannou acquired the piece, the artist’s proof from an edition of three, from the artist in 1993. It has appeared in some 19 museum exhibitions, including his 2014-15 retrospective. Another edition went for $5.7 million on a $6 million high estimate at Christie’s New York in 2009.
“Since taking art lessons as a child, I have had flowers in my work,” the artist has said. “I always like the sense that a flower just displays itself. The viewer always finds grace in a flower. Flowers are a symbol that life goes forward.”
Number six on the night was Koons’s sculpture New Hoover Celebrity IV, New Hoover Convertible, New Shelton 5 Gallon Wet/Dry, New Shelton 10 Gallon Wet/Dry Doubledecker (1981-1986), in which the various vacuum cleaners are displayed in a case. Estimated at $3.5 million to $5.5 million, it hammered within estimate at $4.2 million, or $5.1 with fees, after a 90-second contest.
Brant got it at Sotheby’s New York in 1991 for $137,500; English advertising magnate Charles Saatchi was the seller that time around. It came to auction in 2013, tagged at up to $15 million, and failed to sell; in 2017, the seller went with a more conservative estimate of up to $10 million. It sold for just $6.4 million after fees this time around.
Women accounted for two of the artists in the top 10.
Yayoi Kusama’s mammoth sculpture Pumpkin (2022), one of the largest examples of her trademark subject at eight feet wide, was tagged at $6 million to $8 million; after just a minute, it hammered at a below-estimate $5.6 million, or $6.8 million with fees, to become the night’s number four prize. Her auction record for a pumpkin sculpture is $8 million, achieved by a similarly sized 2014 Pumpkin (L) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2023. “Pumpkins talk to me,” the artist has said.
Fifth-priciest on the night was British-American painter Cecily Brown’s The Butcher and the Policeman (2013), which the seller bought in 2014. Titled for a passage in Joseph Conrad’s novel Heart of Darkness and standing 5 and half feet high, it bore an estimate of $4 million to $6 million, and hammered after a lengthy three and a half minutes at $4.9 million, to total $6 million with fees, not dramatically short of her record. That remains $6.8 million, paid for the 9-foot-wide Suddenly Last Summer (1999) at Sotheby’s New York in 2018. Brown was the subject of a recent retrospective at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art; another show is currently at the Dallas Museum of Art and soon to come to Philadelphia’s Barnes Collection.
Rounding out the top 10 were a sculpture by David Hammons, ca. 1978 sculpture Untitled (Flight Fantasy), which went for $3.9 million; a George Condo painting, The Executives and Their Wives (2011), which earned $3.9 million; the 1987 Keith Haring sculpture, Untitled (Hollywood African Mask), which fetched $3.2 million; and a Rashid Johnson painting, Triptych “Box of Rain” (2020-2022), for $2.7 million. (All prices with buyer’s premium unless otherwise noted.)