As the final evening sale in a full week of bellwether auctions, Christie’s evening sale of 21st century art was a clear reflection of the current slimmed-down and cautious global art market.
The auction house held a robust Modern sale earlier in the week but this auction had fewer offerings than in previous years and many lots were guaranteed either by the house itself or outside parties. Bids were slow to come in for many lots, often arriving at the final moment before the hammer fell. And in keeping with a theme that has continued throughout New York’s marquee sales this week, many works sold at the low end of their price range. Below-estimate bids were common and often accepted by the evening’s auctioneer, Georgina Hilton, suggesting that auction experts successfully convinced consignors to lower reserves—and expectations—ahead of the sale.
There is something to be said for this tactic as the evening still surpassed expectations. Featuring 44 lots, the sale’s total of $106.5 million, including fees, was far closer to the high end of the presale estimate, which was quoted at $78 million to $113 million; just before the sale, it was revised to reflect two withdrawn lots, dropping to $74 million to $108 million. These included a Diane Arbus photograph, with an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000, and an Eric Fischl painting of nude people lounging on a boat estimated at $3 million to $4 million. The total is roughly identical to last year’s total of $107 million for a similarly sized sale, but well off the highs of previous, frothy seasons.
The auction also saw several new records set, including for emerging names and for works in particular mediums by established blue-chip artists.
“You expect hot and fresh works to take center stage at the contemporary evening sales,” art advisor Jessica Arb Daniel said after the sale. “It’s always intriguing to see established artists share the spotlight with younger, emerging talent.”
Nevertheless, she said the energy in the sale room felt “sleepy.”
“I found myself less engaged compared to the excitement of Sotheby’s on Wednesday,” she said. That sale, of course, was buoyed by the $6.2 million sale of Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian, the much-memed duct-taped banana.
Though it didn’t have the same viral appeal, Christie’s top lot, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s oil stick on paper, Untitled (1982), didn’t disappoint despite going for just under its low estimate. Consigned by top collector Peter Brant, it was estimated to fetch $20 million to $30 million but bidding started far below that: Auctioneer Georgina Hilton opened the action at just $13 million. Several bidders chased it before it hammered for $19.5 million on a bid from mega collector Alberto Mugrabi, known for his deep holdings of Basquiat, who was seated in the front of the auction room. The final price with fees of $22.95 million marked a new high for a work on paper by the artist at auction.
David Hockney’s vibrantly colored Four Empty Vases (1996), which had an estimate of $3.5 million to $5.5 million, proved the second-highest price of the evening. After bidding opened around $2 million, it reached $6 million before Hilton was prepared to hammer it down to a bidder in the room when a last-minute online bid came in. An incremental back-and-forth raised the staked by another $1 million before the in-person bidder finally won it for $7.1 million, or $8.6 million with fees.
Another star lot was Jeff Koons’s Large Vase of Flowers, which carried a much higher estimate of $6 million to $8 million, and was backed by a third-party guarantee. It eventually sold for $6.8 million, or $8.2 million with fees.
Yayoi Kusama’s impressively large and eye-catching yellow pumpkin with her signature dots, Pumpkin (2022) was also billed as a top lot. It carried a third-party guarantee and there’s a very good chance it went to whoever that hopeful backer is as it was quickly hammered down on thin bidding for $5.6 million, just over its low estimate of $6 million. Including fees, it sold for $6.8 million.
Hilton kept the sale moving at a rapid, efficient clip, but it felt like it was becoming more and more apparent as the sale went on that buyers were watching their spending—hedging their bets in an effort to get a bargain. Later in the sale, a major Jeff Koons came up—an example of his famous vitrine-encased vacuums, New Hoover Celebrity IV, New Hoover Convertible, New Shelton 5 Gallon Wet/Dry, New Shelton 10 Gallon Wet/Dry Doubledecker (1981–86). In pursuit of it, Christie’s executive Alex Rotter was going head to head with another specialist, Kat Widing, head of the 21st-century sale. As bidding reached the $4 million mark, Rotter’s phone client took a notable pause and Rotter explained to the auctioneer that they were doing some “calculations.”
Those calculations obviously proved too prohibitive. The aspiring buyer then dropped out and Wilding’s client won the work for $5.1 million, with fees.
Similarly, when painter Lynette Yiadem Boake’s portrait painting Painkiller (2011) came up mid-sale with a low estimate of $800,000, it failed to sell after bidding topped out at $700,000. Clearly some wheeling and dealing ensued in the next half hour or so: At the end of the sale, Hilton reintroduced the painting, at which time it sold for a hammer price of $600,000.
Among the highlights of the evening were a number of artist records and new benchmarks. This included new auction records for Firelei Baez ($567,000); William Eggleston ($1.4 millon), Denzil Forrester ($189,000), Sasha Gordon ($214,200), Roni Horn ($1.8 million), and Ana Mendieta ($756,000). A new high for a work on paper by Louise Bourgeois was set when Les Fleurs (2009) sold for $2.6 million.
Following the sale, Rotter, the chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art, called it “a great night,” and noted “deep bidding for work from a diverse group of artists working in media from sculpture, to works on paper, to photographs.” He added that the records set that evening included six women artists.
Arb Daniel noted she was watching the record-setting work by Sarah Sze: “I had my eye on Long Ending, which made a bold statement, hammering at $1.1 million—well above its $300,000 high estimate.”
