Record-Setting Christie's Contemporary Art Sale Hits $412 Million
- November 14, 2012 23:46
A blockbuster contemporary art sale at Christie's on Wednesday night saw fierce bidding for the likes of Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, to the tune of $412.2 million.
An international super-rich set of art collectors converged on New York, clamoring for the private sky boxes above the auction house floor, and driving prices up in bidding battles.
The sale total was just above its high $411.8 million estimate and the highest total ever for a contemporary art auction at Christie's, beating out competitor Sotheby's sale the night before which garnered $375.1 million.
Much ado was made about Warhol's Statue of Liberty, a 1962 painting with a 3-D effect for which Christie's popped 3-D glasses into the catalogs. The silk-screened image fetched $43.7 million with fees.
Warhol's sexy Marlon Brando image of 1966 also was bid up, getting $23.7 million with fees, above the $20 million high estimate.
Koons snagged an artist auction record with his mega-sized stainless steel sculpture Tulips, which at $33.6 million, went well above its high $25 million estimate.
Another expected artist auction record went to Basquiat for his 1981 image of a black fisherman, which garnered $26.4 million.
Richard Diebenkorn's Ocean Park #48, 1971. secured $13.5 million (est. $8-12 million). The traveling exhibition Richard Diebenkorn: The Ocean Park Series wrapped this fall at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington.
Black Stripe (Orange, Gold and Black), 1957, by Mark Rothko brought $21.3 million, much less than the $75.1 million brought the night before for his strong 1954 color abstraction “No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue).”
Gerhard Richter, who holds the current record price for artwork by a living artist at $34.2 million, was not bid wildly on. His Abstraktes Bild (779-2), 1992, went for within estimates at $15.3 million. But in a market perhaps overly saturated with the 80-year-old artist's work, his “Prag 1883,” from 1983, offered from the collection of hedge fund billionaire Steven A. Cohen, was one of the few works that failed to sell.
![Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.](/images/c/e2/2e/Jan20_Rape_of_Europa100x100_c.jpg "Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.")
