Auction 'Gigaweek' Kicks Off With Christie's $78 Million 'Bound to Fail' Sale

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Auction 'Gigaweek' Kicks Off With Christie's $78 Million 'Bound to Fail' Sale

May 07, 2016 17:30

Sotheby's Impressionist & Modern Art Evening Sale, May 9, 2016, Lot 10: Fernand Léger, "Composition au cheval blanc," 1945. Oil on canvas 26 by 36 in.; 66 by 91.3 cm. Estimate: $3.5-5 million

'Gigaweek' is underway at the New York auction houses with an estimated $890 million to $1 billion in Impressionist, modern and contemporary art up for sale at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips. Over the course of 5 days some 1,500 artworks are offered.

But this May's marquee sales are not expected to outperform last year's mega-levels due to wavering financial markets and an uncertain U.S. presidential race.

"A sea change has occurred at auction," said art advisor Wendy Cromwell to the New York Times. "The night sales are smaller, the estimates more conservative, the guarantees less exuberant, the great works fewer and far between."

André Derain’s “Red Sails,” 1906, in Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art sale on Monday, could bring over $15 million.

Christie's started off the week on a high note with a curated sale by specialist Loic Gouzer on Sunday bearing the title, “Bound to Fail,” which achieved $78,123,250 with sell-through rates of 97% by lot and 98% by value. The sale established 7 new world auction records for artists including Paola Pivi, Neil Jenney, Olivier Mosset, Daniel Buren, Rebecca Horn, John Armleder, Maurizio Cattelan. Records were also set for a sculpture by Richard Prince and a video by Bruce Nauman.

A 16-foot-wide, untitled Jean-Michel Basquiat self-portrait is the top lot later in Christie's series with an estimate around $40 million along with Mark Rothko's blue-green abstract which bears a low estimate of $30 million. A seminal water lily painting by Claude Monet, his 1919 “Waterlily Pond,” heads the Thursday impressionist and modern art with an estimate around $25 million. There are also nine Alexander Calder sculptures in the May 10 sale and a rare-to-market Clyfford Still.

While a $100 million blockbuster work is missing, a number of top-tier lots together could make for a strong week, including a Cy Twombly 'chalkboard' painting, “Untitled (New York City),” expected to bring about $40 million on Tuesday at Sotheby's. André Derain’s 1906 Fauve seascape, “Red Sails,” is estimated around $15 million and Auguste Rodin’s kissing couple, “Eternal Spring,” is a sought-after marble which could bring at least $8 million. Francis Bacon's "Two Studies for a Self-Portrait," estimated at $22 million to $30 million, emerges from a private collection.

Clyfford Still (1904-1980), PH-234, 1948. Oil on canvas. 69 x 59 5/8 in. (175.3 x 151.4 cm.) Estimate: $25,000,000-35,000,000.

Estimated at $5 million to $7 million, Brice Marden’s Star (for Patti Smith) is expected lead the May evening sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art at Phillips.