Review of the Christie's Post War and Contemporary Sale

Carol Vogel has a good review of the Christie's Post War and Contemporary art evening sale held on Wednesday.  Her overall opinion of the sale was that it was strong, but not over the top, and that after the Sotheby's and Phillips sale many of the collectors were tiring of the sales.
Vogel reports

But while prices were strong throughout the night, this last evening auction in a week of three seemed way too long. The audience was visibly wearied, and the excitement of evenings past had clearly dissipated.

Like the week’s earlier sales, this one was all about instantly recognizable images — works that scream the names of their makers. The third-place finisher was Jeff Koons’s “Balloon Flower, (Blue),” a monumental sculpture that has been parked outside Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters for weeks now and that was being sold by Daimler, the German car manufacturer, which had displayed it in front of its Berlin headquarters.

Five bidders went for the sculpture, from the artist’s “Celebration” series, executed between 1995 and 2000. It had been estimated to bring $12 million to $16 million, and was bought by Amy Gold of L&M Arts, the Manhattan gallery, for $15 million, or $16.8 million with fees. While the price might have seemed high by Wednesday night’s standards, another work from the same series — “Balloon Flower (Magenta)” — sold for $25.7 million in June 2008 at Christie’s in London.

To read the full NY Times article, click HERE.