The trade press were not impressed by the previous evening sale at Phillips, and I will post some interesting comments I have received on the sale from some professional art insiders that takes a differing viewpoint on the success/failure of the Phillips sale. The press was much more excited about the results of the Christie's sale.
The Chrisite's sale included 26 lots from the collection of internet entrepreneur Peter Norton, for a total of 91 offered lots. Of the 91 lots only 9 failed to sell for a very strong 90% sell through rate. The sale also had a very respectable 87% sold by value ratio. The pre sale estimate total for the sale was $226.4 million to $312.3 million estimates, with the final results of $247.6 million falling nicely between the high and low estimates.
The top selling lot was by Roy Lichtenstein which hammered down at $43.2 million including buyers premium (see image). The lot was estimated at $35 million to $45 million and was a world record at auction for the artist.
Chrsite's reported on the sale
Next up is the Sotheby's sale.The top lot of the sale was Roy Lichtenstein’s, I Can See the Whole Room…and There's Nobody in It!, which set a new auction record of $43,202,500 (₤26,785,550/€31,105,800). Painted in 1961, it is one of the earliest and most important of Lichtenstein's Pop Art pictures, formerly in the collection of the pioneering collectors Emily and Burton Tremaine. The previous record for a Lichtenstein work was for Ohhh ... Alright..., 1964, sold at Christie’s New York in November 2010 for $42.6 million.
“This is an extremely strong sale result, with great depth of bidding across multiple genres and periods, from the great giants of Pop Art to the strongest artists of the 1990s and the 2000s,” said Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s. “The world’s top ten collectors were present in the saleroom tonight, and a global community of collectors was bidding aggressively on works by the pre-eminent artists in this category – from Lichtenstein to Bourgeois, Ligon to McCarthy, Gursky to Ray. We are delighted to report more than a dozen new records for many well-deserving artists, and a new top price for any photograph sold at auction.”
The sale got off to a strong start with Part I of the Collection of Peter Norton, the Los Angeles collector and software entrepreneur. Eager bidders snapped up each one of the 26 lots offered, driving prices to new auction records for nine artists. The star lot of the Collection was Paul McCarthy’s Tomato Head (Green), a life-size re-interpretation of a child’s toy, with interchangeable body parts. After a bidding battle involving multiple clients in the room and on the phone, the work sold for $4,562,500 (£2,828,750/€3,285,000), setting a new auction record for the artist.
Further highlights from the Peter Norton Collection included Robert Gober’s Prison Window, an installation work, which sold for $3,386,500 (£2,099,630/€2,438,280), and Charles Ray’s Table, a multimedia sculpture, which fetched $3,106,500 (£1,926,030/€2,236,680) – a new world auction record for the artist. The Collection also featured the provocateur Maurizio Cattelan, whose Untitled, a miniature replica of a commercial elevator, achieved $1,022,500 (₤633,950/€736,200).
In the main portion of the Evening Sale, strong prices were achieved for Mark Rothko’s White Cloud, which sold for $18,562,500 (₤11,508,750/€13,365,000) and two works by Andy Warhol: Silver Liz, a luminous portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, which sold for $16,322,500 (₤10,119,950/€11,752,200), and Four Campbell’s Soup Cans, painted in 1962, which realized $9,826,500 (₤6,092,430/€7,075,080).
Among the themes and trends that emerged during the sale was the strong demand for works by top women artists, led by Louise Bourgeois, Sophie Calle, Barbara Kruger, Vija Clemins, Kara Walker, and Mona Hatoum. Louise Bourgeois’s 21-foot wide bronze, Spider, soared beyond its pre-sale estimate of $4-6 million to achieve a new world auction record for the artist at $10,722,500 (£6,647,950/€7,720,200). The price stands among the highest prices ever achieved at auction for a work by a female artist, exceeding the record price by GBP of £6.4 million set for Natalia Goncharova’s Espagnole at Christie’s London in 2010, and narrowly missing the record price by USD of $10.86 million set for Goncharova’s Les Fleurs at Christie’s London in 2008.
In addition to the new world auction records for Lichtenstein and Bourgeois, new records were established for the following artists, including:
Barbara Kruger - $902,500 for Untitled (When I hear the word culture I take out my checkbook), 1985
Paul McCarthy - $4,562,500 for Tomato Head (Green), 1994
Glenn Ligon - $1,178,500 for Untitled (Stranger in the Village #17), 2000
Mona Hatoum - $470,500 for Silence executed in 1994.
Sophie Calle - $218,500 for The Sleepers (Les dormeurs), executed in 1979
Charles Ray - $3,106,500 for Table, plexiglas and steel, executed in 1990
Yinka Shonibare MBE - $194,500 for Hound, executed in 2000
Christian Marclay - $266,500 for Guitar Neck, executed in 1992
Fred Tomaselli - $1,650,500 for Untitled (Expulsion), executed in 2000
Vija Celmins - $902,500 for Sea Drawing with Whale, circa 1969
Andreas Gursky - $4,338,500 for Rhein II, executed in 1999; WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR ANY PHOTOGRAPH SOLD AT AUCTION
Additional records were established for a specific medium, including:
Alexander Calder - $4,786,500 for Sumac, executed in 1961; WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR FOR A MOBILE BY THE ARTIST
Jean Dubuffet - $1,202,500 for Canotin mâche oeil, executed in 1967; WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR A SCULPTURE BY THE ARTIST
Wayne Thibaud - $1,650,500 for Sixteen Pies, executed in 1965; WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR A WORK ON PAPER BYTHE ARTIST
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