Andy Warhol sells at Christie’s, via Art Observed

The results are in on an auction that exceeded any and all expectations tonight at Christie’s, and a new world auction record has been set for auctions overall.  Despite early calls that the auction would be marked by excessive guarantors and limited betting, all expectations were broken.  Christie’s surged past the previous high it set late last year, arriving at a final sales record of $744 million for the 68 lot auction, with only four works going unsold, bringing down a number of world auction records with it on the way.  The sale was also defined by an impressively deep level of wealth over the highest priced works.  63 of the lots managed to sell for over $1 million, and 4 surged past the $50 million mark, eliciting astonishment by many on hand.

Barnett Newman, Black Fire I (1961) which sold for a record $84.165 million, via Christie’s

(more…)

Pollock’s Number 19 Sells to Applause at Christie’s, via Charles Shoener for Art Observed

Christie’s contemporary evening sale made history last night in grand style, storming through its 72 lots to realize a world record $495 Million sales total that included new auction records for Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and 13 other artists, aided auction house’s impressively assembled catalog.  Hailing a “new era in the art market,” according to auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen, the show achieved an almost unheard of sell-through rate of 94%, with only four works failing to find buyers.  The sale also continues Christie’s growing dominance in the auction market, eclipsing the previous night’s sale at Sotheby’s with little difficulty.

The top selling lot of the night, Jackson Pollock’s Number 19, 1948 (1948), via Christie’s

(more…)