Records smashed at fall auctions - Front Page - art sales at auction houses Sotheby's, Christie's and Phillips de Pury and Luxembour

Art in America, Jan, 2004 by David Ebony

After several years marked by slumps and scandals, New York's three biggest auction houses were on the rebound this fall. The salesrooms at Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg were packed during the fortnight of evening auctions of Impressionist, modern and contemporary are Incense bidding and some wild spending sprees energized each sale, resulting in a number of record-breaking auction prices for individual artists and the strongest season totals for Sotheby's and Christie's since fall 2000. Sotheby's was on top this time, pulling in $244.1 million. Christie's was not far behind with a $223.5-million total, while Phillips, which participated only in the contemporary-art week, took in $14.7 million. Final prices quoted here include the auction house commissions: Sotheby's charges 20 percent of the first $100,000 and 12 percent of the rest; Christie's commission is 19.5 percent of the first $100,000 and 12 percent of the rest; Phillips charges 19.5 percent of the first $100,000, and 10 percent of any amount above that.

Impressionist and Modern:

A lively evening sale at Christie's on Tuesday, Nov. 4, kicked off the season and set the tone for the following two weeks. The auction's total, $117 million, was in the middle range of the night's $90.5-$125.2-million presale estimate, and 43 of the 51 lots offered sold. Modigliani's large canvas Reclining Nude (on Her Side), 1917, from the collection of Las Vegas casino magnate Stephen A. Wynn, was the evening's cop lot, It sold co an anonymous phone bidder for $26.9 million (est. $20-$25 million), a record auction price for the artist Another auction record was set for Leger, when his classic Cubist painting Woman in Red and Green (1914) shot past its $15-million high estimate to sell for $22.4 million. An auction high was also set for Henry Moore when his large bronze Three Piece Reclining Figure Draped (1975) brought $6.2 million, above its $5-million high estimate. Among the other highlights of the sale were van Gogh's brilliant watercolor study for his well-known painting Bridge of Langlois at Arles (1888), which sold for $8.3 million (est. $6-$8 million), and a Giacometti bronze Bust of Diego (1955), which brought $2.4 million (est. $600,000-$800,000).

The following evening at Sotheby's was similarly vigorous. Although 17 of the 57 lots offered failed to sell, the evening's total, $125.5 million, was within the $111.8-$155.9-million pre-sale estimate. New auction records were established for six artists. The star lot, Klimt's large landscape Villa at Attersee (1917), brought a whopping $29.1 million; it exceeded its $25-million high estimate and set a new auction record for the artist. Monet's Waterlilies (1908), a particularly luminous example from the series, brought $10.4 million (est. $10-$15 million); and a large van Gogh watercolor, Harvest in Provence (1988), garnered $10.3 million (est. $7-$9 million).

Among other auction records, Alexej yon Jawlensky's vibrant portrait of the model Schokk0 (1910), with a green face, sold for $8.3 million (est. $5-$7 million); and a large canvas by German Neue Sachlichkeit painter George Scholz, featuring a stylized portrait of Lenin, Of Things to Come (1922), garnered $579,200 (est. $200,000-$300,000). However, despite these successes, a number of major lots by artists including Picasso, Bonnard and Kandinsky were bought in.

Contemporary:

Building upon the momentum of the previous week, Christie's Post-War and Contemporary art sale on Tuesday evening, Nov. 11, produced consistently strong results. The total, $62 million, was in the middle range of its $50.3-$68.4-million estimate. All but 11 of the 68 lots offered sold; 18 went for over $1 million, and new auction records were set for 11 artists. The top lot, a large untitled 1963 canvas by Mark Rothko, was knocked down for $7.2 million, well above its $6-million high estimate. Alexander Calder's auction record was broken when his 11-foot-high untitled red steel stabile (1968) brought $5.8 million (est. $4-$5 million). Gray Numbers (1957), a Jasper Johns painting from the collection of the late MOMA curator Dorothy C. Miller, sold for $5.3 million (est. $5-$7 million); another work from the Miller collection, a small, untitled 1960 canvas-and-wire construction by Lee Bontecou, trounced its $70,000 high estimate to sell for $260,000.

One of the night's high points was Celebration (1960), a large abstract canvas by Lee Krasner, which was acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Art for $1.9 million, far above its $300,000-$400,000 estimate and a record auction price for the artist. A medium-sized canvas by Clyfford Still, 1745-R (1945), went for $1.9 million (est. $1.2-$1.6 million), another artist auction record.

Fireman and Drunk (1989), one of Richard Prince's large "joke paintings," was knocked down for $365,900, more than double its high estimate; and Jeff Koons's bronze Lifeboat (1985) brought $2 million (est. $1.6-$1.9 million). A figure study by Marlene Dumas, Wet Dreams (1987), sold for $332,300 (est. $120,000-$160,000), an auction record for the artist; and a photo triptych by Matthew Barney, Cremaster 2-Genealogy (1999), fetched $186,700 (est. $120,000-$180,000).