Christie’s 20th Century evening sale concluded this evening (November 9) and proved a marathon, packed with blue-chip gems from several prestigious private collections, proffering a contrast to past seasons where a single blockbuster name—Rockefeller, for instance, or that of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen—decided the entire tone of the auction season.
The auction house pulled off the biggest and most successful non-single-owner sale in auction week thus far (and potentially recent memory?), boosted by the collections of late entertainment industry icons such as record executive Jerry Moss (the “M” in A&M records) and legendary Hollywood movie director Ivan Reitman—not to speak of other individual works with sterling provenance, including a painting formerly owned by David Geffen.
The fact that the 65-lot sale was so heavily guaranteed, with a mix of direct guarantees and mostly those backed by third parties, did not seem to have a dampening effect on demand, or competitive bidding, which was consistently lively and energetic throughout the two-and-a-half hour auction.
In a sign of how much wheeling and dealing takes place in the hours leading up to the sale, roughly a half dozen new third-party guarantees were announced at the start of the sale, in addition to the roughly 19 others already confirmed earlier in the day. Midway through the auction, after a brief pause, yet another lot was announced as under a third-party guarantee before the bidding was opened.
The sale also marked the end of an era, as veteran auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen, who has been with Christie’s for 38 years, presided over his final sale before he moves on to a new career as a private advisor. Pylkkänen, who handled the first half of the sale in a buoyant light-hearted mood, thanked the audience numerous times for what he described as “amazing adventures,” over the years and left the rostrum to a standing ovation after presiding over the sale of the top lot of the night, Claude Monet’s Le basin aux nympheas, for a premium-inclusive $74 million.
Pylkkänen later recounted how he started at Christie’s front desk in London when he was just 22 years old and later came to New York to take over as chief auctioneer when his legendary predecessor, Christopher Burge, stepped down.
Midway through the sale, when Adrien Meyer, Christie’s global head of private sales, and co-chairman of the Impressionist and modern art department took over the rostrum, he stepped up the pace even further and made a few jokes about keeping the bidding moving at a rapid pace so that people could move on to their dinner reservations, eliciting laughs from the crowd.
“What a night for Christie’s and what a night for the art market,” Pylkkänen said at the post-sale press conference, even as he acknowledged the current uncertainty in the market and the world at large. “I think there was some trepidation as we went into this season, given what’s going on globally. We were very cautious about how we managed the sales.” He thanked his colleagues, calling them “the best team I’ve ever worked with,” and also talked about the incredible growth of the international art market in his time at the auction house.
The sale total was $640.9 million, which was just below the revised high estimate of $660 million. It was revised down to reflect that two lots—an Ed Ruscha work, and a painting by Theo Van Rysselberghe—were withdrawn before the sale.
Reported sell-through rates were just a few points away from a so-called “white-glove” sale, and six artist records were set. These included Richard Diebenkorn’s Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad selling for $46.4 million. It was followed by Joan Mitchell’s Untitled, which sold for $29 million. Arshile Gorky’s Charred Beloved I sold for $23.4 million. Barbara Hepworth’s The Family of Man: Ancestor II sold for $11.6 million, while Fernando Botero’s The Musicians achieved $5 million and Joan Snyder’s The Stripper sold for $478,800.
Read on for our breakdown of the stats behind the spin.
Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale:
· Total Sales After Fees: $640.8 million
· Lots Sold (Including Guaranteed Lots): 61
· Lots on Offer Before Withdrawals: 65
· Lots Withdrawn Presale: 2
· Lots Bought In: 2
· Sell-through Rate Counting Withdrawals: 94 percent
· Sell-through Rate Excluding Withdrawals: 97 percent
· Hammer Total: $543.5 million
· Presale Low Estimate Before Withdrawals: $531 million
· Hammer Total vs. Presale Low Estimate: + $12.5 million
· Total Low Estimate of Withdrawn Lots: $8 million
· Total Low Estimate of Guaranteed Lots: $376.5 million (70.9 percent of total presale low estimate)
· Total Low Estimate of Third-Party Guaranteed Lots: $335.9 (63 percent of total presale low estimate)
· Total Low Estimate of House Guaranteed Lots: $40.6 million (8 percent of total presale low estimate)
· Lots with Third-Party Guarantees: 25
· Lots With House Guarantees: 6 (originally 7 but one was withdrawn)
· Lots Guaranteed: 31
· Top Seller: Claude Monet’s Le basin aux nymphéas hammered for $64 million or $74 million with premium as compared with a presale expectation in the range of $65 million.
· Quote of the Night: Jussi Pylkkänen “Good evening and welcome to Rockefeller Center for what will be my last auction.”
· Parting Shot: More than once, Adrien Meyer, who helmed the second half of the sale, made it clear he was cognizant of how long it was running. At one point he nudged a specialist whose phone client was taking a long time to make a decision: “People have dinner plans.”
· Bonus: When former Christie’s executive-turned-private dealer Amy Cappellazzo, seated in the auction room, was trying to make a decision about whether to bid again, Meyer suggested a lower than normal increment would be okay, and joked: “Because it’s you and it’s late?” She did not bid again.
Next Sale Up: Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale on Monday November 13.
Check back throughout the week for our continuing coverage of this season’s sales slate.
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