Records for Frida Kahlo and Surrealists at Sotheby's
Overall result of the three separate catalogues reached $304.6 million, many female records
Key points
The last round of evening auctions in New York on 20 November at Sotheby's concluded in the best possible way an intense week that had seen the market react positively to the offer of quality works from prestigious collections. The role of collections was crucial also and above all on this last occasion, when the evening was punctuated by three separate catalogues, the first two devoted respectively to a collection of Impressionism and early 20th century art, the second to Surrealist art, while the General Catalogue in turn included two collections and lots offered for sale by Phillips of WashingtonDC. The overall result adds $304.6m to Sotheby's realisation, taking it over $1.1bn for the week, with all 66 lots sold (after three withdrawals), just over the overall high estimate of $289m after commissions were added. Four records were also achieved all for Surrealist works from the second catalogue named 'Exquisite Corpus' for not revealing the identity of the collector.
The Pritzker Collection
The evening was kicked off by 13 works by big names from the Impressionist and early 20th century the Cindy and Jay Pritzker collection, which sparked several million-dollar bidding contests realising a total of $109.5 million, thanks mainly to a Van Gogh still life from late 1887: ''Romans parisiens'' depicts a haphazard group of open books and flowers in a sunny domestic atmosphere, and was contested to the point of exceeding the asking estimate by $40 million, finishing at $62.7 million perhaps to an Asian client represented by an art advisor in the room. This was the highest price for a Still Life by the artist; a second work by him, a drawing of a public garden from 1988, reached the high estimate of $3 million with commissions. A second lot in the collection surpassed the ten million mark and its high estimate at $10.4 million with commissions: a sensual figure by Henri Matisse 'Leda et le cygne' painted at the turn of the war between 1944 and 1946, nimbly went over the third-party guarantee; four lots were guaranteed by third parties, but only one sold below the low estimate.
The Surrealism of the 'Exquisite Corpus' catalogue'
The second catalogue also attracted several bids, which brought the 24 lots to a total revenue of USD 98.1 million. Once again thanks to the record result of 'El sueno (La cama)' by Frida Kahlo, a highly intimate self-portrait of the artist painted at a particularly dramatic moment in her life, in 1940, which started with a guaranteed third-party estimate of USD 40-60 million and was contended for up to USD 54.7 million with commissions, more than a thousand times the auction result back in 1980. This is not only a personal record, but also an absolute record for an artist. The catalogue also featured five other artists associated with the Surrealist movement, with results beyond expectations for two works by Kay Sage fetching $2m each, a work by Valentine Hugo fetching $825,000, eight times its low estimate, a 1943 painting by Remedios Varo at $950,000 and a second record for a 1951 work by Dorothea Tanning 'Interior with Sudden Joy' that surpassed its high estimate at $3.2m with commissions.
For once, Magritte did not feature in a catalogue of Surrealism, although it brought $11.5 million in total realisation with five works sold, leaving room for two other records for as many artists: Wolfgang Paalen's Alaska Fairy from 1937 at $1m, three times the low estimate, and Hans Bellmer who broke his own record twice on the same evening, the second time with 'Les Bas rayes' from 1958 that came close to $1m at $943,000. As many as 17 lots were guaranteed by third parties, but only two appear to have helped the sale, while four non-guaranteed lots sold significantly down their respective reserves, including de Chirico's 'Le Muse inquietanti' from 1924 previously owned by Breton which confirmed its low estimate of $3m only with the addition of commissions.
The General Catalogue of Modern Art
Concluding the evening were the 32 lots of the catalogue from different owners, which became 29 after three withdrawals including a landscape by Monet valued at $4-6 million, bringing in revenue of $97 million with a limited number of eight third-party guarantees, including all three lots from the Phillips Collection whose sale raised several concerns and objections.
