Records secured for contemporary at Christie's
In New York the proceeds for the 36 lots offered stood at $96.5 million, above the low estimate. Women artists with records for Dumas, Leigh and McIntyre
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Key points
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As happened on 12 May for modern art, the script of guarantees protecting only apparently positive results was repeated for the catalogue devoted to the 21st century at Christie's on the evening of 14 May. The total proceeds from the 36 lots sold after three withdrawals, including a work by Christopher Wool from 1988 estimated at $3.5-5.5m, and as many unsold lots, including a work by Ellsworth Kelly guaranteed by the auction house (estimated at $2-3m), came to $96.5m, above the low estimate after adding commissions.
Basquiat and the guarantees
.It should also be borne in mind that two-thirds of the lots, all of which were highly valued, were secured by third parties, who often became the buyers in the absence of other, increasingly rare, bids. As may have happened to the main lot of the evening, Basquiat's large painting 'Baby Boom' from 1982, the favourite year of collectors such as Peter Brant who put it up for sale at a guaranteed estimate of $20-30 million, and it sold at the low estimate of $23.4 million with commissions, leaving a shadow on the sustainability of this much 'pumped-up' market in the recent past.
Female record
.The only other realisation over ten million dollars came from an unscrupulous record realisation by guarantee for 72-year-old Marlene Dumas, whose nearly three-metre vertical painting of a half-naked female figure from 1997 belonging to the Rubell family of Miami most likely ended up with a guarantor for $11.5 million, below the unprecedented estimate of $12-18 million, or $13.6 million with commissions.
Records were also set by the darling of the last Biennale Simone Leigh whose three-metre-plus bronze sculpture 'Sentinel IV' in 2020 exceeded its guaranteed estimate of $3.5-5.5 million to $5.7 million with commissions.
The auction ended with yet another female record for 35-year-old Emma McIntyre whose large canvas from 2021 was disputed at length to exceed $200,000, four times the low unsecured estimate. Also in contention was Cecily Brown's rosy-toned painting 'Bedtime Story' which surpassed its high estimate at $6.2m with commissions, while it was probably saved by guarantorsJulie Mehretu whose large composition 'Kabul' changed hands at $3.4m, and Jenny Saville at $1.8m. It is now Sotheby's' turn to close the auction round on the evening of 15 May.
