Richter and Minimalism close evening auctions at Christie's
The two catalogues awarded 42 lots for $162.7 million, 24 were covered by guarantees
Key points
The most recent New York evening auction session was promoted by Christie's on 20 May and featured two catalogues with a total of 42 lots (after the withdrawal of a work byKerry James Marshall from 2015 estimated at $2m-$3m), with a total realisation of $162.7m with commissions, thanks to only one unsold lot, a work by Ed Ruscha from 2000 estimated at $3.5-5.5m, and no less than 24 third-party guarantees, which in a third of cases may have saved the lot from going unsold, plus some direct guarantees from the auction house.
The Minimalism of the McNeil Collection
The first catalogue brings together the 12 most important works from the collection of Henry S. McNeil Jr. of Philadelpia, a great expert and passionate promoter of American Minimalism, who passed away last year. Ten lots were protected by third-party guarantees, four of which were added just before the auction, which proved essential in saving three lots from going unsold. Two other works with estimates below the $100,000 threshold were guaranteed by the auction house and performed better than expected, with a wooden structure by Artschwager from 1967 achieving a tenfold increase in its low estimate to $635,000. Half of the $25.9m realisation, in the middle of the pre-auction estimates, was due to Donald Judd's distinctive 10-part identical copper and Plexiglas structure from 1969, which fetched $12.8m with commissions, up from the $10-15m estimate.
The catalogue featured three more works by Judd, adding another $7.5 million to the total. Two typical works by Carl Andre consisting of metal elements to be assembled on the floor brought another $2m, with the most recent from 2006 doubling the high estimate to $1.1m, while the 1970 work finished below the low estimate at $889k, probably to the bailer. The two lots by Sol Lewitt in the catalogue, a wall painting and a wooden structure, each fetched $445,000, while a 1963 Dan Flavin yellow neon tribute to Brancusi in an edition of three fetched $1.650m with commissions from the $1.5-2m estimate.
Marian Goodman's Richter
Immediately following this was the general catalogue of 30 lots which fetched $136.8m, of which no less than $78.8m came from the first eight lots, all works by Gerhard Richter and all from the personal collection of the great art dealer Marian Goodman, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 97. The six canvases with million-dollar estimates were protected by third-party guarantees, while the two small oils on photography estimated at under $100,000 were guaranteed directly by Christie's and both exceeded the high estimates. The five abstract works on canvas also surpassed expectations, led by the largest two-metre composition 'Mohn (Poppy)' from 1995, which traded at $20.2m from an estimate of $14-18m, while a much smaller one from the same year fetched $8.7m (estimate $3-5m), and the other three around one metre in size composed in 1999, 2008 and 2009 added a further $14.5m to the total, confirming the good health of the market for abstract works by the great German painter.
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Disappointing, however, was the only realistic work from the celebrated candle series: 'Kerze' from 1982, a canvas measuring one metre by 70 cm, stopped well short of its $35-50 million estimate, reaching $35.1 million thanks to commissions alone; the high estimate, if reached, would have brought a new record price for the artist, who remains firmly anchored in large abstract canvases. Even the prestigious provenance did not achieve the desired outcome. However, the rare canvases depicting candles remain at the top of Richter's photo-realistic production, thanks also to the spiritual aura of the work and its presence in several museums; his market has also benefited from the great retrospective dedicated to him by the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
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