Collections and collateral featured at Sotheby's New York
The three catalogues brought a realisation of $186.1m, half of the total pre-sale estimates. Italian post-war art did well
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Key points
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The three-part evening offered by Sotheby's on the evening of 15 May in New York closed the calendar by confirming the trends that had emerged since the start of the week: the high-end market is holding up thanks to the guarantees, but the attendance is very low, except for works that are genuinely rare on the market, with reasonable estimates, and by established artists. The total result of $186.1m, half of the total pre-sale estimates, was due to the sum of two catalogues from as many collections, followed by the general catalogue which brought in $127.1m. Of the 68 lots offered, only three remained unsold, but half were guaranteed by third parties, virtually all of them the most important.
The Gladstone Collection
.The 12 works from the collection of historic gallerist Barbara Gladstone opened the sales, with uncertain results: not least because only one was guaranteed, 'Man Crazy Nurse' from the eponymous series painted by Richard Prince, which probably ended up at the guarantor below its estimate at $3.5m, which with commissions verges on the low estimate of $4m, well below recent records for this series. Another work by Prince but from the six 'jokes' series 'Are you Kidding?' brought another $3.5m, a significant part of the $18.5m total, with results beyond expectations for Thomas Schutte, On Kawara and especially Carroll Dunham contended to double the estimate to $762,000, a new record for the artist. Provenance therefore helped but selectively.
Spatialism and Arte Povera from the Danielle Luxembourg Collection
The provenance and relative caution in the estimates, however, led to results beyond expectations in the second catalogue, a selection of 15 lots focusing on Italian and American art from the turn of the 1960s to the 1970s owned by gallery owner Danielle Luxembourg. Well 12 of the 15 lots were protected by third-party warranties, which proved to be useless as they received sometimes protracted bids, as in the case of Michelangelo Pistoletto's historic 1969 'mirror' depicting 'Maria nuda', executed with a pictorial technique on tissue paper glued to the reflective surface, which ended up with Claudia Dwek, the auction house's Italian client, at $3.4 million, more than three times its low estimate.
Only two raises, however, for Fontana's rare 'End of God' from 1963, which fetched $14.5 million within the $12-18 million estimate, and towards the middle of the record prices for this series of only 38 works. A further $2.6 million proceeds were due to four works by Lucio Fontana, while again for Italian art, a 'Carpet' by Pino Pascali from 1968 fetched $1.6 million, four times its low estimate. The two 'mobiles' by Calder brought another $10.6 million, led by 'Armanda' from 1946 at $6.4 million. All in all positive confirmation then for post-war Italian art.
The General Catalogue
.The catalogue of 43 lots, down to 41 after two withdrawals, was protected by some 20 third-party guarantees, and brought in $127.1m with three unsold among them Cecily Brown's 2016 work 'Burkini Kill' estimated at $1.8-2.5m. A major contribution came from the nine works by Roy Lichtenstein from his succession, all of which secured a total of $29m, exceeding expectations, led by 'Reflections: Art' which approached $5.5m.
