(Bloomberg) -- Attendees of New York’s mega November auction week were treated to something the market hasn’t seen in more than a year: drama.
It started on Tuesday night at Christie’s, when two anonymous phone bidders duked it out for the opportunity to purchase a version of René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières while the packed, pin-drop-silent salesroom looked on. (Final price: $121 million.) The next night’s sale of Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous Comedian, a banana duct-taped to a wall, had the standing-room-only crowd at Sotheby’s raising its phones in unison to document the bidding; a crypto tycoon bought it for $6.2 million.
Yet despite the bullish headlines, the auctions offered decidedly mixed results. Overall, Christie’s sold $623.2 million (and counting) in art this week, within but definitely not exceeding its presale estimates of $583 million to $796 million; Sotheby’s sold $533 million after anticipating it would sell between $479 million and $659 million; and Phillips totaled a disappointing $79.2 million after estimating that its sales would bring in $86 million to $127 million. The three auction houses’ total is down by about 40% from last year’s November sales, which amounted to more than $2 billion.
“The market’s still recalibrating,” says the adviser Jacob King, referring to a post-2022 slump. “Part of the difficulties you’re seeing in the auctions, with certain things not selling or selling much lower than the estimate, is because the market hasn’t adjusted, and you’re seeing it happen in real time.”
Take, King suggests, Woman in Tub, by Jeff Koons; the sculpture, estimated between $10 million and $15 million, failed to sell at Sotheby’s on Wednesday night. “Obviously, everyone expected it would do well, and it didn’t,” he says. “The Koons market is falling and probably still has more of a way to fall.”
And yet there were undoubtedly bright lights. Koons and a few others aside, the evening sales saw strong results at a variety of price points. Notably, Sotheby’s evening sale of the late beauty mogul Sydell Miller’s art on Monday night yielded about $216 million, nicely above its high estimate of $205 million; Christie’s 21st century sale on Thursday night was robust, totaling $106.5 million, just below its presale high estimate of $113 million.
“The auction houses tried to pick out what they thought was fashionable right now,” says Philip Hoffman, chief executive officer of the Fine Art Group. “There was about 70% of the art market that they avoided quite deliberately,” he continues. (There was a notable absence of formerly in-demand young artists, for instance.) “So the perception of the art market picking up and doing really well is completely untrue, but the fact that selective artists are doing incredibly well is very true.”
The top 10 works sold for $405.8 million; last November’s top 10 totaled $562 million, a year-over-year decline of nearly 28%. Look below to see the week’s highest performers, counting up to the top lot. (You’ll note not one but two examples of Magritte’s L’Empire des lumières series!)
$17 million for Joan Mitchell’s City Landscape
Estimated between $15 million and $20 million, it sold at Christie’s.
$18.8 million for René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières
Estimated between $6 million and $8 million, it sold at Christie’s.
$19 million for David Hockney’s Still Life on a Glass Table
Estimated between $15 million and $20 million, it sold at Christie’s.
$21.6 million for Wassily Kandinsky’s Weisses Oval (White Oval)
Estimated between $15 million and $20 million, it sold at Sotheby’s.
$23 million for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled
Estimated between $20 million and $30 million, it sold at Christie’s.
$24.8 million for Pablo Picasso’s La Statuaire
Estimated in the region of $30 million, it sold at Sotheby’s.
$26.6 million for Alberto Giacometti’s Femme qui marche (II)
Estimated between $20 million and $30 million, it sold at Christie’s.
$65.5 million for Claude Monet’s Nymphéas
Estimated in the region of $60 million, it sold at Sotheby’s.
$68.3 million for Ed Ruscha’s Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half
Estimated in the region of $50 million, it sold at Christie’s.
$121.2 million for René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières
Estimated to sell for about $95 million, it sold at Christie’s.
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