Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, art news Newsletter about the art market and beyond. Register here Receive it every Wednesday.
After a couple of quiet auction seasons, next week’s big auction in New York is packed with inventory. On Monday night alone, Christie’s will send 80 works to the neighborhood. This week, 27 lots were estimated to exceed $10 million—“an astonishing number in a volatile market,” as one art advisor recently put it. In May, the number was about half, and there were almost no fireworks at the sales office. Is the market ready?
It’s a top-heavy season, and one consultant told me that the trickiest price range will be the $2 million to $5 million price range because the works offered at that level aren’t the easiest to sell overall. Take Richard Prince for example double nurse (2001), with an estimated cost of $3 million to $5 million. Prince’s one-person painting “Nurse” is generally considered more popular among collectors. For similar reasons, much of the material from the late collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson may be considered challenging for most buyers. The Incredible by Ron Mueck big baby (1997) is one of the works from their collection that will be sold next week, after all it is not the best-selling work in the world.
There are some great estates coming up, chief among them the estate of Leonard Lauder. The estates of Robert F. Weis and Patricia G. Ross Weis, who acquired many of their works between the 1960s and 1980s, are also up for sale. But apart from estates, discretionary sellers are hard to find.
I decided to consider a lower price point—namely, some of the works in the day’s sale that were worth less than a million dollars. There are some interesting scenes.
Steve Parrino’s screw ball“” is a 1988 wrinkle painting last sold in 2020 on Loïc Gouzer’s Fair Warning platform for nearly $1 million. It is currently estimated at $300,000 to $500,000 by Christie’s; the work will be offered at the auction house’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Day sale on November 20.
Although the provenance of the auction house can explain a lot, there are also many things that cannot be explained. Take Lynn Drexler as an example Keller Expo II (1959-62), also in the day’s sale, is estimated to fetch between $800,000 and $1.2 million. Christie’s has no exhibition history for the work in its catalog; however, a quick Google search shows it appears in Art Intelligence Global’s first show in Hong Kong in 2022, “Smashed: Color Field and Women of Abstract Expressionism,” which, according to Artnet, is priced between $15,000 and $2.5 million.
Also up for auction that day was a 2013 painting by Avery Singer great musethe painting was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in November 2022, but that auction cannot be found in Christie’s current provenance of the painting. When I contacted the home, a representative told me the 2022 sale had been cancelled. But one result is still listed on Christie’s website, Artnet and other databases: about $3 million. “Singer” is currently estimated at $600,000 to $800,000.
What’s largely missing this time around is the “wet paint” art that has been selling like hotcakes during and immediately after the pandemic. However, they haven’t completely disappeared.
All three paintings were purchased at Christie’s Hong Kong in 2022, during the height of speculation and Asian buying, and they will return to the market in Christie’s Day Sale. Luis Fratino Lights out at 11 p.m. (2020), sold for $115,000 at a Hong Kong auction; it is now being offered for $50,000 to $70,000. Emily Mae Smith as they say in the garden (2019) sold for $454,000 and is currently estimated at $80,000 to $120,000. Salman Toole’s Poor homeless ghost (2015) sold for $113,000 and is currently estimated at $60,000 to $80,000.
It will be interesting to see what happens to Robert Nava’s paintings in 2020 tiger sharksold to its current owner at the 2021 Nava Breakthrough Show at Pace Gallery in Palm Beach. Paintings of similar size by Nava have sold for as much as $716,500 (2019 painting) before the minotaur Phillips in October 2022). Pegasus(BDC)from 2018, sold at Sotheby’s in May 2023 for $356,000, and saber tooth tiger rose growing (2021) sold at Christie’s later that year for $356,000. Now available at Christie’s tiger shark Estimate is $80,000 to $120,000.
Another thing you won’t find in the provenance is withdrawn lots, like this 2008 Maurizio Cattelan sculpture daddy daddy“Pinocchio,” a face-down Pinocchio originally intended to be installed in a pool, will be on display at Phillips’ Modern and Contemporary Art Day sale on November 21. Whoever purchased the sculpture (the second of three plus two artist proofs) at Christie’s in 2020 for $1.2 million consigned it to Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2022, but withdrew it before the sale. Estimates now range from $600,000 to $800,000.
You may recognize another work from Phillips’ day sale: a 2013 Carol Bove sculpture composed of peacock feathers in a Plexiglas box. It was featured in Christie’s famous “11th Hour” sale in 2013, where all works were sold to raise funds for environmental conservation efforts supported by the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation. It was a high-profile event—attended by Bradley Cooper and Salma Hayek—and set 13 artist auction records, including a work by Boff, when a peacock feather sold for $300,000. The buyer was Belle Faxter Collector and dealer Alberto Mugrabi is selling the work at Phillips Auction House, with an estimate of $50,000 to $70,000.
Two other interesting tidbits from the day’s sale: It’s always interesting to look at an artist’s collection, especially one as famous as Joel Shapiro, who died in June. Several of his peers’ works from the collection are for sale at Sotheby’s, including works by Richard Pettibone, Richard Archivalger and Donald Judd. Other works from the Shapiro collection will be auctioned next week at Stair Galleries.
Finally, I’d love to know who is selling the birthday gift George Condo gave them.
