Auction houses end November sales season with ‘solid’ US$2 billion

THERE are a few ways to interpret the news that the annual November New York auctions sold more than US$2 billion worth of art in the last two weeks.

The first is to admire the sheer amount of money that changed hands: About US$175 million at Phillips, US$864 million at Christie’s and a bit more than US$1 billion at Sotheby’s-a total helped significantly by the US$139 million sale of a single Picasso painting.

“When you’re in a place where the rest of the world feels very fragile and very uneasy, and you see this much art sold without any real sort of catastrophes, that has to be summarised by saying that this is a solid market,” says the adviser Abigail Asher, who bid at Sotheby’s on Wednesday (Nov 15) night.

The less charitable standpoint would be to compare totals to last year, when more than US$1.5 billion worth of art from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen helped the auction houses ring in their best total ever: US$3 billion. Judged against those stellar results, the 33 per cent year-over-year drop would indicate that the art market’s downward trend has continued.

Dealers agreed that the auction houses put together strong sales in turbulent times. Even so, bidding for some of the most expensive lots seemed thinner than usual. “The only slowdown in interest compared to former years is in the much-higher-value end of the industry,” says adviser Jude Hess, who attended the sales. “When the estimates were high, and especially when lots were guaranteed, there was less demand than previously.”

On Wednesday, a colossal Basquiat that dealers agreed was top-quality barely eked past its low estimate, selling with fees for US$42 million. (The artist’s auction record, US$110.5 million, was set in 2017.) Similarly, at Christie’s on Nov 9, an excellent Francis Bacon from 1976 that carried an unofficial estimate of US$50 million appeared to sell to its guarantor for a US$45 million hammer; fees brought the total to US$52 million. (That’s well below the US$70.2 million achieved for a single canvas by Bacon, set a decade ago in 2014, and a fraction of the artist’s auction record of US$142.4 million, set in 2013 for a triptych.)

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Instead, there was evidence of intense bidding only for the rarest works: A Diebenkorn, which carried an unofficial estimate of US$25 million, sold for US$46.4 million with fees at Christie’s after intense bidding. At Sotheby’s, a lustrous painting by Mark Rothko, which had a high estimate of US$10 million, sold after concerted bidding for just under US$24 million. Similarly intense competition drove a superb Agnes Martin’s final price to just under US$19 million, well above its US$8 million high estimate.

“In the instances where prices didn’t seem bullish,” Asher concludes, “perhaps that’s just a reflection of where we are and where we’re going, which is a place of sanity. Because at the end of the day, there are a lot of collectors out there who still want the rare, the gorgeous, the great.”

For the 10 highest performers at the November sales, which totalled a comparatively modest US$562 million, look below.

• US$38.9 million for Paul Cezanne’s Fruits et pot de gingembre, 1890-93 Estimated between US$35 million and US$55 million, it sold at Christie’s.

• US$39.4 million for Ed Ruscha’s Securing the Last Letter (Boss), 1964 Estimated between US$35 million and US$45 million, it sold at Sotheby’s.

• US$41 million for Jasper Johns’ Flag, 1986 Estimated between US$35 million and US$45 million, it sold at Sotheby’s.

• US$42 million for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two), 1982 Estimated between US$40 million and US$60 million, it sold at Sotheby’s.

• US$42.9 million for Pablo Picasso’s Femme endormie, 1934 Estimated between US$25 million and US$35 million, it sold at Christie’s.

• US$46.4 million for Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange), 1955 Estimated unofficially for US$45 million, it sold at Christie’s.

• US$46.4 million for Richard Diebenkorn’s Recollections of a Visit to Leningrad, 1965 Estimated unofficially at US$25 million, it sold at Christie’s.

• US$52.1 million for Francis Bacon’s Figure in Movement, 1976 Estimated unofficially at US$50 million, it sold at Christie’s.

• US$74 million for Claude Monet’s Le bassin aux nymphéas, 1917-19 Estimated unofficially at US$65 million, it sold at Christie’s.

• US$139 million for Pablo Picasso’s Femme à la montre, 1932 Estimated unofficially at US$120 million, it sold at Sotheby’s.

BLOOMBERG