Sotheby's literally rolled out the red carpet for a sale of works from the collection of its former chief executive Alfred Taubman last night (4 November), but the results were squarely below estimate, totalling $377m with buyers premium (est. $374.8m-$536.5m without premium).
Just nine of the 77 lots on offer failed to find buyers for a sell-through rate of 89.6%, but every lot of the evening had also been guaranteed as part of the $500m deal that brought the collection to Sotheby's over Christie's. Notable failures included Jasper Johns' Disappearance I (1960) which was bought in at $10.5m (est. $15m-$20m) and Edgar Degas' Femme Nu, De Dos, Se Coiffant (Femme Se Peignant) (around 1886-88), which was bought in at $11.5m (est. $15m-$20m); neither painting garnered any bids.
Highlights included Amedeo Modigliani's Paulette Jourdain (around 1919), which sold for $42.8m (est. over $25m) after three minutes of bidding, and Frank Stella's Delaware Crossing (1961), from his rare Benjamin Moore series, which doubled the artist’s previous record when it sold for $13.7m (est. $8m-$12m). Pablo Picasso's Dora Maar portrait Femme Assise Sur Une Chaise (1938), which Taubman purchased from the collection of Gianni Versace in 1999 for $5.4m, sold to a bidder over the phone last night for $20.1m ($25m-$35m); the designer Valentino was the underbidder.
During and after his tenure as chief executive, Taubman was a loyal Sotheby's patron. Of the 77 lots on offer last night, 55 had been bought at Sotheby's auctions; of these, there is sales data available for 39, and Taubman only bought 11 above their high estimates.
The night might have gone differently had the former real estate developer's speculations paid off better, but more often than not the lots merely broke even. Of those 39 lots, only a few sold for a significant amount more than Taubman had paid for them, and eight sold for less than their previous purchase price, or went unsold.
"It seems like getting this sale was about ego, and I understand that," the dealer Lucy Mitchell-Innes said after the sale. "I was very fond of Alfred. But there comes a point when it adds up or it doesn't."
• With additional reporting by Charlotte Burns