Despite it being a rainy night in New York, Christie’s auction room was packed for the 21st century evening sale on Thursday 21 November. The sale included some splashy consignments and healthy bidding helped to break 11 artist auction records. The 42 lots brought in $87.47m ($106.5m with fees) and nearly half were guaranteed, whether by Christie’s or a third party.
Two lots were withdrawn before the sale began: Diane Arbus’s photograph Jewish giant at home with his parents in the Bronx, N.Y., 1970, which was expected to sell for between $500,000 and $700,000, and Eric Fischl’s The Old Man's Boat and the Old Man's Dog (1982), which carried an estimate of between $3m and $4m. Also just before the sale, Christie’s said it raised the estimate of Rashid Johnson’s Triptych "Box of Rain" (2020-22) from between $1.5m and $2m to $1.8m and $2.5m.
With the two pulled lots included and the Johnson painting’s initial estimate, Christie’s estimated the 21st century sale would net between $78m and $113.24m. But without fees, Thursday’s sale brought in $87.47m. Against typical art market wisdom, bidding was most competitive for emerging artists and more contemporary work, even when compared to blue-chip artists—generally considered safer bets in a soft market.
Street Music (1989) by Denzil Forrester Courtesy Christie's
The night started out strong with four auction records in a row. A 2017 painting by Firelei Báez, her auction debut, fetched $450,000 ($567,000 with fees), well above its $100,000 to $150,000 estimate. Another auction record was quickly set when Sasha Gordon’s Gone Fishing (2019) did predictably well, quickly snapping up $170,000 ($214,200 with fees) against a $80,000 to $120,000 estimate. Earlier this year, Gordon became the youngest artist in megadealer David Zwirner's roster. Zwirner co-represents the 26-year-old with Matthew Brown.
Next, Denzil Forrester’s Street Music (1989) sold for a record-breaking $150,000 ($189,000 with fees). After that was an untitled sculpture from 1985 by Ana Mendieta. It sold for $600,000 ($756,000 with fees) and had a minimum price guaranteed by Christie's. Mendieta created the work using gunpowder to burn an image resembling the female form onto wood. Christie’s scored a fifth record in a row when an untitled work by Roni Horn from 2009-10 fetched $1.45m ($1.8m with fees). It had a third-party guarantee.
One of the most competitive lots of the night was The Butcher and the Policeman (2013) by Cecily Brown. Two bidders in the room battled over the abstract painting with swirling shades of blue, before a third won the lot by phone with a $4.9m bid ($5.87m with fees). The same buyer later purchased Jeff Koons’s Large Vase of Flowers (1991)for $6.6m ($8.2m with fees). The auction record for Los Angeles-based painter Hilary Pecis was also broken when her 2020 painting Wine at J's sold for $1m ($1.26m with fees).
The Butcher and the Policeman (2013) by Cecily Brown Courtesy Christie's
An untitled work on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat from 1982 was the most valuable lot of the sale. Though it fell just short of its ambitious $20m to $30m estimate, the winning 19.6m bid ($22.9m with fees) meant the drawing—which ran in The New York Times obituary for Basquiat after sudden death in 1988—still became the artist’s most expensive work on paper at auction.
The Basquiat sketch wasn’t the only lot by a blue-chip artist to sell for under its estimate. Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin (2022) is the largest sculpture of its kind to appear at auction, but it sold for $5.6m ($6.82m with fees), just less than its $6m to $8m estimate. Four Empty Vases (1996) by David Hockney sold for $7.1m ($8.6m with fees) after nearly three decades off the market, and was the most valuable after the Basquiat. It fell within the $6m to $8m estimate.
Other records set Thursday include Louise Bourgeois’s Les Fleurs (2009), which at $2.1m ($2.59m with fees) became the artist’s most valuable work on paper. Untitled (Hollywood African Mask) (1987) by Keith Haring broke the record for his most valuable sculpture at auction, selling for $2.6m ($3.19m, with fees). Sarah Sze’s Long Ending (2019) sold for $850,000 ($1m with fees), while an untitled painting of an aeroplane passenger’s view of a drink by William Eggleston fetched $1.15m (1.4m with fees), both artist auction records.
Les Fleurs (2009) by Louise Bourgeois Courtesy Christie's
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s painting Painkiller (2011), meanwhile, initially failed to sell. However, after the rest of the lots sold, auctioneer Georgia Hilton brought Painkiller back, at which point it found a new home for $600,000 against a $800,000 to $1.2m estimate.
Without fees, the 21st century sale brought in $87.47m, roughly on par with the results of the same sale last year, when it brought in a total of $88.4m. However, in 2023, that figure was against a $93m-$134.2m estimate, casting this year’s results in a more favourable light with modest estimates. At both sales, buyers seemed more keen on competitively priced work by emerging artists over dropping seven-figure sums, even on artists like Kusama and Basquiat.
In today’s market, selling within estimate is welcome news, and follows a week of solid, if modest, sales, save for knockout lots like the $6.2m Maurizio Cattelan banana at Sotheby’s and a $121.1m Magritte at Christie’s.