The modern art evening sale at Sotheby’s New York fetched an impressive $152 million (or $186.6 million including buyer’s premium).
A total of 60 lots went on the auction block and 50 ended up being sold, achieving a sell-through rate of 83 percent. Forty percent of the sold works exceeded their pre-sale estimate – a good sign for the market. The sale couldn’t exceed the numbers from last year, where a similar evening totaled $235 million.
Homme assis (1969) by Pablo Picasso was sold for $15.1 million, comfortably within its presale estimate. Georgia O’Keeffe’s Leaves of a Plant, appearing in an auction for the first time, saw a fierce bidding war and ended up fetching $13 million, above its high estimate of $12 million. René Magritte’s La Traversée difficile barely crossed its low estimate and sold for $10.04 million. Paul Signac’s Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise), which has been in a private collection for seven decades, was sold for $8.1 million. Another fierce bidding war ensued for a lamp by Frank Lloyd Wright. Starting at $2.5 million, the work was hammered at $6.1 million.
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Despite a respectable evening total, the auction was overcast by the failure of the Paul Giacometti work. The bronze bust, considered to be an example of prime Giacometti, came to the auction with a high estimate of $70 million. If sold, it would have made it the most successful May auction for Sotheby’s in the last 4 years. However, the bidding could only reach $64.25 million before the auctioneer announced it a pass.
