Christie’s Nets $1.1bn with Record-Filled New York Sale

New York’s spring auctions continued last night with a stand-out evening for Christie’s, with the auction house netting $1.1 billion USD (£821.4 million) including fees across two back-to-back sales. Together, Masterpieces: The Private Collection of SI Newhouse and the 20th Century Evening Sale broke a total of eight auction records, setting new highs for Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Joan Miró. 

The evening began with 16 works from the collection of SI Newhouse, which achieved a total of $631 million USD (£471.2 million) with fees. The former owner of the publisher Condé Nast, who died in 2017 aged 89, has been described by Christie’s as “among the most historically significant collectors of all time”. 

The sale was led by Pollock’s Number 7A (1948), which sold for $181.2 million USD (£135.3 million) with fees, smashing the artist’s previous auction record of $61.2m USD (£45.7 million), which was set at Sotheby’s in 2021. The 131.5 inch (334cm) work, which is the largest of Pollock’s monumental drip paintings, has not been publicly exhibited since 1977.

Constantin Brâncuși’s Danaïde (1913), a rare 25cm bronze sculpture, was the sale’s second highlight. The work sold for $107.6 million USD (£80.3 million) with fees, the second-highest price ever achieved by a sculpture at auction (the top spot is held by a Alberto Giacometti sculpture from 1947). 

Meanwhile Pablo Picasso’s Tête de femme (1909) sold for $14.5 million USD (£10.8 million), nearly double its high estimate, and Miró’s Portrait de Madame K (1924) realised $53.5 million USD/£40 million (both with fees), breaking the artist’s long-standing auction record of $37 million USD (£27.6 million), which was set by Peinture (Étoile Bleue) (1927) at Sotheby’s in June 2012.

Later the same evening, the 20th Century Evening Sale totalled $490.3 million USD (£366 million), selling 96 percent by lot, and 99 percent by value. The sale was led by works from the collection of Agnes Gund, the philanthropist and life trustee at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, who died last year aged 87 and was described by Christie’s as a “singular figure in the cultural landscape”.

The top lot from the Gund collection was Rothko’s 1964 No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe), which sold for $98.4 million USD (£73.5 million) with fees. The sale easily broke the artist’s previous auction record of $86.8 million (£64.8 million), which was set by Orange, Red, Yellow (1961), also at Christie’s New York, in May 2012.

Gund bought the work directly from Rothko during a visit to his studio in 1967. Until yesterday, it was one of only seven paintings acquired directly from the artist to still remain with their original buyer.

Other works from her collection, Cy Twombly’s Untitled (1961) and Joseph Cornell’s Untitled (Medici Princess) (c 1955), achieved $45.4 million USD (£33.9 million) and $6.9 million (£5.2 million) respectively, both with fees.

Records were also set by Henri Matisse’s Nature morte, fougeres et grenades (1947), which achieved $4.8 million USD (£3.6 million) with fees to become the artist’s most expensive ink-on-paper work to sell at auction. And Remedios Varo’s Energía cósmica (Inspiración) (1956), which also set the artist’s work on paper record when it sold for $4.5 million USD (£3.4 million) with fees.

Maquette for “War of the Future” (1930) by Aleksandr Rodchenko set yet another work-on-paper record and became the second highest price achieved by the artist, selling for $1.5 million USD (£1.1 million) with fees. The final record of the evening was set by Alice Neel’s Mother and Child (Nancy and Olivia) (1967), which sold for triple its high estimate and established the new record auction price of $5.7 million USD (£4.3 million) with fees.

Meanwhile Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La femme aux lilas (Portrait de Nini Lopez) (1876–1877) achieved $28.2 million USD (£21 million), Roy Lichtenstein’s Anxious Girl (1964) sold for $46.1 million USD (£34.4 million) and Claude Monet’s Pommiers, Vétheuil (1878) changed hands for for $19.6 million/£14.6 million (all with fees), doubling its high estimate.