New York’s 2024 Spring Auction Sales Neared $1.4 Billion

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Four of the world's leading auction houses sold almost U.S. $1.4 billion worth of art in New York last week, towards the low end of estimates ranging from $1.3 billion to $1.8 billion.

That marks a 22% decline from $1.8 billion in 2023, and a 36% drop from $2.5 billion in 2022.

Anxieties rose in an already nervy art market after Christie's experienced what they described as 'a technology security incident' early on Thursday 9 May. Christie's took its website down, redirecting traffic to the less brand-friendly url https://dgc6x3fx379s3.cloudfront.net, which offered basic phone and email contact information.

Things went from bad to worse when the auctions began, with Christie's announcing it was withdrawing its most expensive lot, Brice Marden's Complements (2004–07), which was estimated to sell for $30 million to $50 million.

'It wasn't Brice's evening and we're not willing to jeopardise the market of an artist like that,' said Christie's specialist Alex Rotter.

Despite the tech troubles and early jitters, at the end of the week Christie's led the way with total sales of $640 million (86% sold by lot).

The sale of the Rosa de la Cruz Collection set some notable new artist records with Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Untitled (America #3)—a string of 42 lightbulbs that alludes to the burning out of lives—selling for $13.6 million and Ana Mendieta's sand sculpture Untitled (Serie mujer de arena / Sandwoman Series) (1983–84) fetching $567,025.

During Christie's $413.3 million 20th Century Evening Sale, Andy Warhol's Flowers (1964) realised $35.5 million.

Sotheby's brought in a total of $633.4 million (85.2% sold by lot) last week with notable results including Leonora Carrington's Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) for $28.5 million and Lucio Fontana's Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio (1964) for $23 million.

Phillips generated another $100 million in sales—$46.5 million of which came from a single Jean-Michel Basquiat painting—with Bonhams adding $14 million.

Analysing results as they came in last week, Ocula advisory Rory Mitchell said despite some pessimism heading into the New York sales, 'there was to be no bloodbath, in part helped by conservative estimates negotiated by auction house specialists to ensure a high sell-through rate.'

Given the auctions' modest performance in a week where expectations had already been tempered, it may be difficult to persuade collectors to put their works up for sale, knowing they're unlikely to fetch top dollar.

Christies.com remained down for the duration of their marquee sales but they told Ocula that the website and app are now back online 'with full functionality'.

The auction house has not yet said whom they believe responsible for hacking their website, or whether any user information was stolen or otherwise compromised.

'Christie's has in place well-established protocols and practices, which are regularly tested, to manage such incidents,' they offered in a statement, but those well-established protocols and practices were unable to prevent an extremely untimely and disruptive attack.

Consignors and collectors will no doubt be eager for further reassurances before their next big contemporary art auction in Hong Kong on 28 May. —[O]

Main image: Christie's sold Andy Warhol's Flowers (1964) for $35.5 million during their 20th Century Evening Sale in New York, May 2024.