New Highs for Women Artists as Christie’s 21st Century Sale Rakes in $96.5m

News The Five Artists Who Achieved Records at Phillips $52m Evening Sale in New York Elaine YJ Zheng

Spirited bidding on select lots at Christie’s 21st Century sale this week showed a persisting appetite for the work of women artists, who defied expectations and hit new highs amid a buyer’s market.

The Wednesday evening sale raked in $96.5 million (all figures with auction fees included and in USD) with 92 percent of lots sold, outperforming last year’s equivalent auction. 

While Basquiat’s 1982 portrait Baby Boom led the sale in terms of value, the painting sold at its low estimate, achieving only $23.4 million.

Instead, demand appeared to mirror Phillips’ Modern and Contemporary Evening sale on Tuesday, which saw four of five records by women.

Opening the sale was Elizabeth Peyton’s 1997 portrait of British pop icons Jarvis and Liam Smoking, which launched the night. Drawn-out bidding saw it rise above its predicted ceiling ($800,000–$1.2 million), eventually selling to a phone buyer at $1.6 million.

The evening’s highlight was no doubt Marlene Dumas’ 1997 magnum opus Miss January, which broke the record for a living woman artist, selling for $13.6 million  and placing second in terms of value achieved.

Sculptor Simone Leigh also hit a new record after a phone bidder acquired her 2020 Sentinel IV for $5.7 million following a steady back and forth (estimate: $3.5–$5.5 million). That’s a significant increase on Leigh’s last record of $3.1 million.

Solid interest was also noted for American painter Danielle Mckinney’s atmospheric portrait from 2021, The Fool, which sold to an online bidder for $207,500—over triple its estimate of $50,000 to $70,000—after an animated contest with a Chinese phone bidder.

Outperformers further included Emma McIntyre, whose 2021 abstraction Up bubbles her amorous breath tripled its estimate, selling for $201,600 (estimate: $50,000–$70,000) and set a new record for the New Zealand artist.

British painter Cecily Brown’s dazzling abstraction Bedtime Story (1999) achieved $6.2 million (estimate: $4–$6 million), coming third in terms of value realised.

The room equally took to American artist Sarah Sze, whose 2020 painting Flicker inspired enthusiastic  bidding and found a price above its ceiling at $819,000 (estimate: $400,000–$600,000). —[O]

Main image: Cecily Brown, Bedtime Story (1999) (detail). Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd, 2025.