Bonhams 20th & 21st Century Art Evening Sale Totals $17.75m

A work by Yoshitomo Nara, which had a guarantee, was the headline sale at Bonhams '20th & 21st Century Art Evening Sale' on May 20 in New York.

• The sale totaled $17.75m, meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 25 works sold totaling $17.75m.
• Estimates totaled: $14.29m (low) and $21.93m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 93% of the original 27 lots announced.

The star lot was: Yoshitomo Nara, ...Words Mean Nothing at All (2012), which sold for $5.02m, 25% above its $4m low estimate. The work was backed by a guarantee. It has been traded once in the past.

The outperformer sold for 162% above its low estimate. Olga de Amaral, Imagen perdida 35 (2005), sold for $787,900 ($300,000 low estimate). It has been traded once in the past.

• 9 works, or 36%, sold above their high estimate.
• 14 works, or 56%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 2 works, or 8%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Guaranteed sales

15 works were backed by guarantees, including: Constantin Brancusi, La Muse endormie II, 1917-1922 (2010). It sold for $3.09m, 2% above its $3m low estimate.. It has been traded twice in the past.

Works that did not sell

2 works were bought-in, including: Larry Rivers, Beyond Camel (1980), estimated at $250,000 (low) to $350,000 (high).

Withdrawn before the sale

0 works were withdrawn

Terms and definitions

All results include the fees and premiums added to the price of a work of art when the auctioneer's hammer falls. Sale prices are compared to the auction house’s low estimate, which do not include premiums.

Guarantees: Sometimes an auction house guarantees to pay a seller for a work, regardless of whether the bidding reaches the reserve price, a figure that is typically confidential.

Bought-in: If there are no bids for a work, or if bidding falls short of the reserve price, the lot is unsold or “bought-in”.

Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.

Premiums: Typically a sliding-scale of charges paid in addition to the hammer price by the buyer, plus any other fees.