Record Sales But S.I. Newhouse Auction Falls Short

Record breaking sales of works by Pollock, Brancusi and Miro captured the headlines when the private collection of the late media mogul S.I. Newhouse and his widow Victoria were snapped up this week.

The latest sale of blue-chip works collected by the Newhouses totaled nearly $631m, with Pollock’s signature drip painting, Number 7 (1948) and Brancusi’s bronze Danaide accounting for $182m and $108m of that respectively, when fees are added.

Despite these fireworks in the white-glove sale at Christie’s New York on May 18, the auction only scored an average C- on the HENI Auction Index.

Sotheby’s evening sale of works collected by the Wall Street financier turned gallerist Robert Mnuchin, which kicked off New York’s marquee week on May 14, scored a C on the HENI Auction Index, albeit for a sale the fraction of the size. It totaled $166m with fees, led by his Rothko, which fetched $85.78m with fees.

The S.I. Newhouse C- grade is based on a range of metrics.

The strength and depth of the Newhouses' private collection were reflected in the fact that the 16-lot sale generated more than six times the typical revenue of a major single-owner auction, with only 20% of the typical number of works on offer.

However, only just over half of their paintings and sculptures made it past their low pre-sale estimates, and less than 20% sold for above the high level. This is significantly lower than the usual 73% and 47% respectively.

The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio was 0.9, meaning that on average the works hammered 10% below the average of their low and high pre-sale estimates. That is about half of the 1.7 ratio typically achieved in the most recent 100 named collection sales used to benchmark the S.I. Newhouse auction.

All of the Newhouses' works were backed by guarantees. The number of strong and weak guarantees was significantly higher than usual, especially for the latter. The percentage of lots selling for near or below their low estimate, hence a weak guarantee, was 44% compared to a usual 7%.

On a positive note, the average number of bidders was in line with the norm, at 3 bidders per lot on average.

And this week's sale scored slightly higher on the HENI Auction Index than the Newhouse sale in May 2023 also at Christie’s, which achieved a D.

On Monday night, Christie’s auctioneer-in-chief Adrien Meyer needed his "white gloves" at the Rockefeller Center as all of the 16 lots found buyers in a memorable sale. In the final tally, however, when it comes to mega single-collection sales, the late Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen remains Top of the Rock.