Christie’s $1.5 Billion Week Went Beyond Rothko and Pollock

Christie’s wrapped up its marquee week in New York on May 21 with a day sale that totaled nearly $102m, exceeding its high expectations. So, the auction house ended the week as it began, on the front foot.

The tone was set by the opening sale of 16 works from publishing magnate S.I. Newhouse and his widow Victoria’s private collection. Their Pollock, Brancusi, and Miró set new auction records for the respective artists. Pollock’s Number 7 (1948) alone fetched $182m with fees, and in total the sale brought in $630.8m—over 40% of Christie’s roughly $1.5 billion week.

These and other metrics saw Christie’s achieve a B+ on the HENI Auction Index, an improvement on its C a year ago and B in November’s marquee sales.

The total revenue of its seven sales held from May 18 to May 21 when adjusted for inflation was 22% above the average of Christie’s comparable marquee weeks in the city.

Another metric is the percentage of works that sold above their low and high estimates. Again, Christie’s performed strongly. Those that bettered their low estimate was 12 percentage points above average while the percentage that exceeded their high estimate was 11 percentage points above the norm.

All of the Newhouses' paintings and sculptures were backed by a guarantee but nearly half of them were what could be called “weak” as the works sold for near or below their low estimate.

Across the week’s sales there were 160 works backed by guarantees. The weak ones were up 3.3 percentage points on the norm. On a positive note, the strong guarantees were up 6.3 percentage points on the norm.

The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio was 1.4, and slightly better than the norm.

Although artists' auction records were headline making, the nine at Christie’s was, in fact, down on its average of comparable marquee weeks, which is around 25.

The percentage of lots bought-in was down 8.5 percentage points on the norm, while those withdrawn was only slightly up.

There were 629 works on offer this week—down nearly 16% on average—but the top end was defined by quality. A standout was Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) (1964), which Agnes Gund bought directly from the artist after a studio visit when she was a young collector. It sold for $98.39m with fees, beating a record that has stood since 2012.

The closing day sale also had its highlights, including a new auction record for Josef Albers, whose Homage to the Square series runs to more than 1,000 works. His 1958 Homage to the Square: Golden—one of his first in a large 48 x 48 inch format created with museum purchases in mind—sold for $3.55m with fees, neatly rounding off the week.

Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here.