Sotheby's Hits a Summer High

The sun shone on London—and on Sotheby’s—last week. An exceptional sale of works from billionaire Joe Lewis’s collection helped the auction house’s sales total reach $557m and earn it an A+ on the HENI Auction Index.

The performance eclipsed its typical summer sales, which have recently scored C- to D on the index, and was on a par with its strongest marquee week in the past six years.

Sotheby’s offered 301 works across its four sales on June 24 and 25—nearly 42% more than the average marquee week. Even more striking was the total value: with fees included and adjusted for inflation, the sales generated more than three times the norm.

The Lewis evening sale—the most valuable single-collection auction ever held in Europe—inevitably stole the headlines, led by a Modigliani nude with impressive works by Klimt, Picasso, and Freud, among others.

Non-Lewis works also made the news, not least a late Monet waterlilies painting. His Nymphéas sold for $54.1m with fees, above its estimates. While impressive, it was nearly $2m less than its previous sale at auction in New York four years ago, which, when adjusted for inflation, represents a fall of nearly $10m.

The 1907 painting boasted the bluest of blue-chip provenance, including a 1946 deaccession by the Art Institute of Chicago and spell in Anne H. Bass's collection. It featured in the Bass sale at Christie’s in 2022, one of the most valuable single-owner auctions to date.

The percentage of lots selling above their low and high estimates was broadly in line with the norm, at 65% and 39% respectively.

The hammer-to-mid-estimate ratio of 1.3 was also in line with the norm.

The Lewis evening sale was unusual in that none of the paintings or his Degas sculpture of a young dancer had a guarantee. The same was true of Lewis’s works included in the following day’s sale of modern and contemporary works.

Overall, the performance of works with guarantees—whether strong or weak—was in line with the average.

Forty-seven works went unsold, including an early Monet. Camille assise sur la plage à Trouville (1870), which the artist painted on his honeymoon, had an estimate of $9.37m and provenance as notable as his late water lilies in the same sale. The portrait of the first Madame Monet on a sunny beach was formerly owned by Peggy and David Rockefeller and featured in the landmark sale of their collection in May 2018.

There was no disappointment when a 1953 geometric abstract work by Marlow Moss was sold. White, Yellow and Black sold for $1.56m with fees, more than two and a half times the low estimate, and an 88% rise in her auction record. It was one of three new auction records, a metric that also contributed to Sotheby’s A+ grade.

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