New York Auctions Slip 9%

More than $1.26 billion worth of art was sold by the three main auction houses in New York last week, a 9% fall on the previous year but better than many had feared after spring auctions in London and Hong Kong fell more than 30% year-on-year.

Christie’s outperformed last year, producing a note of optimism in a depressed market with total sales up 8% compared to 2024. Its auctions totaled $693m last week compared to $643m in May 2024.

Sotheby’s, however, saw its sales fall 21% over the previous year. Its auctions totaled $497m compared to $633m in May 2024 but it finished the week on a strong note in its day sale.

Phillips was also down on its 2024 and 2023 results in New York by more than a third. This May its auctions totaled $73m compared to $109m in 2024 and $108m in 2023.

Since the art market’s post-Covid high in 2022, the New York spring auctions have more than halved in value, down by 55% from $2.77 billion, a year-on-year fall of more than $1.5 billion.

Another potential reason for optimism from New York is that despite the number of lots being down 10% on last year, the sell through rate remained the same. Last week, 82% of the 1,500 lots on offer found buyers, the same as in 2024 when 1,700 works were consigned.

Guaranteed success?

The sale of works collected by the late Barnes and Noble billionaire Leonard Riggio and his widow, Lousie, was the standout auction for Christie’s. It totaled $271m, exceeding the pre-sale high estimate.

Their Mondrian, the top lot, sold for more than $47m (estimate undisclosed) while the outperformer on the night was John D Graham’s painting Head of a Woman, which sold for $302,400, more than treble its low estimate.

But success came with a cost as all 38 lots in the Riggio auction were backed by guarantees. Christie’s profit margin after third-party guarantors have received their cut is unknown.

Christie’s guaranteed an estimated $357m of art this May, up 17% on its New York sales in spring 2024. So, 143 works were effectively pre-sold compared to 131 lots last year.

Among the big-ticket works with a guarantee was a painting by Monet that sold for nearly $43m. His Impressionist canvas of poplar trees at dusk led Christie's $217m evening sale on May 12.

This year, Sotheby’s guaranteed an estimated $228m worth of art across 142 lots, compared to an estimated $287m in May 2024 across 96 lots. While it guaranteed more work this year, the overall estimated value, and risk, was 20% smaller.

When Giacometti's bust of his brother, Diego, with a bullish estimate of $70m failed to sell at Sotheby’s it was disappointing but not a disaster for the auction house as it had not arranged a guarantee with the seller.

Highlights

Bright spots of the week included several new auction records for artists, notably Marlene Dumas. Two decades after briefly becoming the most expensive living female artist she regained that title when her monumental nude, Miss January, sold for $13.63m at Christie’s in an auction conducted with energy and humor by Yu-Ge Wang. Christie’s also sold Simone Leigh’s Sentinel, raising her auction record to $5.7m. The large-scale bronze is number three from an edition of three plus two artist's proofs.

Sotheby’s bid farewell to its York Avenue headquarters with sales of two notable gallerists. The pick of the late Barbara Gladstone’s art totaled $18.5m, exceeding expectations. Works with a Daniella Luxembourg provenance, including her Claes Oldenburg and Lucio Fontanas, totaled $40.4, nearly meeting its pre-sale high estimate.

Sotheby’s day sale on Friday, May 16, meant that its week ended on an upbeat note. It totaled $97m, 23% more than its comparable sale in 2024 in New York, which totaled $78m. Many of the works by Roy Lichtenstein, which were in the artist and his wife, Dorothy’s collection, sold for above their high estimate, including the top lot: Interior with African Mask (Study), which sold for $2.52m. Works consigned by the Lichtenstein family were guaranteed.

At Phillips, bright spots included a Basquiat once owned by David Bowie, which was backed by a guarantee and sold for $6.59m, four times its low estimate. Another was the sale of Olga de Amaral’s gold-leaf wall hanging, Imagen perdida 27. It sold for $1.17m, more than three and a half times the low estimate, setting a new auction record for the veteran Colombian artist.