Basquiat Leads Sotheby's $178.5m The Now & Contemporary Sale

A work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which had a guarantee, was the headline sale at Sotheby's 'The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction' on November 18 in New York.

• The sale totaled $178.5m, meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 41 works sold totaling $178.5m.
• Estimates totaled: $134.6m (low) and $186.2m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 95% of the original 43 lots announced.

The star lot was: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Crowns (Peso Neto) (1981), which sold for $48.34m, 38% above its $35m low estimate. The work was backed by a guarantee. It has been traded 6 times in the past.

The outperformer sold for 916% above its low estimate. Antonio Oba, Alvorada - Música Incidental Black Bird (2020), sold for $1.02m ($100,000 low estimate). It has been traded twice in the past.

• 24 works, or 60%, sold above their high estimate.
• 9 works, or 22%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 7 works, or 18%, sold below their low estimate.
• 1 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Auction records

Cecily Brown’s High Society set a new auction record for the artist, selling for $9.81m, $3.03m above her previous record sale, a 44% rise.

Noah Davis’s The Casting Call set a new auction record for the artist, selling for $2m, $502,000 above his previous record sale, a 33% rise.

Antonio Oba’s Alvorada - Música Incidental Black Bird set a new auction record for the artist, selling for $1.02m, $787,400 above his previous record sale, a 325% rise.

Yu Nishimura’s thicket set a new auction record for the artist, selling for $711,200, $304,800 above his previous record sale, a 75% rise.

Robert Alice’s Block 1 (24.9472° N, 118.5979° E) set a new auction record for the artist, selling for $762,000, $119,700 above their previous record sale, a 18% rise.

Guaranteed sales

24 works were backed by guarantees, including: Yves Klein, Sculpture éponge bleue sans titre (SE 167) (1959). It sold for $19.06m, 36% above its $14m low estimate.. It has been traded 3 times in the past.

Works that did not sell

2 works were bought-in, including: Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (2008), estimated at $10m (low) to $15m (high). It has been traded twice in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

0 works were withdrawn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.