Sotheby's The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction Totals $266.8m

A work by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which had a guarantee, was the headline sale at Sotheby's 'The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction' on May 14 in New York.

• The sale totaled $266.8m, meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 40 works sold totaling $266.8m.
• Estimates totaled: $202.2m (low) and $268.8m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 89% of the original 45 lots announced.

The star lot was: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) (1983), which sold for $52.72m, 17% above its $45m low estimate. The work was backed by a guarantee. It has been traded 5 times in the past.

The outperformer sold for 732% above its low estimate. Yu Nishimura, Leaves carpet (2017), sold for $998,400 ($120,000 low estimate), a new auction record for the artist. It has been traded 3 times in the past.

• 25 works, or 62%, sold above their high estimate.
• 13 works, or 32%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 2 works, or 5%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Auction records

Kenneth Noland, Circle (1958) sold for $5.49m, beating the artist’s previous auction record by $1.23m, a 28% rise.

Records were also set for works by: Ding Shilun; Yu Nishimura, Florian Kremer, and Joseph Yaeger.

Guaranteed sales

19 works were backed by guarantees, including: Willem de Kooning, Untitled III (1975). It sold for $26m, 4% above its $25m low estimate.. It has been traded twice in the past.

Works that did not sell

4 works were bought-in, including: Brice Marden, Blue Painting (1972), estimated at $4m (low) to $6m (high). It has been traded 4 times in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

1 work was withdrawn before the sale: Alice Neel, Timothy Collins (1971), estimated at $1.5m (low) to $2m (high).

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Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.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.