Week in Review: Ed Ruscha Is the Star Even When Maurizio Cattelan Steals the Limelight at the Auctions

It was a stellar week for Ed Ruscha when his works led three of the big sales in the city’s marquee auctions, including a signature flag painting, which fetched nearly $14m. And his auction record was smashed when a classic, gas-station painting sold for $68m. However, as a number of high-profile works failed to find buyers willing to pay top dollar, pre-auction speculation about a possible “Trump bump” proved to be overly optimistic.

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For exclusive, in-depth results of the major auctions in New York and beyond, see the HENI News reports. Here are some of the highlights:

1

Ed Ruscha led Christie's $302m 20th Century Evening Sale; Sotheby’s $112m The Now and Contemporary evening auction, and Phillips $14m Modern & Contemporary morning session, making a hat trick. Topping off Ruscha’s stellar week, his classic painting, Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half (1964) sold for more than $68m at Christie's, a 30% jump in his auction record. HENI News

2

Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian (2019), his banana-and-duct tape editioned work, sold for an appropriately absurdist $6.24m, more than six times the low estimate, to crypto billionaire Justin Sun at Sotheby's, who plans to pay for his acquistion in cryptocurrency (and says he will eat the banana). HENI News

3

Rene Magritte led Christie's $183.9m sale of the Mica Ertegun Collection. The Belgian artist’s work, L'Empire Des Lumières (1954), sold for an auction record of $121m, 27% above its $95m guarantee. HENI News

4

Claude Monet led Sotheby's $216m Collection of Sydell Miller auction when his waterlilies canvas, Nymphéas (1914), sold for $65m. The beauty industry millionaire’s Degas bronze of a young dancer was the sale’s outperformer, however, fetching nearly $1.7m. Both were backed by guarantees. HENI News

5

Jackson Pollock led Phillips $54m Modern & Contemporary evening sale. His Untitled (1948) drip painting sold for $15.34m. Backed by a guarantee, estimates were undisclosed. HENI News

6

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s supersized portrait in crayon led Christie's $106.5m 21st Century evening sale. Sold by billionaire collector Peter Brant, its new owner paid nearly $23m. HENI News

7

Diane Arbus led Phillips $2.6m Photographs auction in London, although the exhibition print of Identical twins, Roselle, N.J. (1967) sold for $416,600, 19% below its low estimate. HENI News

Auction records

You can find all the auction records set this week at HENI News, including:

Denzil Forrester Street Music (1989) sold for $189,000 at Christie's, a 175% rise in his auction record.

Ana Mendieta, Untitled (1985), the feminist artist's wooden sculpture, carved and burned with gunpowder, sold for $756,000 at Christie's, a 33% jump.

Yu Nishimura, Pause (2018) sold for $132,000 at Sotheby's, a 125% increase in his record.