New York auction week is not ending with a bang, but it is not a whimper either as Sotheby's evening sale brought in a respectable $186.1 million in a tough market.
The top lot on the night was Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1981 Untitled work which made $16.4 million, while there were records set for Michael Armitage whose work, Mpeketoni, sold for $2.37 million - 5% up on his previous best, and Yu Nishimura whose painting, across the place, sold for $406,400 - a 37% rise.
The results will be taken as a sign of some stablity in the market after a week most noteworthy for what did not sell. Sotheby's failed to find a bidder for an Alberto Giacometti bust priced at $70 million, while Christie's withdrew a $30 million Andy Warhol work, Big Electric Chair, when it became apparent it would not sell.
Last night at Sotheby’s, works collected by two savvy gallerists, Daniella Luxembourg and the late Barbara Gladstone, were in demand with sales totaling $40.4 million and $18.5 million respectively meeting or exceeding their high expectations.
The sale was the last one at Sotheby's York Avenue base before the firm moves to the Breuer building on Madison Avenue, the former home of the Whitney before it headed downtown and temporary homes for the Met’s Modern art and the Frick’s Old Masters.
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