Ahead of Sotheby’s modern and contemporary evening sale in London on Tuesday, expectations were tempered. No one was expecting fireworks, for a variety of reasons.
Last June, the house sold Jean-Michel Basquiat’s triptych Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict for $20.2 million—just above its low estimate but well below the $30 million valuation Christie’s had placed on the work just two years earlier, before withdrawing the lot. And then there’s the broader backdrop: Christie’s scrapped its own June evening sales last year, severely curtailing what had long been the traditional post-Basel finale. Last month’s marquee New York sales did little to restore confidence that the art market is turning again.
But though the auction market remains frozen, word on the street is that collectors are spending big, if privately. Last week, Puck’s Marion Maneker reported that major works are moving via private sale, including a “$100 million Basquiat.” “Some folks are spending real money,” Manneker wrote. Art advisors similarly confirmed to me this week that subterranean deals for Grade-A works are happening.
“The truth is that when the auction market is quiet, particularly at the top end, many of the major artworks are traded privately,” Jussi Pylkkänen, former global president of Christie’s and now founder of the advisory Art Pylkkänen. told ARTnews.
Sotheby’s 48-lot sale on Tuesday brought in nearly £62.5 million ($84 million), landing squarely within its £55 million to £74 million estimate. The sell-through rate was 83 percent by lot, with four works withdrawn. That figure marked a roughly 19 percent drop from the £77 million total for the equivalent sale last year, which had 51 lots. (All figures quoted include buyer’s premium.)
Five works cleared £5 million, led by Tamara de Lempicka’s La Belle Rafaëla (1927), which sold for £7.4 million, and Pablo Picasso’s Nu assis dans un fauteuil (1964–65). Basquiat’s 1981 work on paper Untitled (Indian Head) sold for £5.4 million (high estimate: £6 million), following an edgy bidding battle that drew applause. “It encompasses all of Basquiat’s brilliance—it is bold, raw, and unmistakably his,” Tom Eddison, Sotheby’s co-head of contemporary art, said.
Helena Newman, Sotheby’s chairman of Europe and worldwide head of impressionist and modern art, tapped her gavel to get things underway just after 6 p.m.Several empty seats at the back of the room suggested some collectors had opted for the beach—or never boarded their flights. Last week at Art Basel, several gallerists noted fewer American and Asian collectors than usual, and the London salesroom too seemed to be a mostly European affair.
Still, Andre Zlattinger, Sotheby’s head of modern art in Europe, seemed none too worried about a potential collector shortfall ahead of the sale. “Our London sales are always truly international, and the works we’re offering tonight tap into conversations that are abuzz in the art world right now,” he told ARTnews. After the auction, Thomas Boyd-Bowman, head of evening sales, added that there had been “good phone bidding from America and Asia.”
Among the night’s early lots, Yu Nishimura’s through the snow (2023) sold for three times its high estimate at £230,000, with six bidders scrapping it out. Nishimura recently had a solo exhibition at David Zwirner in New York, and all his works presented at Basel pre-sold. Joseph Yeager’s 2022 painting Loyalty to the nightmare chosen, depicting a hand pulling a snake from a jar, went next for £80,000, surpassing its high estimate by £20,000. The next two lots, Egon Schiele’s work on paper, Portrait Study (Head of a Girl) – Hilde Zeigler (1918), and Barbara Hepworth’s Vertical Forms (1965) sculpture, both failed to sell.
The most notable sales to land before de Lempicka’s La Belle Rafaëla hit the block at Lot 14 were Elizabeth Peyton’s 1996 painting Liam + Noel (Gallagher) for £2 million (right on high estimate), Picasso’s Nu assis dans un fauteuil for £7.1 million (high estimate £9 million), and Mirror (2011-12) by Jenny Saville for £2.1 million. Not bad going.
There was one particularly bright spot to the sale: the value of works by female artists accounted for 30 percent of the sale’s total, despite only accounting for 13.5 percent of the evening’s works (7 out of 48 lots). Marlow Moss’s White, Black, Blue, and Red (1944) fetched a record £609,600. Saville’s Juncture (1994) sold for £5.4 million, and Agnes Martin’s Untitled I (1982) went for just over £1 million.
Six works by Roy Lichtenstein from the collection of his widow, Dorothy, collectively realized nearly £6 million. The group followed a “white glove” sale of 43 Lichtensteins in New York last month that totaled $62.8 million.
“Works from Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein’s treasured personal collection wowed collectors in London just as they did in New York last month. It’s an incredibly special group with lasting resonance,” Antonia Gardener, Sotheby’s head of evening sale, said.
After the auction, Newman told me she was “very happy with the result.” “There was something on offer for a broad range of tastes, and obviously we saw women artists perform very well.”
Is Sotheby’s happy with the decision to keep its summer auction, after Christie’s scrapped its own last summer?
“This evening justified our decision to keep it, it’s a very respectable result to have in June with all that’s going on in the world,” Newman added. “There are the big May sales in New York, then people go to Basel, then they come here—we really believe in it.”
As for question of private sales vs. auction sales, I asked Boyd-Bowman for his post-sale take. “There is always activity in the art market, and private sales under the surface tend to fill the gaps, and we’re seeing them at every price level, so it’s not just the top end, but these sales are filtering all the way through the market, and every category,” he said.
So, no fireworks on Tuesday but some positive results. A total of $84 million in what’s keep being billed a sticky market is no mean feat, and it looks to have vindicated Sotheby’s call to maintain its summer evening sale. Where else are collectors meant to get over their post-Basel blues?
