Art Market Monitor

The Evening sale at Phillips de Pury brought in $9,608,700 with just under 54% of the lots selling. The big lot of the evening was Donald Judd stack (left) selling for $3.2 million. Nothing else came close in price. The next highest lot (right) was Anish Kapoor’s Untitled (Mirror), a blue concave egg-shaped piece of stainless steel, that sold for $782,500. Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana and Mark Grotjahn rounded out the top lots.

Bloomberg has the details:

“We have seen a moderation of interest,” said Michael McGinnis, senior partner at Phillips. “The demand is a lot different than it was six months ago.” [ . . . ]

In recent days, Phillips’s staff had tried — with little success — to convince the auction’s consigners to cut their reserves, or the minimum level at which pieces could be sold, up to 50 percent below the low estimates.

“Sellers had a luxury of eight years of the climbing prices,” McGinnis said. “They were not receptive.” [ . . . ]

Buyers passed both on brand names like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat and on emerging artists like Mark Grotjahn and Anselm Reyle.

Hirst Painting Flops at `Brutal’ New York Art Auction (Bloomberg)

Also of Interest:

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• Phillips Ups the Ante
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• Phillips de Pury Closes Mixed Week
  Phillips de Pury Top Ten Lots 22  PHILIP GUSTON Anxiety  $1,082,500 24  CECILY BROWN Suddenly Last Summer $662,500 38 ...
  
• Phillips de Pury Hits the Wall
  With £5 million realized in the evening sale, and about half the lots sold, plus £3 million from the day...
  
• Phillips Reaction
  Scott Reyburn canvassed the Phillips de Pury sale for the art market’s mood. Thought his report dwells on the works...