Artnet’s magazine rounds up the top lots at Christie’s American paintings sale, reports on the prints at Phillips and details the failed Neutra sale.
Artnet magazine makes this interesting observation from the Phillips prints sale
The passing of the great Pop artist Robert Rauschenberg was clearly felt at the sale, as his emblematic 1970 screenprint of iconic images from the 1960s — JFK, RFK, MLK, Janis Joplin, Vietnam — sold for $27,400, well above its presale high estimate, itself set at a healthy $18,000. The price is a new high for this print.
Could this be such an immediate cause and effect?
Artnet also reports that the Louis Kahn house failed to find a buyer. Then we are informed by The New York Times that the Neutra house sale from Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Evening sale has come undone. The house is still standing but the buyer has been vaporized, much like the effect of the neutron bomb of the 1980s. For those who were at the sale, switching auctioneers and providing disclosures only slowed down the rhythm of the otherwise strong sale. The New York Times has much in the way of details explaining why the buyer was rejected.
