Judd Tully had a busy night at Christie’s. He spotted these buyers, including the Crichton estate’s art adviser Megan Fox Kelly:
- Among the handful of decidedly non-contemporary lots from Crichton’s estate was Pablo Picasso’s Femme et fillettes, a large, 63 7/8-by-51 ¼-inch oil, which sold to New York art advisor Megan Fox Kelly for $6,578,500, safely within its $5.5–7.5 million estimate.
- Warhol’s iconic Self-Portrait diptych, 1964, inscribed to uber collectors Bob & Ethel Scull, estimated at $5-7 million, sold to dealer Alberto Mugrabi, a major collector of Warhol, for $5,682,500. The work last sold, at Christie’s New York in November 2002, for $2,649,500. Before that, at the second major Scull estate sale, at Sotheby’s New York in November 1986, it earned only a hard-to-believe $26,000.
- Self Portrait as a Heel, 1982, estimated at $4-6 million, sold to a telephone bidder for $5,986,500. Art advisor Michele Quinn was the underbidder. Quinn, however, came back to snare Basquiat’s Extra Cigarette, in acrylic and oilstick on glass and wood, from 1982, for $1,082,500, almost at the center of its $800,000-1.2 million estimate. It last sold at auction, at Sotheby’s New York in November 1999, for $387,500.
- One of the many stand-out works in the sale was the page-sized (but still potent) Gerhard Richter portrait of his wife, Kopf (Skizze). The oil on aluminum work was estimated to sell for $1.2-1.8 million, though newly appointed MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch had to bid $2,322,500 to win it.
Johns Flag and Warhol Liz Lead a Night of Records at Christie’s (ArtInfo.com)
