The Art Newspaper reports on Artcurial’s late May sale of Modern and Contemporary art that was heavy on–32 lots–conceptual and minimalist art from one collection. The whole lot brought in €6.13m, well over the estimate but helped greatly by the sale of a Calder mobile:
After fierce bidding, the work went to a Swiss collector for €2.3m including buyer’s premium, against a pre-sale estimate of €500,000-€800,000, the top price of the evening and an auction record for Calder in France. The artist’s market has remained steady despite economic fluctuations, with a similar mobile, Untitled (Autumn Leaves), sold earlier this May at Sotheby’s New York for $3.7m.
The total for the evening, at €6.13m, was almost 30% above the estimate of around €4.8m. But once the Calder was sold half-way through the sale, an initially packed saleroom thinned out and momentum died. The second day of the sale, on 1 June, brought in just €1.8m, in line with an estimate of €1.6m, with only 57% of lots finding buyers.
€2.13m Calder Mobile Sets Auction Record for Artist in France (The Art Newspaper)
