Phillips de Pury's Pinched Sale

The Master, Judd Tully, tries to find some action at the Phillips de Pury sale yesterday:

Among the few veteran buyers attending the sale, New York art trader Jose Mugrabi bought Tom Wesselmann’s 1972 Study for Pat Nude, a 22-by-30-inch oil on canvas, estimated at £150-200,000 ($226,000–301,600), for a spare £159,650 ($240,800). Buttonholed moments before the dreary sale began, Mugrabi philosophized about the current state of the market and mentioned several purchases he made at Sotheby’s Monday evening sale, which netted £41 million ($61.82 million), a haul that now seems gigantic. “I paid $1.3 million for a little bit of a Basquiat,” he said. “It was nothing special. It’s impossible to do a better sale with all this kind of mediocre material.”

On the positive side, two artist records were set, including one for Ugo Rondinone, whose 2006 cast aluminum and white enamel tree, air/get/into/everything/even/nothing, one from an edition of three plus two artist’s proofs, sold to a telephone bidder for £361,250 (est. £200-300,000, or $301,600–452,400). New York art advisor Kim Hierston, bidding in person, was the underbidder. It broke the artist record set at Sotheby’s London in February 2009 when Rondinone’s 2003 No. 299 made £253,250. […] Hierston had better luck with Anselm Reyle’s untitled 2006 work, made of acrylic, silver, PVC, foil, and canvas, which she grabbed for £99,650 ($150,300) on an estimate of £70-90,000 ($105,600–135,700).