The quantity of Warhol works on the market this past week was fairly astounding. Works ranged from the very top lots of the week at $63m to some remaining five-figure items. Altogether there was more than $200m in Warhol’s work sold at the three auction houses.
That made a lot art market participants nervous judging by their comments coming out of the sales. Here’s Lindsay Pollock:
“We dealers thought: Here were too many Warhols,” said New York-based Christophe Van de Weghe. “But it was the exact opposite effect.”
And Judd Tully:
“There’s a huge demand for Warhol under $10 million, and over that it becomes very selective. Having three high-value Warhols in one week divided the market.”
Interestingly, later works of Warhol — dating from the 70s and 80s, a period in the artist’s career that has gained increased attention over the past year as a result of a recent traveling museum exhibition — performed better, in comparison to their estimates, than mint works from the 60s.
Christie’s, which had the largest number of works, sold everything on hand. Sotheby’s had a higher average price than Christie’s.
But in the day sales the avg. price reversed with Sotheby’s averaging $228,476 and Christie’s averaging $426,761.
Here (Week of Warhol) is a list of all the works on offer this last week sorted from highest to lowest price.
Lichtenstein’s $43 Million Pouting Redhead Brings Market `Back to Health’ (Bloomberg)
Ohhh… Christie’s Mints $273 Million in Contemporary Art Sale, and a Koons Balloon Does Alright (ArtInfo.com)