Judd Tully offers his perspective on the sale on Artinfo.com. Identifying Joseph Nahmad and Vito Schnabel as next generation market makers active and visible at the sales (as well as stalwarts like Jose Mugrabi,) Tully tracks some of the returns from the last peak in the market to today:
- David Hockney’s “The Twenty First Very New Painting” (1992) attracted three telephone bidders, selling for £338,500 ($541,329). It last sold at Christie’s New York in November 2007, arguably at the height of that art boom time, for $433,000 — you could call this a decent, if hardly bullish, return.
- Alexander Calder’s “The Lion (maquette)” (1976), an unpainted sheet-metal stabile, which sold for £206,500 ($330,235) (est. £180-220,000). It last sold at Christie’s New York in May 2007 for a toppy $480,000.
- Keith Haring’s energetic “Untitled,” a Sumi ink-on-paper composition of four figures balanced on one another in circus trickster style with another figure in pursuit, […] sold to the telephone for £362,500 ($579,710), and which had last been sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 2007 for $430,000. Jose Mugrabi was the underbidder.
Mugrabi flashing out in the Haring market? Definitely worth watching.
Richter and Wool Lead Phillips London’s Snappy $21M Season Opener (Artinfo.com)
