Sotheby’s Contemporary Evening Sale = $379,676,000

Seven artist auction records set for: Christopher Wool, Sigmar Polke, Mark Bradford, Mark Grotjahn, Danh Vô, Thomas Struth, Helen Frankenthaler

The total of $379,676,000 is the second highest for a Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening sale

Global participation was evident throughout the sale process, with works consigned from 11 countries and sought after by participants from 40 countries, with significant participation from Latin America and Asia.

Highlights

o   Mark Rothko’s Untitled (Yellow and Blue), which was owned by Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon for over 30 years, sold tonight for $46,450,000 to an anonymous client after it was underbid by an Asian private collector.

o   Roy Lichtenstein’s The Ring (Engagement) sold for $41,690,000.  The work has had only two owners in 50 years and came from the collection of Stefan T. Edlis. The price is nearly 20 times the $2,202,500 the work fetched when it last appeared at auction in November 1997 at Sotheby’s.

o   Untitled (RIOT), an early seminal masterwork by Christopher Wool that had been in the same collection since 1991, sold for $29,930,000, establishing a new record for the artist at auction (est. $12/8 million).

o   Sigmar Polke’s Dschungel (Jungle) also set a new benchmark tonight – with a final price of $27,130,000 –  just four years after it fetched $9.2 million in the Sotheby’s London sale of the Duerckheim Collection (est. in the region of $20 million).

o   Superman by Andy Warhol fetched $14,362,000 after it was sought by 7 bidders from around the world (est. $6/8m), a record for the Myths series at auction, Mao from 1973 also by Warhol sold for $14,474,000 (est. $13/16m). All five works by the artist found buyers tonight.

o   Tonight we sold eight works donated by artists to benefit The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles for a total of $15,920,000 (est. $7.5/10.5 million), with more to be offered intomorrow’s Day Sale. The sale opened with two MOCA works: ten bidders fought for Mark Bradford’s Smear, driving the final price to $4,394,000, a new record for the artist at auction; as many bidders competed for an untitled work by Mark Grotjahn, which finally sold for $6,522,000, also a new auction record.