Brett Gorvy has been using his Instagram account to tease lots for some time now. Yesterday, he posted Richard Prince’s Runaway Nurse, a version of which was previously sold at Phillips in 2011 for $6.8m. The focus on the nurse paintings, which topped out at $8.5m in the Summer of 2008 and reached that price level again only in 2014, is indicative of where the top end of the market seems most interested these days.
We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to learn the estimate Christie’s has assigned to the work. The sale will need to move the bar up above $9m to be seen as a success but how far above?