Middle Market Strength Shown at Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated Sale: Next week, we’ll have a report on the mid-season sales for AMMpro subscribers. In the meantime, Sotheby’s had a strong Contemporary Curated sale yesterday that brought in $25.66m with an 84% sell through rate on 332 lots offered. Stand out lots include a monster sale of Sam Gilliam’s Rain for $684k against a $150k high estimate; and untitled de Kooning estimated at $200-300k but selling for $792k; Alexander Calder’s small stabile, Pup, sold for $660k over a $350k high estimate; Joan Mitchell’s Parasol sold for $3.3m over a $2m high estimate; and Helen Frankenthaler’s Haze which made $972k. …
What’s In the Macklowe Art Collection? It’s Linda Macklowe’s turn to present her assets in the Macklowe divorce trial. Harry Macklowe presented the worst-case scenario on his real estate holdings. How did the art come out? Gurr Johns testified that:
- Andy Warhol’s “Sixteen Jackies” has a fair-market value of $25 million
- Willem de Kooning’s “Untitled XXXIII,” had a fair-market value of $10 million
- a Warhol self-portrait from 1986 is valued at $20 million
- a smaller bronze sculpture valued at $5 million
- as well as one 18-foot painting whose size was a factor in the appraisal
KQED Says South Asian Art Is Booming in the Bay Area: The art market has been asking when Silicon Valley will start collecting art in force. Maybe it already has: “there is a small but buzzing market for South Asian art by living artists in the Bay Area, thanks to the population of wealthy individuals living in Silicon Valley with roots in the Indian subcontinent.” …
Saffronart’s New Delhi Evening Sale = $10.4m: Led by a VS Gaitonde untitled work that sold for $3.17m, Saffronart’s latest sale of 69 lots achieved an 86% sell-through rate. Other top lots include a Nikolai Roerich Himalayan painting that made $761k over a $285k high estimate and an F. N. Souza portrait that made $419k over a $142k high estimate.
