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The sales took in $141.4 million against a pre-sale estimate
of $134 million to $197 million for the 51 lots on offer. All
but seven found buyers.
Christie's officials declared themselves pleased with the
result, saying they had tailored the sale to the tastes of the
current market and that bidding from across the globe,
particularly Asia, helped drive bidding.
After years of soaring prices, both Christie's and rival
Sotheby's assembled markedly smaller sales this season, with no
works carrying estimates much beyond $40 million. In recent
seasons several works have broken the $100 million mark.
"This was a sale that took place against a backdrop of some
uncertainty," said Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie's' global
president. "The proof was in the pudding," he added, in light of
the sale making its estimate and even setting some records.
Emblematic of the results' mixed signals vis-a-vis a seemingly
flagging market was Frida Kahlo's "Dos desnudos en el bosque (La
tierra misma)," which set a record for both Kahlo and any Latin
American artist when it fetched $8 million.
But the price barely made the low estimate. The work had been
expected to sell for as much as $12 million.
Similarly, the top-priced lots, Monet's "Le bassin aux nymphaes"
and Modigliani's "La Jeune femme a la rose" each barely made
their low estimate. The Monet water lillies sold for $27 million
while the Modigliani portrait made $12.8 million.
Strong prices were achieved by George Braque's "Mandoline a la
partition" and Barbara Hepworth's "Sculpture with Colour" which
soared to nearly four times its estimate, fetching $5.4 million.
The Braque sold for $10.2 million.
Officials at both Christie's and Sotheby's said the New York
results, which were far stronger for both houses for
contemporary and post-war art, will be looked at closely as they
assemble their upcoming London sales next month.
(Editing by Nick Macfie)
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