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The auction marked the second solid result this week for
Christie's, which on Monday sold $289 million in Impressionist
and modern art, helping reassure a jittery market following
recent seasons where owners were reluctant to open their vaults
and consign top-tier works.
Of the 71 lots on offer virtually all found buyers, with only
three going unsold. The sale's total nipped at the high pre-sale
estimate of $463 million.
Officials called the result robust, and provided evidence of
"the great results you get for exceptional masterpieces," as
Christie's global president Jussi Pylkkänen, who also served as
auctioneer, put it.
Pylkkänen reiterated the contention from officials at both
Christie's and rival Sotheby's that works fresh to the market
and of the highest quality achieved the strongest prices, adding
another factor - "demand is effectively outstripping supply."
Bidding at the sale, which was marked by strong American bidding
and buying, was solid, if measured, short of the free-wheeling
spending that marked sales from roughly 2011 to 2015 which saw
spiking prices and nearly continuous record breaking.
The sale's top lot was Cy Twombly's "Leda and the Swan," which
sold for $52.9 million including commission of just over 12
percent, against an estimate of $35 million to $55 million.
Francis Bacon's "Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer," a
1963 triptych, fetched $51.8 million, at the very lowest end of
its $50 million to $70 million estimate.
"It was what the market wanted to pay," Pylkkänen said.
Other highlights included Jean-Michel Basquiat's "La Hara,"
which handily beat the high estimate of $28 million to sell for
just under $35 million.
Works by pop artists Andy Warhol - one of his iconic Campbell's
soup cans - and Roy Lichtenstein, each estimated to fetch $25
million to $35 million, achieved $27.5 million and $28.2 million
respectively.
Another Warhol, "Last Supper," soared to $18.7 million, more
than double the $8 million high estimate.
The auctions wrap up on Thursday with Sotheby's contemporary
sale, featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat's untitled work from 1982,
last auctioned in 1984 for a mere $19,000 but now expected to
reap more than $60 million, setting it up to break the artist's
$57.3 million record set just a year ago.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Richard Pullin)
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