The Art Newspaper

Phillips wraps auction week with respectable $95m sale

Buyers are looking for quality and rarity, but are dismissing aggressive estimates

By Charlotte Burns and Bonnie Rosenberg. Web only
Published online: 12 May 2011

Warhol's "Liz #5 (Early Colored Liz)", 1963 sold for $27m (est $20m-$30m)

NEW YORK. Auction week drew to a close tonight with Phillips de Pury's $94.8m sale, which brought the week's total to $524.6m. The 50-lot sale was a respectable 88% sold by value, and 76% by lot.

After the ebullient $301.7m sale at Christie's last night, though, the crowd this evening showed signs of auction fatigue: this was the fourth consecutive nightly sale of contemporary and postwar works. Even the much-hyped Liz #5 (Early Colored Liz), 1963 (est $20m-$30m), which was being sold by hedge-fund honcho Steve Cohen, failed to generate much reaction from the slightly listless floor.

There had been much chatter around this turquoise silkscreen, which the auction house hastily announced the sale of within 24 hours of the actress' death last March. It once belonged to legendary dealer Ileana Sonnabend and was backed by a third-party guarantee, rumoured to be Phillips owner Leonid Friedland. The auction house declined to comment. In the event, the work was chased by only two phone bidders, selling to Phillips senior director Michael McGinnis on the telephone for $27m. The same client also bought the Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat collaboration, Third Eye, 1985, for $6.2m (total $7m with buyers premium, est $2m-$3m) and Lisa Yuksavage's Northview (Impressionist Jacket), 2000 for $900,000 (total $1.1m, est $1m-$1.5m), a painting of a scantily-clad female that auctioneer Simon de Pury called “a particularly attractive northern view”.

Supply has been the theme of the auctions this week, and tonight's sale was no different. While Rothko hit the headlines last night when Untitled No. 17, 1961, sold for $30m, this evening's Untitled (Red and Orange on Salmon), 1969, failed to take off, being bought in at $2.8m. While last night's large-scale work was a new discovery and a prime example of Rothko at his best, tonight's much smaller painting was flatter in tone—“It looks like a poster,” said one dealer—and buyers responded accordingly.

Material is, of course, constantly forthcoming in the emerging sector of the market and the first lot in this evening's sale indicated that speculation at this end is on the rise. Young artist Jacob Kassay had the dubious honour of premiering in an evening sale tonight, and his Untitled, 2009, flew past its $60,000-$80,000 estimate to hammer at $240,000 after brisk bidding (total $290,500).

The artist first came to the market's attention last November when another work, Untitled, 2009 fetched a jaw-dropping $86,500 in a day sale at Phillips against an estimate of $6,000-$8,000. The placement of the work in an evening sale—with a ten-fold increase on last year's estimate—demonstrates the heat around this artist. His work usually sells—with a long waiting list—at Lower East Side gallery Eleven Rivington for between $10,000-$12,000.

This evening's buyer, as with the November sale, was rumoured to be Pace gallery, which is apparently making a play for Kassay, though director Marc Glimcher remained coy: “I don't know what you mean,” he said with a glint in his eye, adding: “That's why we sit behind the pillars,” referring to the view-blocking architecture of the auction room.

At the other end of the scale, auction favourite Gerhard Richter did well. His Abstraktes Bild, 1988, sold squarely within estimate for $3.6m (total $4.1m, $3m-$4m). “It was an exceptional work,” said the Belgian buyer, art advisor Katherine Van Thillo, who emitted a joyous “Fantastique!” upon winning the work, which she bought for a client. “The market is great compared with a couple of years ago,” she said, adding that there were “a couple of masterpieces,” in the sale, with the rest “so-so”.

The market is clearly motoring again, though buyers are behaving differently than during the boom-time feeding frenzy. Now, people crave quality and rarity. Collectors are willing to pay top dollar for premium pieces, but are showing savvy in dismissing aggressive estimates and second-rate works. “The pieces that had the right estimate sold well,” said secondary market dealer Christophe Van de Weghe, adding: “Everyone knows it is hard to get the best material.” He said the Warhol Liz was a “beautiful painting—it could have sold for more. But it's been a long week, and people were tired, so Phillips suffered a little by going last.”

For further analysis see our June issue