An Alphabet work by the the Vietnamese-born Berlin-based artist Danh Vō from the collector Bert Kreuk’s controversial 2013 show at the Hague, which led to a major lawsuit, hammered for below estimate at $270,000 last night, 8 November, at a Phillips 20th-century and contemporary evening auction (adding the buyer’s premium brought the final sale price to $329,000, just above the low estimate of $300,000). The action realised low results overall, with a hammer total of $56.4m, against an estimate of $64.4m to $94.7m.
The evening saw a new record, however, for a painting by Le Corbusier, Femme rouge et pelote verte (1932), which sold for $4.6m (est $4m-$6m), beating his old record set this past May at Christie’s Zurich by $1m. The evening’s top lot was Untitled XXVIII (1977) by Willem de Kooning, which sold for $11.4m (est. $10m to $15m). Both works had just one bidder.
Of the 51 lots on offer, 42 found buyers, for a sell-through rate of 82%. But 22 of the sale’s lots were guaranteed, and of those, six lots backed by Phillips failed to sell, suggesting losses for the auction house. The total estimated value of those six guaranteed lots was between $5.2m and $7.5m.
At a press conference after the sale Phillips CEO Ed Dolman said there was “very selective bidding” by buyers who wanted to save their money for the week’s four upcoming auctions.
Dolman also pointed to post-war Japanese art, a recent area of private market interest, as a highlight of the sale. Toshimitsu Imai’s Lava (1957) was one of the five works of the evening that sold above their high estimates (and set the only other artist’s record), at $413,000 (est $200,000-$300,000). But even in that niche, results were a mixed bag, as works by Jiro Yoshihara, Kazuo Shiraga and Tatsuo Kawaguchi were all bought in.
