Sotheby's newly renovated saleroom
Since it is auction week and we're addressing art in financial rather than aesthetic terms, let me start off by saying that Sotheby's stock (NYSE symbol: BID) rose nearly eight percent after its blockbuster sale of Contemporary work this Thursday. The firm presided over a total of $320 million dollars in a single evening.
Sotheby's recently renovated saleroom is more appealing than those of its competitors, boasting higher ceilings, better sightlines--and unlike Christie's insular gallery--cell phone signals always come through. Auctioneer Tobias Meyer is by any standard a class act. Meyer's debonair stance and effortless charm make it possible during the action to get the impression we've all been invited to his home for cucumber sandwiches. He knows the names of his entire staff as well as the locations of the key players in the audience. Despite the crowded room, there are just a handful of important players in the house who bid consistently and fervently. Meyer looks at the Mugrabi family of wheeler-dealers whenever Warhols come on the block, knowing they will bid. Larry Gagosian gets inquisitive looks from Tobias whenever a Lichtenstein or Koons are due. Often, the masterful auctioneer seems to have memorized certain paddle numbers, and you can hear him say, "I see you," and "I know who you are," throughout the well-paced evening.
The proceedings felt more urgent than the staid atmosphere at Christies the night before. Sotheby's opening lot, a Dan Flavin masterpiece from an edition of 5 ("Monument for V. Tatlin") carried an estimate of $600-800,000 and quickly went to 1 million dollars. Early on in the bidding, Gagosian, sitting in the second row in his preferred aisle seat, stood up to see who his competition was in back. He purchased the lot for a hammer price of $1.35 million.
Jeff Koons' "Naked" (1988) which fetched $8 million
Another early lot was the well known Jeff Koons porcelain sculpture of two kiddies sans underpants ("Naked" 1988) which carried a pre-sale estimate of $1.5-2 million. Bidding was nothing short of frantic all the way to $3.6 million, and a new bidder joined in at $4.2. We had an actual horserace going. As the price continued to climb, Mr. Meyer casually uttered with a wave of his arm, "Seven million against the five of you." The Koons sold for a hammer price of $8 million on the nose, the total price tag with buyer's premium came to over $9 million dollars.
A million dollars tonight could buy you Damien Hirst's spin painting with a title to pre-empt criticism: "Beautiful, Childish, Expressive, Tasteless, Not Art, Over Simplistic, Throw Away, Kids Stuff, Lacking Integrity, Rotating, Nothing But Visual Candy, Celebrating, Sensational, Inarguably Beautiful Painting (For Over The Sofa)" (1996).
Yue Minjun's oil on canvas figurative work entitled "Looking Straight," from 1993, was one of the few bargains of the evening, going for $1million plus buyer's premium. One of several Gerhard Richter paintings for sale tonight, "Abstraktes Bild", created a phone battle and at one point 5 active bidders bid up the price to $13.5 million against its estimate of $5-7 million. Yves Klein canvases from the Lauffs Collection also were among the sought after works in the sale, blowing past estimates in the range of $5-8 million and reaching $15.5 million and $21 million.
Though Christie's had offered no works by the late Robert Rauschenberg, Sotheby's boasted two. The first, an oil and silkscreen on canvas from 1962 entitled "Overdrive", fell within its optimistic estimate of $10-15 million to bring a hammer price of $13 million. However, just a few lots later, a sculptural Combine painting called "Slug" (1961) carried an estimate of just $3-4 million and elicited sluggish bidding to $2.5 million.
A group of four Andy Warhol boxes which sold for $4.2 million
Of course, there were many Andys, who along with Jeff K., Mr. Prince and Jean-Michel are Evening Sale standards. Results for Warhol were uneven, with a Statue of Liberty in red, white and blue camouflage bringing over five million, yet a comparable portrait of Joseph Beuys was bought in at $4.7 million. Perhaps the most interest in a Warhol came when a rare set of four boxes by the master came to the block (a Brillo box, Campbell's Tomato Juice box, Del Monte Peach Halves and a Heinz Tomato Ketchup box.) The coveted lot carried a hefty estimate of $2-3 million, and dealers Ivan Wirth & David Zwirner, the elder Mr. Mugrabi and Larry Gagosian were all seen to bid ferociously. The lot sold to another bidder for $4.2 million, surpassing the high estimate.
I'm pleased when art does well at auction, but auctions invariably give birth to some head-shakers. Who is bidder number 12 who paid over three million dollars for a Lee Krasner monstrosity entitled "Polar Stampede"? Why does a posthumous cast by Jean Arp (in an edition of three) double its high estimate to reach a price of $1.4 million? What does the work of Tom Wesselmann offer to the Pop Art conversation at this point in time? Finally, who does Banksy think he is? (The graffiti badboy turned cash cow had one of his works in the sale tonight, "Sale Ends Today," a silk-screened depiction of biblical weepers around a titular sign. The piece carried an estimate of $600-800,000 and brought fast bids to $480,000, but when it passed at $550,000 a few witty critics in the gallery applauded its failure to sell.)
Works by Chamberlain, Judd, Lewitt and Haring all failed to find buyers in the Evening Sale. Of particular note was the disappointment felt by Sotheby's at having to buy in a featured lot, Mark Rothko's "Orange, Red, Yellow," painted in 1956. The estimate was unpublished, but we were quietly told that it was "in excess of $35 million." Bidding started at $27 million and stalled at $33 million, despite the fact that this canvas was far more interesting than yesterday's Rothko at Christies which brought over $50 million. Perhaps with such a small target audience in the higher price ranges, Christies had the advantage this year by going first.
Takashi Murakami's "My Lonesome Cowboy" which fetched $13.5 million
The Rothko Hiccup was easily overshadowed by two Sotheby's showstoppers. First, Takashi Murakami's "My Lonesome Cowboy" sculpture, which was on central display in the lobby and depicts an animé lad with an erection using his ejaculate as a decorative lasso, was a favorite. Murakami's early U.S. dealer Marianne Boesky insisted that the rumors that she was the consignor were untrue. It would have been poetic justice, though, if the consignment was hers, as the artist famously defected to Gagosian at the onset of his ascent. Murakami was in the room watching his naughty piece shoot past its $3-4 million dollar estimate, bringing a hammer price of $13.5 and much applause.
The second success story of the evening was the magnificent Francis Bacon triptych from 1976 which carried a pre-sale estimate "in the region of $70 million." The bidding quickly reached $67 and slowly became a phone battle, with Tobias Meyer's hammer coming down at $77 million dollars.
In addition to all the usual auction denizens tonight, I noticed that the designer Valentino, who had also attended the sale at Christies, was standing next to me. The opalescent, salmon-colored gentleman was understandably a bit tired, and along with many others, left before the end of the sale. Whether he was a buyer or a seller, I regret that I didn't have time to discover. I was too busy craning my neck to watch the millions fly by.
Doug McClemont
Doug McClemont is the former Editor-in-Chief of HONCHO, Torso, Mandate, Inches and Playguy. His writing regularly appears in publications such as Publishers' Weekly, Library Journal and Screw. He has written introductory essays for several monographs on contemporary art and is currently at work on a book of short stories entitled Little Morticians.
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