Sotheby’s Modern evening sale brought in $152m ($186.4m with fees) last night, far below the auction house’s pre-sale estimate of $170.3m to $248.7m. Proof that even blue-chip artists are not always a safe bet during an economic downturn, especially for auction houses, which have been among the most battered businesses.
Auctioneer Oliver Barker announced before bidding began that four lots had been withdrawn: including Winslow Homer’s Bananas for the Attorney General (est. $1.5m to $2.5m); Wassily Kandinsy’s Study for Improvisation 10 (1910) (est. $6m to $8m); Cândido Portinari’s Mulata de vestido branco (1936) (est. $800,000 to $1.2m); and Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Torse de femme nue couchée (1903-05) (est. $800,000 to $1.2m).
Despite the withdrawals, the sale started out strong, with the first few lots reaching the high end or exceeding their pre-sale estimate range. Jean Arp’s funky 1959 sculpture Figure-germe dite l’apres-midinette sold for $2.9m ($3.5m with fees) against a $1.2m to 1.8m estimate, and a 1926 painting by the artist, Sans Titre, sold for $650,000 ($825,500 with fees) against a $500,000 to $700,000 estimate.
František Kupka’s Flux et reflux (1923) Courtesy Sotheby’s
Robert Delaunay’s Nature morte (1936) exceeded the high end of its estimate by $100,000 when it sold for $1.6m ($2m with fees). Four bidders competed for František Kupka‘s Flux et reflux (1923), which sold for $4.8m ($5.9m with fees). However, the artist’s Formes flasques (1919-25) sold for below estimate hammer at $4.3m ($5.2m with fees). Both Kupka paintings were from the Joseph H. Hazen family collection.
The next lot, Fernand Léger’s La Jeune fille au bouquet (1921), failed to sell at $4.3m, although unusually it was brought back for a second chance later in the sale and sold for $3m ($3.7m with fees) against a $5m to $7m estimate. Alexander Calder’s 1948 mobile Paulette sold for $4.6m ($5.6m with fees) and Pablo Picasso’s Tête d’homme (1964) sold for $2.4m ($2.9m with fees).
Next, works by household names came up, starting with two paintings by René Magritte. La Bonne aventure (1939) fetched $3m ($3.3m with fees) and La Traversée difficile (1963) sold for $8.2m ($10m with fees). Claude Monet’s Port-Coton, Le Lion (1886) sod for $5.3m ($6.5m with fees), while Paul Signac’s dreamy Venetian water scene Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise) (1905-03) sold for $6.6m ($8.1m with fees). An 1886 Georges Seurat painting fetched $480,000 ($609,600 with fees). Drawings by Picasso and Egon Schiele made $3.7m ($4.5m with fees) and $1.9m ($2.36m with fees).
Grande tête mince by Alberto Giacometti Courtesy Sotheby’s
Last night’s star was supposed to have been Alberto Giacometti’s Grande tête mince, a painted bronze bust of the artist’s brother, Diego. Conceived in 1954 and cast in 1955, the bronze was exhibited at the 1956 Venice Biennale. The consignor was The Soloviev Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the business run by Stefan Soloviev. Soloviev’s father, the billionaire real estate developer and collector Sheldon Solow, bought the sculpture in 1980 from Galerie Maeght in Paris.
The bust was estimated to sell for in excess of $70m, but it failed to receive a single bid and without a guarantee—unusual at this level and in this market— was not sold. The shocking pass garnered gasps from the audience.
“Giacometti’s message has always been that fate rests on the edge of a knife-blade. Despite the interest and even offers, it simply wasn’t its moment,” Julien Dawes, Sotheby’s head of Modern and Impressionist art in the Americas, said in a statement after the sale. A Giacometti sculpture with a more modest price sold well within its estimate earlier in the sale for $5.6m ($6.8m with fees).
Barker picked up the pace of the rest of the sale. It only took a few lots for another work to be passed over: Le Bras (1938) by Henri Matisse failed to sell, and was followed by eight others that failed to find buyers before the end of the two-hour sale, including work by Picasso, Edgar Degas, Pierre Soulages and David Smith. Sparks (2001) by Andrew Wyeth was also passed over on its auction debut. During the sale, Barker announced Rufino Tamayo’s Brindis (1949) had been withdrawn. It had an estimate of between $1m and $1.5m.
A pedestal lamp by Frank Lloyd Wright Courtesy Sotheby’s
There were some victories, however. The sale set a record for Frank Lloyd Wright, best remembered as the architect behind classic American buildings like the Guggenheim Museum’s home in New York. A lamp he designed sold for $6.1m (almost $7.5m with fees) after an 11-minute bidding war. The winning bid doubled Wright’s auction record, and nearly quadrupled the price fetched by the lamp last time it appeared at auction in 2002, according to Sotheby’s. Willem de Kooning’s Two Figures in Dunes (1968) also exceeded its $1.5m to $2m estimate when it sold for $2.6m ($3.2m with fees)—15 times the price the painting made when it last appeared at auction in 1993, the auction house said.
Around half of the 65 lots in tonight’s sale were fresh to market, according to Sotheby’s, which also reported a 83% sell-through rate, not including five withdrawals. Of the lots that did sell, about 40% sold above their high estimate and 26 were guaranteed, 24 of them by third parties.
Modern art is often considered a safe bet and less exposed to fluctuating prices during economic downturns. Last year’s spring Modern evening sale at Sotheby’s totaled $198.1m ($235.1m with fees), midway between its $180.2m to $250.7m estimate (calculated without fees), considered a robust sum in the soft market. But tonight’s sale proved that even a desirable brand name like Giacometti is not immune to price sensitivity in a weak market.
During times of economic stress, many collectors turn to private sales for flexibility and price control, as well as privacy and risk mitigation. According to a recent Bank of America report, both Sotheby’s and Christie’s reported growth in their private sales department last year. That more discreet channel may well be the next route for the works withdrawn or unsold last night.
