A blue-chip treasure from one of Manhattan’s most intense cities billionaire divorce On Monday night, Sotheby’s set a new record for the total sale of a private art collection with $922 million at auction.
Sotheby’s sells second batch of trophy-named modern and contemporary works owned by real estate mogul Harry McClure and his ex-wife Linda McClure, Honorary Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $246.1 million. The first deal in November raised $676.1 million Out of 35 lots, works by Mark Rothko ($82.5 million) and Alberto Giacometti ($78.4 million) topped the list.
As is the nature of sequels, Second Micro saleincluding 30 pieces, not exactly in that league, but Rothko’s work is worth $48 million, Gerhard Richter $30.2 million and Andy Warhol Sotheby’s said the final price was $18.7 million, more than Peggy and David Rockefeller Collected at Christie’s for $835.1 million (before inflation) in 2018.
Monday’s sale, expected to raise at least $168 million, kicked off the second two-week large sale of modern and contemporary art.
There are some notable works that exceeded expectations, such as 1961 orange and yellow de Kooning Sold for $17.8 million, above the high estimate of $10 million, while Sigmar Polke’s The Copycat sold for $6 million, above the high estimate of $4 million.
“Either art is one of the few assets that seems to have good immune protection from a recession, or inflation is much stronger than we thought,” said Loic Gouzer, a former renowned expert at Christie’s. “The art market It feels very close to the spare parts market – good pieces are hard to find and very expensive.”
For more than 50 years, the McClous have acquired works by typically white male artists such as Warhol, Richter, Rothko and Sai Twombly, traditionally seen as blue-chip investments.More recently, however, most of the energy and money in the market has turned to young, emerging namesespecially women artists and artists of color.
“We’ve been thinking about how we’re going to relate to white male artists,” said Suzanne Gyorgy, global head of art consulting and finance at Citi Private Bank. “And then the Macklowe sale came along and it’s done really well.”
Gyorgy said the Macklowe auction showed that there was still a lot of demand for works with museum-certified titles, as long as they were of A-grade quality or better. “There are collectors who want the best but are still upgrading their collections,” Gyorgy said. “Even if certain markets drop, these artists will stick around.”
The sale of rare Macklowes artwork is 2018 New York Court Order. Angry as the feuding couple couldn’t agree on how to divide their property, Justice Laura E. Drager The state Supreme Court decided that the collection — worth more than $700 million at the time — should be sold at a public auction.
While both the McLoughs initially loved collecting – the Plaza and Hamptons homes were filled with paintings and sculptures – art became Ms. McLough’s main passion. She had hoped to keep the major artworks, but that proved impossible as most of their assets were tied up in the art collection.
“Linda Macklowe’s incomparable eyes are on show again tonight,” said dealer Marc Glimcher. “The amazing price confirms it. We can only hope she decides to use these funds to bring her keen sense of smell, impeccable taste and deep knowledge back to the world of artists and collectors.”
Christie’s 2018 Rockefeller Collection Charity Auction — a marathon of art and antiques scatters brought together in different eras of collecting tastes — includes 1,580 lots, including six live auctions and one online sale. The Macklowe collection consists of only 65 high value pieces (all sold).
Sales started strong, Roy Lichtenstein mirror painting And Agnes Martin’s hazy stripes, which each sold for about three times their high estimate ($6 million and about $10 million, respectively).
Last week, Christie’s raised $1.4 million through various sales, including $195 million Warhol’s 1964 silkscreen “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”.This week, Sotheby’s will offer its merchandise, as will Phillips on Wednesday night Jean-Michel Basquiat oil painting It is estimated to sell for $70 million.
But as the stock market took a hit Sixth straight week of declineThe high end of the international art market could be under stress test, driven by the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine and ongoing concerns about rising inflation and interest rates.
“I never thought I’d see an auction of the Macklowe Collection,” Harry Macklowe said in a post-sale press conference, reviewing all the auctions he’s attended as a collector. “I’m excited about it. Not the economics, but the quality that collectors recognize. Everyone’s backing the choices we’ve made over the past 65 years is the biggest reward,” he added.
