Chandelier bidding. Quiet phone bank. Executives wipe their eyebrows.
One of the most anticipated auctions of the season Monday night at Christie, New York, proved to be anti-climax, where there are many items to guarantee bids, and there is little evidence that enthusiastic buyers define the peak of the market in 2022. Experts say sales are caused by President Trump’s economic uncertainty around President Trump’s economically impacted by President Trump’s uncertainty that they could hurt their global art market.
Louise Riggio, together with her husband Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio, collected nearly 40 pieces, who died last year. Monday night's second auction called the 20th-century evening sales, performed better, with more art sales exceeding their estimates while bidding in the phone and room.
The auction house guarantees a minimum minimum for shippers’ entire collection, and then in recent days, working fanatically to the risk of the auction house through the subject’s object, by discovering that outside buyers leave their own sales pre-sales on the works of modern masters such as Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Alberto Giacometti.
At first glance, the Riggio series seems to be doing well with a total of $272 million, including buyer fees. But the charges were deprived, and the deal was less than the auction house's expectations, including an undervalued $252 million.
Auctionist Adrien Meyer said at one point: “Come in? It should be now.”
The highest batch sold by Riggio is Mondrian's 1922 fence paintings, once greeted visitors at the grand entrance to the bookstore Tycoon Park Avenue apartment. It sold for $47.6 million, including fees. The canvas “composition with big red planes, blue-gray, yellow, black and blue” did not fall into the previous Mondrian record, $51 million, set only three years ago at Sotheby's.
Canvas (no more than the throwing pillows in the square of nearly 21 inches) remained a bleak sale.
Art dealer Brett Gorvy said Mondrian's failure to spark a bidding war was due to its positive estimates, which was about $50 million. “This is not a problem a year ago, when the real depth of bidding was the main factor in driving prices,” he said. “Nevertheless, despite the quality and rarity of the work, the deterrent effect of overpriced pricing in the first place is for many collectors.”
As the first major sale of the auction season, the Riggio series is seen as the leader in major sales this week at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips, which have sold from $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion.
The subsequent 20th century evening sales totaled $217 million, including expenses, while an estimated $194 million, squeaking when considering the buyer's expenses. A major setback was at midfield auction when the company announced it would withdraw the most expensive Warhol painting “big electric chair” of the season.
“The weakness in the Warhol market is a clear gain,” said art consultant Jacob King after he quit the auction house. “There are too many uncertainties in the financial market, and the auction house’s reaction is to ensure everything.”
But there are some signs of life. Gerhard Richter, Vincent Van Gogh and Helen Frankenthaler's paintings are sold at a higher price than their overestimated sales, which is a sign of demand in the art market.
“Peupliers Au Bord de l'epte of Crépuscule”, after a five-minute bidding match, the Milante tree paintings in 1891 were sold for nearly $43 million. Thomas Danziger, the attorney representing the anonymous seller behind the canvas, said the purchase was a positive sign in the auction house’s estimates.
“The world has obviously changed since the bubble art market in 2022,” Danzig said. “When this is the choice between blue chip painting and more speculative artwork, the savvy collector may say 'Tell me Monet.'”
However, not all sales are equal, and some successful deals show how far the market gap is for certain artworks.
A painting by Lucio Fontana returned to the auction house in 2017 at Christie for nearly $14 million (or $17.4 million when it adjusted for inflation) and returned to the auction house Monday night. It sold for only $7.5 million, including fees.
Christie's CEO Bonnie Brennan said the company was doing well. “It's a solid result,” she said. “Do we want to see a more excited bid in the room? Sure.”
As Christie's global president Alex Rotter added: “This is a healthy market. It requires very hard work.”
