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If tumult on Wall Street rattled investors on Wednesday after benchmark stock indices suffered their worst trading day of the year, investors managed to conceal any anxieties at auctioneer Christie’s midtown gallery later that evening.
With a slate of fresh works — more than four-fifths of which had not been to auction in at least two decades — the auction house easily surpassed its low estimate for the night, setting new records for four artists and putting it on a path for nearly $1bn in sales across London, Paris, Geneva and New York by the time this week draws to a close.
Led by the $52.9m sale of Cy Twombly’s “Leda and the Swan” from 1962 and another four works that exceeded $20m at auction, Christie’s said it raised $391.3m over the two hours of bidding on Wednesday. With buyers’ premiums, the British auction house, founded in the 18th century, tallied $448m in sales, up more than 60 per cent from the corresponding auction a year earlier.
The 71 lots, excluding two that were withdrawn before bidding opened, had been expected to achieve sales of between $339m and $463m. Some 96 per cent of the lots on offer sold, underlining the improved market tone.
“If we needed proof of the strength of the art market, we have it,” Guillaume Cerutti, Christie’s chief executive, said after the auction. “If we needed proof of the strength of Christie’s, we have it.” He added that the top two works to sell during the night, which included the sale of Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies for a Portrait of George Dyer” for $46m at hammer, had not been covered by minimum price guarantees from Christie’s.
The Twombly — an oil, lead pencil and wax crayon on canvas — is an explosion of lines with several recognisable shapes and takes its inspiration from the Greek myth that sees Leda seduced by Zeus, who has taken the form of a swan.
Five bidders led the contest for the work, which had been estimated to sell for more than $35m. The hammer price recognised on Wednesday was $47m.
Bidders sent Roy Lichtenstein’s “Red and White Brushstrokes” to $28.2m including fees, and Andy Warhol’s “Big Campbell’s Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable)” to $27.5m with premiums. Warhol had a successful night, with “Self-Portrait” selling for $4.2m and the silkscreen “Last Supper” going for $18.7m.
The trophy Jean-Michel Basquiat acrylic and oilstick on wood panel, titled “La Hara”, sold for $35m, well above its low presale estimate. Billionaire Point72 chief executive Steven Cohen was reported to be the seller. The solid showing for the Basquiat precedes Sotheby’s marquee sale on Thursday of another work by the American artist, which it has guaranteed and is expected to sell for at least $60m, a record. It would set the high bar for the closely followed New York contemporary spring sales and assuage fears that a tantrum on Wall Street can unhinge a recovering art market.
