If you want to know what the May 7, 2008, evening sale of Impressionist and modern art at Sotheby’s New York was like, read this out loud, word by word, for the next two hours, backwards. Sotheby’s auctioneer Tobias Meyer had a difficult time.
Sotheby’s has been scouring the earth for the past six months looking for treasures. The firm didn’t find much. And much of what it found, it perforce guaranteed in some fashion or another. Some of the lots should not have been in an evening sale and some, like intractable children, don’t do well at auction.
Tobias Meyer can be slow and tonight it was all local service. The sale was only 52 lots but it seemed to take all night. The first four lots were by Giorgio Morandi. They sold well, but no sex. One would like to say the high points follow, but there really weren’t any. Half as many people were manning the phones as were in the room and whenever one lot improbably surpassed its high estimate, they broke into applause. They should have had a sign.
In all, the sale totaled $235,333,000, with 41 of 52 lots finding buyers, or almost 79 percent. Average lot value was $5.7M, compared to $3.5M in February in London. New auction records were set for Fernand Léger ($22.4M), Edvard Munch ($11M), Victor Brauner ($878,484) and Georges Valmier ($286,135), as well as for a painting by Alberto Giacometti ($14.6M). According to the house, two-thirds of the buyers were American.
Prices given in the text below are "at the hammer"; prices given above and under the accompanying illustrations include the auction-house premium of 25 percent of the first $20,000, 20 percent of the remainder up to $500,000, and 12 percent of the rest.
by Nicole Davis
Vol. 2, No. 3 Yinka Shonibare "Prospero’s Monsters" James Cohan Gallery New York City April 2008 Music by Jordan Galland
ARTNET NEWS May 8, 2008 Art fair mania around the globe. Plus, Tom Sachs, Warhol’s Mao in Hong Kong, Haring Foundation, "Sand," grants and prizes, plus more.
