The contemporary art market is still alive despite the world economic situation as suggested by some great bids recorded by Sotheby's in New York on November 11th 2002. Sotheby's turnover reached $ 33,5 million for 21 lots of the Weisel collection offered for sale ($ 60 million expected) but eight of these remained unsold.
An oil painting produced in 1947 by Willem de Kooning titled “Orestes” sold for
$ 13,2 million against a high estimate of $ 10 millions. Another de Kooning, this time a pastel and pencil 1952 work titled “Woman” fetched $ 3,75 million against an estimate of between $ 4 and 6 million.
A 1951 oil painting by Franz Kline titled “Ninth Street” went for $ 4,5 million while a Wayne Thiebaud work titled “Freeways” and painted between 1975 and 1979 fetched a record $ 3,09 million.
A David Park work of 1959 titled “Boy with flute” sold for a record $ 779,500 but some works by de Kooning, Diebenkorn and Arshile Gorky remained unsold as they were considered as too expensive and not attractive.
Sotheby's pursued its sale with a total turnover of $ 78,2 million ($ 80,5 million expected) but did not manage to sell amost of the Warhol works offered to would-be buyers who considered that there were too many of these in the catalogue.
A Cy Twombly painting of 1970 fetched $ 5,6 million while Roy Lichentenstein's diptych titled “ Step-on can with leg” painted in 1961 went for $ 4,8 million. An abstract 1988 painting by Gerhard Richter titled “Blue” sold for $ 2,2 million and a Mark Tensey work of 1986 mixing famous faces such as those of Freud, Princess Diana and Einstein was bought for $ 900,000.
Meanwhile, Christie's recorded a $ 66,9 million turnover for a sale of contemporary art with 83% of lots sold. An oil painting by Lichtenstein titled “Happy tears” went for $ 7,16 million and a 1954 work by Barnett Newman titled “ White Fire” fetched $ 3,86 million and a David Hockney swimming pool painting rose to $ 2,87 million. Phillips faced another disappointment after the disaster met the previous week for Impressionist and Modern works and only managed to record some acceptable bids, notably for Warhol's “Liz”, which went for $ 4,4 million and for Jeff Koons' marble self-portrait, which sold for $ 2,04 million.
Adrian Darmon
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