Christie's sale of postwar and
contemporary art held on November 12 in New York yielded 325.3 million USD with
fees thanks to Ed Ruscha worxd painting « Hurting the word radio # 2
(1964) which soared above estimate to 52.5 million.
Christie's 89 percent sell-through
rate was solid though 43 per cent of lots sold beneath their low estimate
meaning it lost 9% compared to the 357.6 million sale it realized in November
2018
David Hockney's Sur la terrasse (1971)
only recorded 29.5 million against a low estimate of 25 million while Gerhard
Richter's 1967 canvas Vogelfluglinie, among the last of his signature blurred
“photo-paintings” produced in the 1960s, made $20.5 million. Andy
Warhol's Big
Electric Chair only sold for $19 million.
Of the 54 lots to reach the block,
24 were secured by a third-party financial guarantee. Meaning they totaled
about $149.2 million, over half the sale's total hammer price.
Among these works was Alma
Thomas's Fantastic Sunset (1970) which sold for 2.7 million
with fees, well above the artist's record of 740,000 USD established at Sotheby's
last May.
Charles White's Banner for Willie J (1976) commemorating the
artist's cousin, an innocent bystander slain by thieves during the holdup of a bar
went at 1.2 million with premium, a world record.
Joan Mitchell's Plowed Field sold for $13.3 million while an untitled Franz Kline
canvas went within-estimate at $3.4 million and Dana Schutz's painting Shooting in the
Air recorded just under
$1.1 million.
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