The art market took a hit last night at Sotheby’s, which kicked off the art auction fall season with a sale of items from the late Sotheby’s chairman A. Alfred Taubman. The pieces went for a combined $377 million, which was barely over the low end of the auction house’s estimates.
Many in the art world had considered the auction a major event to see if the boom in the market would continue. As the New York Times notes, it starts a 10-day period when three auction houses will try to sell at least $2 billion worth of artwork.
Sotheby’s had guaranteed that last night’s collection would go for a combined $500 million, but that didn’t happen. They weren’t even able to sell all the pieces, with 90 percent selling. That was actually one bit of good news from the night, because usually 20 percent of pieces at auctions do not sell.
The auction house went all out in promoting the auction. Bloomberg notes that pieces were sent to London and Hong Kong to promote the event and there was a full red carpet. Woody Allen was even there.
While the overall number fell short, some pieces did exceed expectations. Sotheby’s said that Paulette Jourdain by Amedeo Modigliani went for $42.8 million after starting at $17 million. It was one of 12 pieces that went for over $10 million.
Other big pieces included Frank Stella’s Delaware Crossing, which went for $13.7 million; Willem de Kooning’s Untitled XXI for $24.89 million; and Mark Rothko’s Untitled )Lavender and Green) for $20.4 million.