Top lot of the sales: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1982. Sold for $57,285,000 (£39,726,075 / €50,213,758 ) at Christie’s
Auction records for Basquiat and Rodin On May 9th and 10th, 2016, Jean-Michel Basquiat ‘Untitled’ sold for $57,3 million at Christie’s, and Rodin’s ‘L’Éternel Printemps’ made $20.4 million at Sotheby’s, both auction records for the artists.]]>
May 11, 2016, source: Christie’s / Sotheby’s
Christie’s May 10 evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art realized US$318,388,000 / £220,796,117 /€279,086,291 with sell-through rates of 87% by lot and 91% by value. The sale established 6 new world auction records for artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Agnes Martin, Mike Kelley, Richard Prince, Kerry James Marshall and Barry X Ball. The results of tonight’s sale brings the week’s running total to $396.5million, which includes the price achieved by the May 8 evening auction of Bound to Fail.
Brett Gorvy, Christie’s Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, remarked: “We are very proud of the record price achieved for Basquiat’s monumental portrait of the artist as devil at a time when top collectors are pursuing works of the very highest quality. This painting drew intense competition that dispelled questions of a market contraction. We are particularly happy that the work was acquired by a collector in Asia, demonstrating the global scope of the masterpiece market.”
Sotheby’s May 9 evening sale of Impressionist and Modern Art fetched $144.5 million / £100.2 million. The auction was led by Auguste Rodin’s ‘L’Éternel Printemps’, an iconic marble of embracing lovers which sold for $20.4 million — marking a new auction record for the artist (estimate $8/12 million).
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Warhol, Kline and Basquiat at Christie’s record-setting auction (news, November 2012)
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