As a result of their divorce, the sale of part of the collection of modern and contemporary art of the wealthy New York couple Macklowe totaled $ 676 million in a memorable auction night on Monday night at Sotheby’s.
Warhol, Rothko, Giacometti, Picasso… In just over two hours, the 35 paintings and sculptures were all sold.
In total, they brought in $ 676 million, the highest amount in history in a single evening at Sotheby’s. A second part of the Macklowe collection has yet to be sold in spring 2022, which could allow it to exceed the record for the collections of Peggy and David Rockefeller ($ 835 million in 2018 at Christie’s).
A sign of buyers’ appetites, four works have exceeded $ 50 million. A performance hailed by the applause of the public, back after several virtual seasons to drink champagne and attend the sale, on the seventh floor of Sotheby’s headquarters in New York.
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“It’s a tremendous tribute from the market for a collection that has been built with ruthless taste“, commented a present art expert and consultant, Erica Samuels.
But if one could physically participate in the auction again, it was from Asia, by telephone, that the most important lots were purchased. Like painting “N°7“by the American Marc Rothko (1903-1970), representing three broad and deep bands of color, the most expensive of the evening (82.4 million dollars), or”The nose“by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), an impressive suspended bronze ($ 78.3 million).
A black painting by Jackson Pollock, “Number 17, 1951“, sold for $ 61.1 million, broke the auction record for the American artist who died in 1956, while a monumental work by abstract painter Cy Twombly, depicting swirls of red, went for 58.8 millions of dollars.
“Nine Marylins”
In New York, the sale of two paintings by the master of pop art Andy Warhol was also expected: his famous “Nine Marylins“(1962), a series of faces by American star Marylin Monroe, in black and white, was sold for $ 47.3 million, while a”Sixteen Jackies“found a buyer for $ 33.8 million. This painting, composed of sixteen faces of Jackie Kennedy on a blue background, was estimated at $ 15-20 million by Sotheby’s, a price largely exceeded by auction which have made it soar from millions to millions.
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This auction is the consequence of the divorce pronounced in 2018 between the real estate developer Harry Macklowe and his wife Linda Burg, honorary administrator of the Met Museum, who formed a wealthy couple having amassed an impressive collection of works of art for their residences, in New York and the Hamptons.
After a publicized and stormy separation – Harry Macklowe had his face and that of his new wife, Patricia Landeau, displayed on the facade of one of his buildings in New York in 2019 – justice had imposed the sale of the collection, the ‘former couple failing to agree on the value of the works. At the start of the sale, Sotheby’s confirmed that it had guaranteed all of the lots sold.
The evening also saw the parade of Picassos, Jeff Koons, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and Sigmar Polke.
Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses have shown their optimism for this fall season, ensuring that they have found sufficient supply to meet demand, which has remained high despite the health crisis.
Thus, last week, Christie’s sold all the lots in the collection of the Texan industrialist who died in 2020 Ed Cox, including the biggest names of the Impressionists, including a painting by Gustave Caillebotte which smashed the French painter’s record, to $ 53 million.
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