Adam Lindemann’s private collection brought in a high 31.5 million. But with individual works, the gallery owner and collector paid extra.
03/23/2023 | by Barbara Kutscher
Jean Royère seating group from the “Ours Polaire” series:
New York Who during the art fair “Frieze” in Los Angeles by car service Uber chauffeured through the city, Andy Warhol’s “Little Electric Chair” flickered in pink on a screen. This is how Christie’s advertised the evening auction on March 9 on the east coast, the 37 works of art and design objects from the important private collection of the New York gallery owner and market maker Adam Lindemann (61) bilbot.
An atmospheric brochure – instead of a catalog – was also one of the unconventional advertising measures. Inspired by an underground zine, it illustrates Lindemann’s always close ties to the art world: when he was barely twenty, he was already photographed as a member of the Warhol circle.
Christie’s effort paid off, all lots were sold to an international audience, although one work was withdrawn before the auction. Lindemann’s collection dominated the contemporaneous Mid-Market contemporary art auctions at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips.
They grossed a total of $53.5 million. Lindemann contributed another $31.5 million gross. Here the expectations had been at least 22 million dollars net.
Lindemann’s colorful mix also included works by nine big names such as Warhol, Alexander Calder, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Richard Prince. At least one million dollars was expected for each of them. Christie’s was able to pre-sell them to guarantors before the auction.
It wasn’t the art that performed better than expected, but the design. Three bidders fought for a long time for Jean Royère’s seating group from the famous “Ours Polaire” series from the 1950s. The hammer price of 3.4 million dollars gross tripled the lower estimate and thus set a new record.
Lindemann bought the sofa and two matching armchairs in the original green cover at Phillips in December 2014 for what was then a strong $842,500 from the property of major collector and museum operator Ronald Lauder.
Another record was set for Maria Pergay’s “Lit Tapis Volant” fur-covered daybed, circa 1968. Here, Gabriela Lobo, Christie’s representative in Mexico City, grabbed it for her client at $163,800 gross.
Jeff Koons „Ushering in Banality“:
The top selling piece of art was Alexander Calder’s huge mobile, Black Disc with Flags. The moving sculpture found a new owner just below expectations at $4.5 million net, or $5.5 million plus premium. Jeff Koons’ wooden sculpture “Ushering in Banality” from an edition of three sold for 3.9 million dollars gross to an online bidder in Austria. Lindemann had paid 4.05 million dollars for the kitsch-playing group at Sotheby’s in 2006.
On the other hand, the Syrian-American painter and poet Etel Adnan, who died in 2021 at the age of 96, was advertised very vigorously. At least five bidders, including an online participant from South Korea, raised her 2014 abstract from a starting price of $95,000 to $315,000 gross.
The abstractions of the Chicago painter Miyoko Ito (1918-1983) are only now gaining recognition. Four bidders followed their Untitled (#118), which jumped from an expectation of $60,000 at most to $157,500.
Paid more than received
Every now and then Lindemann was no longer able to carry out his mission. For example with Warhol’s “LIttle Electric Chair”, which cost him 5.6 million dollars in 2007. Now the top lot of the week, with an estimate of $4 million to $6 million, grossed just $4.5 million.
Even with the last lot, the NFT “Mother of Evolution,” a collaborative effort by Beeple and Madonna, Lindemann made a loss. It had cost him 72 ethers last May, just on the day of the crypto crash, at that time $146,000. In the evening auction, a young man in the audience at Christie’s was able to bid for $100,800.
