ANY talk of the bubble bursting in the Contemporary art market was firmly shouted down in New York as both Sotheby’s and Christie’s hammered down record totals.
Three sessions at Christie’s brought a premium-inclusive $212.1m (£121.9m) by the end of last week, while Sotheby’s notched up $141.6m (£81.4m) across their trio of sales. Both were their respective houses’ highest ever totals for post-War and Contemporary art, and both enjoyed spectacular selling rates at their headline evening sales, both by lot (Christie’s: 94%, Sotheby’s: 89%) and value (Christie’s: 99%, Sotheby’s: 98%).
Christie’s may have posted the higher overall total, but Sotheby’s grabbed the limelight when it came to the top lot of the series, David Smith’sCubi XXVIII, a 9ft square stainless steel sculpture, which set a record for a Contemporary work at auction when it sold to a New York dealer for $21.25m (£12.2m) against an $8m-12m estimate after a five-way bidding battle.
Christie’s top price came with the $20m (£11.5m) for Mark Rothko’s 1954 oil on canvas Homage to Matisse, a world auction record for the artist. Consigned from the collection of Edward R. Broida, it sold to an anonymous buyer.
Contemporary still booming
Christie’s return higher total for a single sale, but Sotheby’s secure top price of series
