Blue-chip treasures from one of Manhattan’s funniest neighborhoods Divorce billionaire Monday night helped Sotheby’s achieve what it called a record total sale for a private art collection at auction, $922 million, plus fees.
Sotheby’s sold a second cache of modern and contemporary pieces bearing the title owned by the real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and ex-wife Linda Macklowe, an honorary commissioner of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for $246.1 million. The first round of the sale, in November, raised funds 676.1 million USD from 35 lots, headed by works by Mark Rothko ($82.5 million) and Alberto Giacometti ($78.4 million).
As the nature of the sequel, second Macklowe saleconsisting of 30 lots, not quite in that tournament, but made by Rothko for $48 million, Gerhard Richter at $30.2 million and Andy Warhol at $18.7 million pushed the final total, which Sotheby’s said, eclipsed the sale Peggy and David Rockefeller Collection in 2018 for $835.1 million, before inflation, at Christie’s.
Monday’s sale, estimated to raise at least $168 million, began the second day of a two-week auction of paintings of contemporary and modern art.
There are some notable batches that exceed expectations, such as 1961 orange and yellow de Kooning sold for $17.8 million against a high estimate of $10 million, and Sigmar Polke’s “The Copyist,” sold for $6 million against a high estimate of $4 million.
“Art is one of the few assets that appears to have a much stronger immune defense against recession or inflation than we do,” said Loic Gouzer, a well-known former Christie expert. think. “The art market feels very close to the parts market – good works are hard to find and very expensive.”
For more than 50 years, Macklowes has acquired prime examples of the works of classic white male artists such as Warhol, Richter, Rothko and Cy Twombly, traditionally seen as blue-chip investments. More recently, however, much of the energy and money in the market has shifted toward younger, up-and-coming namesespecially female artists and artists of color.
“We have been thinking about our position with white male artists,” said Suzanne Gyorgy, global head of Citi Private Bank Art Advisory and Finance. “Then the Macklowe sale came along and worked really well.”
Gyorgy says the sale of Macklowe shows that there is still a lot of demand for works by museum-certified names, as long as they are A-plus quality. “There are collectors who want to buy the best and are still upgrading their collection,” says Gyorgy. “Even with a drop in certain markets, these artists are here to stay.”
The sale of Macklowes’ prized works of art is the result of a New York court order 2018. Angered that the feuding couple could not agree on how to divide their assets, Justice Laura E. Drager of the State Supreme Court decided that the collection – then valued at more than $700 million – should be sold at a public auction.
Although the Macklowe family initially shared a hobby of collecting – filling their homes in the Plaza and Hamptons with paintings and sculptures – art became Mrs. Macklowe’s main passion. She had hoped to keep the main pieces of art, but since most of their assets were tied up in the art collection, that proved impossible.
“Linda Macklowe’s one-of-a-kind eye is on display again tonight,” said bookmaker Marc Glimcher. “The spectacular price tag is a confirmation of that. We can only hope she decides to use these funds to bring her keen senses, impeccable taste, and profound knowledge to artists and collections. ”
Christie’s 2018 charity sale of the Rockefeller collection – a distributed marathon of art and antiques compiled in another era of collectibles – includes 1,580 lots offered in six in-person sales and one online-only auction. The Macklowe Collection consists of only 65 pieces of high value (all of which have already been sold).
The sale is off to a strong start, with Mirror painting by Roy Lichtenstein and an Agnes Martin work with matte stripes both sold about three times their high estimates ($6 million and about $10 million, respectively).
Last week, Christie’s raised $1.4 million from its various sales, including 195 million dollars for Warhol’s 1964 silk screen Shot Sage Blue Marilyn. This week, Sotheby’s is offering its products, as is Phillips, on Wednesday night there will be Painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat estimated to be sold for $70 million.
But with stocks being six consecutive weeks of declineDriven by the economic downturn of the war in Ukraine and continued concerns about inflation and rising interest rates, the international end of the art market could be put to the test.
“I never thought I would be able to sell the Macklowe collection,” Harry Macklowe said in a post-sale press conference, reflecting on all of the auctions he himself has entered as a homeowner. collect. “I am so happy about that. Not because of economy, but because of the quality that has been recognized by collectors. Everyone agrees that the choices we’ve made over the past 65 years are the biggest payback,” he added.
