Sotheby’s Stages a Stolid $67.3 Million Frieze Week Sale, Despite Boffo Bidding for Banksy, Basquiat, and Bacon

The major talking point of Sotheby’s Frieze week sale is
undoubtably the record-smashing $12-million paid for Banksy’s
painting of a chimpanzee government, Devolved Parliament
(see artnet News’s earlier report on it, here). But aside from
the street artist’s multi-million-pound monkey painting, how did
the rest of the evening go? The pre-sale estimate had been £40.4
million to £56 million ($49.9 million to $69.1 million). When the
final hammer came down, the night’s total was at the top end of
that range: £54.7 million ($67.3 million). But that was a full 53.2
percent down from last year.

The art market had comfortably hurdled the challenges of today’s
economy in Frieze week’s first two sales, at Christie’s and Phillips. But the
stakes were raised at Sotheby’s in this 39-lot sale. Bracketing out
Banksy’s attention-devouring presence, this was a journey into more
blue-chip territory, headed by the likes of Basquiat, Bacon, and a
mix of Italian post-war stars: Manzoni, Fontana, Burri, et al.

Yet even before it all began, it was noticeable that only two
lots boasted estimates above the £3 million mark. After a
£4-million Manzoni had been withdrawn because of lack of interest,
the evening’s pre-sale estimate had already ended up 38 percent
down on last year. The final result confirmed the sinking
feeling.

This can partly be chalked up to the lack of a single collection
(last year they had the £36 million Teiger collection with
its £9.5 million Jenny Saville). Nevertheless, the final total was
not ideal for the company, celebrating its first day of private
ownership and some change of personnel.

“It was tough getting business in this time,” said senior
director of contemporary art Alex Branczik, “largely because of the
uncertainty surrounding Brexit.”

Thank goodness for Banksy’s Brexit-skewering painting then.

The Sotheby’s sale was less front-loaded with rising stars than
Phillips. Here, the main draw was a painting, Close to the
Edge, by mid-career artist Nicole Eisenman, who recently
joined the Hauser & Wirth stable. Bidders piled in for the work as
it soared above the £150,000 to £180,000, selling eventually to New
York’s Acquavella Galleries for a record £639,000 ($785,395).

As mentioned already in our earlier report on the sale of
Banksy’s Devolved Parliament, the top prices of the
night were for the Banksy (£9.9 million for Devolved
Parliament), Basquiat (£9.88 million for Pyro), and
Bacon (£2.8 million for Figure with Monkey).

After that came a 1961 faux naive Dubuffet portrait,
Melancolie, from his famed “Paris Circus” series. The lot
saw the old rivalry between the Nahmad and Mugrabi families push
the price beyond its £1.2 million high estimate. In the end,
however, both were beaten by a collector on the phone who paid a
double-estimate £2.65 million ($3.27 million).

Then came the Italians. Sotheby’s stopped holding specialized
Italian art sales last year, ostensibly to mix them in a more
international context, but equally likely because the market had
cooled. In 2014, the auction house’s Italian sale made over £40
million—but then dropped to £18 million by 2017.

This year 12 works by Italian artists reaped £13.1 million
($16.2 million). An exceptional “Natura” bronze by Fontana had
fetched a sculpture record for the artist in 2004 when it sold for
£653,000 to an American collector who was now selling with a £2 to
£3 million estimate. Two phone bidders went for it this time and it
ended up setting a new Fontana sculpture record at £2.5 million
($3.1 million).

Making the same price as the Fontana, and also a record, was a
1960 abstract composition of stretched, painted bandages by
Salvatore Scarpitta. The work was pursued by dealer Marco Voena
before selling above estimate to a phone bidder. The Scarpitta had
last sold in 2005 for £114,000.

Another Italian to make the top 10 was Albert Burri, whose
burned plastic, Rosso Plastica (1963), was chased by
Belgium’s Vedovi gallery before an Italian collector on the phone
bought it, within estimate, for £2 million ($2.5 million). Another
Burri, made of sacking, went unsold with a £1.6 million estimate.
Further works by Castellani, Burri, and Fontana only sold on their
low estimates.

In the end, after 3 lots were withdrawn, half the lots at
Sotheby’s sold within or above estimates. The other half went for
on or below their low estimates or not at all. The average price
was quite a healthy £1.4 million ($1.7 million). “We were nervous
of the market before the sale,” said Branczik, “but it held up
pretty well.”

The post Sotheby’s Stages a Stolid $67.3 Million Frieze Week
Sale, Despite Boffo Bidding for Banksy, Basquiat, and Bacon
appeared first on artnet News.