The “most expensive collection in the world” will animate New York auctions

With an estimate of more than a billion dollars in a week of sales, as of November 15, “we reached the most important season since 2015,” a record year, says the president and global head of sales of the department of fine arts from Sotheby’s, Brooke Lampley.

“During the pandemic, demand remained high among buyers, although there was not the level of supply they were used to,” he explains to the AFP.

According to experts, the global health crisis has not diminished the great fortunes or quenched the thirst of buyers, increasingly in Asia and younger.

In the first half of 2021, which saw sales grow by 13% compared to the same period in 2019, the house Christie’s has reported that 30% of its customers are “new” and among them, 31% population “millennial”.

“People have gotten into the habit of spending much more time in their homes, with their works of art. They look at the walls and reflect on what they want to add to their collection,” he says Emily Kaplan, contemporary art specialist in Christie’s.

In New York, the offer will not be lacking, despite the fact that no piece exceeds 100 million dollars.

Definitely, Sotheby’s has taken the big lot with the Macklowe collection, treasured by the New York real estate mogul Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife Linda and that after their divorce in 2018, it is presented as “the largest collection of modern and contemporary art that has ever hit the market” (600 million dollars).

Of the 65 works, 35 will go on sale on November 15 (the rest in spring 2022) for an estimated value of 400 million dollars. Among the most valuable is “Le Nez” (the Nose) by Alberto Giacometti, an impressive suspended bronze on which the sculptor began working in 1947, and “N ° 7”, a minimalist painting by Mark Rothko, estimated to be between 70 and 90 million dollars each.

The collection also includes the well-known “Nine Marilyns” by Andy Warhol ($ 40-60 million), as well as the “Sixteen Jackies” ($ 15-20 million), but also various works by living artists, such as Jeff Koons, Rudolf Stingel, Wade Guyton or Tauba Auerbach.

“There is incredible demand for contemporary art produced by currently active artists,” says Brooke Lampley. At Sotheby’s, the evening of November 18 will be devoted to works from the last 20 years with two ‘Banksys’ estimated at more than a million dollars each.

Christie’s kicks off the season on Tuesday with a “21st Century” sale with safe values. Banksy, but above all a monumental painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat (“Guilt of golden teeth”), made in 1982 during one of his stays in Modena (Italy).

The fabric represents a voodoo figure in the middle of graffiti estimated at 40-80 million dollars, a record for the American artist.

“Human One”, by Beeple, will offer a digital touch, now unavoidable, to the evening: the work, an animated image in which a man walks dressed in futuristic clothing reminiscent of Daft Punk, has the particularity that the artist It can be modified remotely, even when it is installed in the buyer’s living room.

Christie’s will put on sale Thursday the collection of Impressionist works by 2020-dead Texan industrialist Ed Cox.

Degas, Renoir, Monet, Pissaro, Cézanne, Caillebotte, the masters of this current almost all have one work, except Vincent Van Gogh, who has three.

It is also expected to set a record Frida Kahlo on Sotheby’s with the self-portrait “Diego y Yo” that goes on sale for 30 million dollars. This painting, which rose as a feminist icon of the Mexican painter, could also break the record for a painting by a Latin American artist.

The house will also put up for sale a rare copy of the U.S. Constitution signed on September 17, 1787 in Philadelphia, which is priced at $ 15-20 million.