Christie's 12 November: the leaders, Jean-Michel Basque and Yaei Kusama
ARTinvestment.RU   13 ноября 2008

Auction Christie's November 12, the most suitable epithet «unexpected»: and were unfulfilled expectations, and unexpected failures, and unexpected records

Evening bidding works of postwar and contemporary art Christie's, took place yesterday in New York , not met the expectations of the organizers. The amount of the proceeds from sales - 113.6 million dollars - was only about half of the lower estimeyta at 227-321 million. Two lots went under the hammer more than 10 million dollars. More than a million customers were willing to pay for 32 of the lot.

But without the personal records did not come. The author of one of them was Japanese artist Yaei Kusama (Yayoi Kusama) . One of the few of her works, abstract No. 2 (1959), was sold for 5.79 million dollars, with estimeyte of 2,5-3,5 million (by the way, in the Top-5 on the auction turnover among living artists in 2007, Kusama Yaei I took a seat with the result of 8 099 508 pounds ).

Success Yaei Kusama was one of the few bright moments of the auction. This failure has become a failed sale of one of the top auction lots, «Etude to self» hand of Francis Bacon (Francis Bacon). Organizers had planned for him to gain at least 40 million dollars, but the maximum price offered was only 27.5 million, and the lot was never sold.

Unexpected Surprise taught organizers «abstract picture» Gerhard Richter (Gerhard Richter), who went under the hammer for 14.87 million dollars with estimeyte to 12 million. However, it is still not able to beat the previous record Richter - 16 million dollars per picture «candle» .

«Untitled» ( «boxer»), Jean-Michel Basque (Jean -Michel Basquiat) from the collection of an American musician Lars Ulrich (Lars Ulrich) was also among the leaders of the auction. She inherited a buyer for 13.52 million dollars and a little bit not reached the previous record artist set in 2007 - 14.6 million for the painting «Untitled».

Among the lots, which never found their customers were three works by Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol), a rare sculpture by David Smith (David Smith), entitled «Circles and angles of» (estimeyt 6-8 million dollars) as well as «Constellation and red knife» Koldera Alexander (Alexander Calder, estimeyt 3-4 million).

From 16 works of abstract expressionists , including works by Willem de Kuninga (Willem de Kooning), Barnett Newman (Barnett Newman), Arshila Slides (Arshile Gorky) and Agnes Martin (Agnes Martin), to the new owners have moved, not all. However, those that were sold, the owner brought 13.5 million dollars in the initial expert evaluation of 15-20 million dollars. Previously, was informed that these pictures were exhibited at the auction tail Kathy (Kathy Fuld), the first ladies of the recently bankrupt bank Lehman Brothers Robert tail (Robert Fuld).

Christie's, like its main competitor, the auction house Sotheby's, which held auctions of contemporary art works by 11 November , suffered significant losses because of the guarantees issued. This is primarily due to the fact that the estimated value shall be determined before the beginning of a dramatic financial decline in September was higher than the amounts that buyers were willing to pay in the current crisis. According to some New York art dealer, «Etude to self» Francis Bacon, no doubt, would have been sold, and for a lot of money, just six months ago. And at the moment, the assessment and the expectations have fallen about 30 percent. However, buyers remain on the market, and this is encouraging.

material produced Catherine Onuchin

Sources: artdaily.org , artinvestment.ru