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White-Glove Robert Mnuchin Auction Leads Opening Night of The New York Sales
The spring sales kicked off at the Breuer on Thursday night, with a 100%-sold auction of Robert Mnuchin’s treasures followed by the Now & Contemporary Evening Auction.
T his week at the Breuer in New York, Sotheby’s hosted twoEvening Auctions: Robert Mnuchin: Collector at Heart followed by Now & Contemporary. Led by Mark Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Red, which sold for 85.8 million USD (the second highest price for the artist at auction), the evening went on to achieve a total of 433.1 million USD.
Oliver Barker, Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and auctioneer for the evening, opened the bidding with 11 seminal works from the personal collection of gallerist and art dealer Robert Mnuchin. The sale opened with Pablo Picasso’s Deux femmes nues assises, which drew competition from five bidders before selling above estimate at 1.5 million USD. Three works from three key decades of Willem de Kooning’s career (60s, 70s, 80s) collectively pulled in 27.2 million USD. With bids coming in from 24 countries, and an average of 12 bids per lot, the entire collection sold to applause at a total of 166.3 million USD.
The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction followed after a brief break with works from the collections of Gunter Sachs, Jean & Terry de Gunzburg, Jennifer Gilbert and more. The sale was led by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown), which achieved 52.7 million USD, exceeding its high estimate of 45 million USD. Closely related to his Hollywood Africans, also executed in 1983 and now in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) ranks among the most significant works ever created by the artist.
Andy Warhol’s portrait of the late actress Brigitte Bardot has spent the last 40 years in the collection of Gunter Sachs. In New York the emerald, lavender and vermillion painting—one of a series of eight originally commissioned by Sachs—sold for 24.8 million USD, setting an auction record for this limited series.
Mark Rothko appeared again, this time with an untitled work from the collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg that sold for 16.5 million USD. Helen Frankenthaler’s arresting Cape Orange, once held in the artist’s personal collection, faired just as well, selling for 7.3 million USD after a lengthy bidding battle. Towering over ten feet, the painting is a luminous example of Frankenthaler’s pioneering role within Color Field painting.
Other records were set for artists of today. A monumental piece by the Chinese artist Ding Shilun achieved 358,400 USD following an estimate of 50-70K USD. The painting, titled Three Princes, set an auction record for the artist and epitomizes the defining qualities of his celebrated practice, uniting Chinese folklore, pop culture, and Japanese manga, and the refined traditions of Chinese painting. Florian Krewer’s night hunters set a new auction record for the artist, achieving 256,000 USD following a high estimate of 180,000 USD.
The standout results continue a wave of white-glove sales in recent months at Sotheby’s around the world, starting with the Pauline Karpidas Collection in September last year, and followed by 100%-sold sales at Sotheby’s New York last season and in both Hong Kong and London this past March. The New York Sales continue with Modern Evening and Day Auctions next week.
