: Christie's sale of postwar and contemporary art on September 15
totaled $5,163,516 and was 96 percent sold by value and 93
percent sold by lot. Seven world auction records were established
for artists Roger Brown, Joe Goode and Anthony Goicolea.
"The results of the sale underscore the continuing strength of
the market for quality works of postwar and contemporary art,"
said Robert Manley, specialist in Christie's postwar and
contemporary art department.
"The third consecutive successful September sale, it is
indicative that postwar and contemporary art is now truly a
year-round market that is no longer confined to our May and
November art seasons. Vintage New York School works by artists
such as Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell and Norman Bluhm,
as well as classic Pop Art by Mel Ramos and Robert Indiana, are
beginning to realize prices that are approaching some of their
better-known counterparts."
Untitled, Sam Francis, 1974, $253,900.
The sale's top lot was a 1974 untitled work by Sam Francis
that brought $253,900, purchased by a private US buyer.
Frankenthaler's "Sea Strip," 1965, realized $197,900, while a 1964
work by Ramos, titled "Saucey," made $175,500. A European private
buyer won Robert Indiana's "Four," 1965, for $175,500, and
Motherwell's "The Garden #2," 1973, went to the US trade at
$153,100.
Rounding out the top five were: Willem de Kooning, untitled,
circa 1970s, $141,900; Andy Warhol, "Flowers," 1964, $130,700;
Marisol, "Portrait of Martha Graham," 1977, $101,575; Theodoros
Stamos, "White Field, Number 2," 1957, $95,600; and Frank Stella,
"The Spouter Inn (3x)," 1987, $95,600.
Prices reported include buyer's premium.
