New York Contemporary Art Sale Takes $362,037,000
Published May 19th, 2008
Sotheby’s recent auction of Contemporary Art, which totaled $362,037,000, was the best auction in the Company’s history, surpassing the high estimate and bringing the highest total of the two week series of auctions in New York as well as the top lot of the series. “We saw hunger for great works of art from a truly global community,” said Tobias Meyer, Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s and the evening’s auctioneer. The cornerstone of the sale was Francis Bacon’s Triptych, 1976, a masterpiece of the 20th century and the most important work by the artist in private hands, which commanded $86,281,000, selling to a Private European Collector (lot 33, est. in the region of $70 million). “This painting, which is one of the great paintings of the 20th Century, is worth every penny,” said Mr. Meyer. “The Bacon set a record for a Contemporary work of art at auction, and for the artist at auction.”
The sale also featured Property from the Collection of Helga and Walther Lauffs, one of the most extraordinary single-owner offerings of Contemporary Art to ever appear on the market, which brought $96,105,000, far above its high estimate (est. $47.1/65.2 million). Eighteen artist records were set this evening, for works by Francis Bacon, Yves Klein, Takashi Murakami, Robert Rauschenberg, Tom Wesselmann, Piero Manzoni, Robert Smithson, Georg Baselitz, Hans Hofmann, Lee Krasner, Dan Flavin, Claes Oldenburg, Carl Andre, Joseph Beuys, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden and Jeff Wall.
