![](data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" version="1.1" height="1562px" width="1920px"></svg>)
Sotheby’s Contemporary Curated and Abrams Sales Total $33.6M
Strong performance demonstrates collector demand heading into the fall marquee season.
F ollowing exciting auctions of Asian Art, the mid-season sales at Sotheby’s New York came to a close with two auctions that totaled $33.6 million. The average lot value topped $262,000.
In Contemporary Curated, 102 lots achieved a total of $20.5 million, for an industry-leading average lot value of approximately $200,000. On the same day, Art Without Boundaries: The Abrams Family Collection I, featuring contemporary artworks owned by the storied publishing family, saw 26 lots sell for $13.1 million.
The New York auctions followed the £16.7 million ($22.3 million) Currents sale series in London – a new program featuring prints, modern and contemporary South Asian art and contemporary African art – all of which serves as a bellwether as the auction house heads into its fall season.
Featuring selections by agent Rich Paul, Contemporary Curated was led by Ruth Asawa’s Untitled (S.467, Hanging Four-Lobed Continuous Form with a Sphere in the Second Lobe), which surpassed its $3 million high estimate to achieve $4.1 million – the fourth highest auction price for the artist. Works by Cecily Brown ($1.8 million), Fernando Botero ($1.1 million, nearly double its high estimate), Dana Schutz ($1 million) and Paul’s pick Sam Gilliam ($660,000) rounded out the top five, while paintings by Salmon Toor ($240,000) and Elaine de Kooning ($408,000) also passed their high estimates. At 84%, the sell-through rate was exceptionally strong given the art market’s macro environment, suggesting a sustained demand among collectors for trading-quality works outside of the marquee season.
Art Without Boundaries was led by Isamu Noguchi’s Study for Energy Void at $4.7 million, followed by Alex Katz’s Joan ($1.4 million) and works by Botero ($936,000), Bob Thompson ($870,000) and Jean Dubuffet ($540,000). Works by women artists performed especially well as Marisol’s early sculpture The Bicycle Race surpassed its $350,000 high estimate to sell for $456,000 and Mary Bauermeister’s Trichterrelief sold for $264,000, the second highest price for the artist at auction.
The excellent sales sound a promising note for the marquee season, which begins with The London Sales later this month, where David Hockey’s L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime is expected to lead the Contemporary Evening Auction. In Paris, a highly anticipated auction of Surrealist works will celebrate 100 years since the publication of André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto. And at The New York Sales in November, Sydell Miller’s legendary collection – featuring seminal artworks by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and more – is estimated to achieve in the region of $200 million.
