Phillips’s modern and contemporary art sale in New York last night totaled $86.3 million, within the auction house’s $75.9 million to $110.3 million estimate. The sale was led by two Jean-Michel Basquiat works: Untitled (ELMAR) (1982), which hammered just above its $40 million low estimate at $46.5 million, and Untitled (Portrait of Famous Ballplayer) (1981), which fetched $7.9 million, landing in the middle of its $6.5 million–$8.5 million estimate.
The sale’s estimates were adjusted at the last minute following the withdrawal of two lots, including Pablo Picasso’s Buste de femme au chapeau (1962), which was the second-most-valuable lot, valued between $12 million and $18 million. The other withdrawn lot was Milton Avery’s Sunset Sea (1958), estimated between $1 million and $1.5 million.
Lots by Robert Mangold, Pierre Bonnard, and Frank Stella were passed over throughout the evening. This included Stella’s Lettre sur les sourds et muets II (1974), which was the sale’s 10th-most-valuable lot, estimated at $5 million–$7 million.
That said, the auction held strong results for less-established artists. For instance, the only auction record set during this sale was for Canadian Cree artist Kent Monkman, whose work The Storm (2020) sold for $381,000, more than doubling his previous record price at auction ($122,000). Earlier in the evening, Jadé Fadojutimi’s The Pour (2022) fetched $1 million, well above its $600,000 high estimate.
Apart from the leading Basquiats, the next five top lots from the sale included:
- Donald Judd’s Untitled (1978) sold for $5.98 million.
- Helen Frankenthaler’s Acres (1959) sold for $3.69 million.
- Barkley L. Hendricks’s Vendetta (1977) sold for $3.2 million.
- Judd’s Untitled (1994) sold for $2.72 million.
- Basquiat’s Untitled (Grain Alcohol) (1983) sold for $1.99 million.
