Phillips Nets $86.9 M. at Contemporary Art Sale, Buoyed by Record $16.3 M. Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1981
$16.3 million on an estimate of $8 million to $12 million
A work on wood by Jean-Michel Basquiat set a new record for the artist at auction, selling for $16.3 million with premium at an otherwise by-the-numbers sale on Thursday evening at Phillips de Pury & Company, where auctioneer Simon de Pury hammered down a total of $75.9 million ($86.9 with premium), squeaking by at exactly the low estimate on a sale that was estimated to go as high as $110.7 million.
The Basquiat, a moderate-sized, colorful painting of a man, Untitled, from 1981, slowly climbed to its hammer price of $14.5 million, mostly through bids from the phones. That number already put it over the previous record set by an untitled piece from 1982 that sold for $13.5 million with premium at Christie’s New York in 2008. (All prices include buyer’s premium, unless noted.)
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild 638-4, 1987
Passed on an estimate of $3 million to $5 million
Andy Warhol, Gun, 1981-82
$7 million on an estimate of $5 million to $7 million
Andy Warhol, Mao, 1973
$10.4 million on an estimate of $9 million to $12 million
Sources: Gallerist NY /Philips de Pury