Sotheby's Evening Sale: Solid But Not Thrilling

"We're thrilled with the result of this evening's sale," declared Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer after hammering down $110.65 million's worth of contemporary art last night (not including the buyer's premium). That total, slightly above the $109.3-million low end of the presale estimate, was Sotheby's second-highest take for a sale of contemporary art.

Statistically, the sale did slightly better than Sotheby's $212.07-million (hammer price) evening Impressionist/Modern sale last week, with 90.9% of the lots sold tonight, compared to 86.8% last week; 14.7% of the total amount bid represented unsold works, compared to a somewhat higher 17% last week.

All told, a good night's work. But how thrilled can you really be when the piece bearing the auction house's second-highest presale estimate fails to sell? Roy Lichtenstein's "Head - Yellow and Black," expected to bring $8-10 million, was one of the lots guaranteed by Sotheby's. That means that the auction house will have to pay the owner a prearranged, undisclosed amount and then continue trying to find a buyer.

Also guaranteed but unsold was Brice Marden's "Au Centre" (1969), two grayish monochrome panels, estimated at $3.8-4.5 million. Even the current MoMA retrospective couldn't stimulate sufficient interest. Another major disappointment: David Smith's "Voltri XVII," unsold against a $5-7 million estimate.

But on the plus side, the top lot, Francis Bacon's "Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe," easily exceeded its $9-12 million estimate, with a hammer price of $13.4 million. Its $15.02-million total price (with the buyer's premium) set an auction record for the artist. Willem de Kooning's "Untitled XXX," 1977, achieved the second-highest price of the night---a strong $9.5 million hammer price, against a $7.5-9.5 million estimate. His "Hostess," while selling below estimate, set an auction record for de Kooning's sculpture at $3.94 million (including premium).

Anish Kapoor enjoyed breakout bidding, when his untitled carved alabaster sculpture from 1999 was hammered down at $2 million, against an estimate of only $350,000-450,000. The work's $2.26-million total price, with premium, trounced his previous auction record of $844,444.

Andy Warhol, with seven works in the sale, had his ups and downs: His "Flowers" blossomed at $6.1 million ($6.85 million with premium), slightly above estimate. But his "Avanti Cars" (estimate: $1.8-2.5 million) and "Dolly Parton" (estimate: $1-2 million) both ran out of gas. The Warhol marathon continues tomorrow night at Christie's, with all eyes on "Sixteen Jackies," "Marilyn" and "Mao"---all bearing presale estimates in the multimillions. Another megabucks highlight: de Kooning's "Untitled XXV" from 1977.

But CultureGrrl is keenly anticipating the Battle of the Trolls: Jeff Koons' stainless steel "Cape Codder Troll" was sold tonight at Sotheby's for a hammer price of $300,000 against an estimate of $250,000-350,000. Christie's goes head-to-head with another little guy from the same edition, more aggressively estimated at $400,000-600,000. Both figurines are catalogued with the same dimensions in centimeters, but different dimensions in inches.

Go figure.