Curse of the "Vampire": A Scary Night at Sotheby's

HELP ME! Auctioneer Tobias Meyer, about to be possessed by the "Vampire" behind him

Fair warning. Last chance. Passed.

That, or some variation on that, was heard 25 times as Tobias Meyer dutifully slogged through what must have been his roughest outing ever on the Sotheby's podium. ("Passed," of course, means that the work failed to sell because bids didn't reach the level of the consignor's reserve.)

Of the 70 lots, a mere eight fetched hammer prices that equaled or (in only two cases) exceeded their presale estimates. (Presale estimates are based on hammer price, not on the final price, which includes the buyer's premium.)

There was only one big-time bidding war, applauded at the end, for Munch's iconic "Vampire" (above) which at $38.16 million with buyer's premium easily broke the $30.84-million auction record for the artist and attained its presale estimate of "in excess of $30 million."

An auction record for any Russian work of art at auction, at $60 million with buyer's premium, was set for Malevich's "Suprematist Composition," which had for 50 years been in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and was returned to the artist's heirs earlier this year. But the hammer price (possibly the promised "irrevocable bid") was $53.5 million, considerably below the presale estimate for the work (which Sotheby's had previously said was "in excess of $60 million," but which became "in the region of $60 million" by the night of the sale).

Degas' "Dancer in Repose," sold by MoMA's president, Marie-Josée Kravis, and her financial-mogul husband Henry, broke the auction record for the artist for a second time at $37.04 million. The couple had bought it at Sotheby's in 1999, setting the previous Degas record of $28 million. But again, tonight's hammer price ($33 million) fell well below the pastel's presale estimate ("in excess of $40 million").

The sale total was $223.81 million, including the buyer's premium. The hammer total was a mere $196.9 million, compared to the hammer-price presale estimate of $337.8-475.4 million. You don't need me to interpret this for you. The sale was 64.3% sold by lot; 68.3% sold by value.

I "attended" this sale online, so I'm not yet privy to how this dark night of the market is being explained by the auction house. I'm sure they'll emphasize the records, but I can't imagine how they'll otherwise put a positive spin on this, other than to say that it's a buyer's market.

Speaking of which, Meyer said to the purchaser of a Kandinsky watercolor at $350,000 (compared to an estimate of $550,000-750,000):

Thank you, sir. Well done!