This was, unofficially at least, American art week in New York. The sales at both Christie’s and Sotheby’s were unexceptional, and so was most of the art. The tallies:
- Sotheby’s sale totaled $15.3 million, with 62% sold by lot, 73% sold by value
- Christie’s, $16.8 million, with 62% sold by lot, 70% by value.
Christie’s sales report touts three “world records for the artist,” but on examination, they were tiny, all below $80,000. The artists were Charles E. Humphriss, Edwin Willard Deming and Eric Pape. Top lot was Milton Avery’s Sketching By the Sea, which fetched $2.2 million.
Sotheby’s had a more interesting “world record for the artist” — Harriet Whitney Frismuth”s bronze The Vine (left), which had been estimated at $400,000 to $600,000 and ended up bringing $962,500 including the premium (which is never in the estimate).
The Vine, in a much larger version, is also on the front page of the New York Times Weekend (Fine Arts/Leisure) section today, illustrating Holland Cotter’s review of the Metropolitan Museum’s renovated American Wing.
Photo Credit: Courtesy Sotheby’s