It has been a tumultuous spring in the auction world, with sales of truly spectacular artwork punctuating much mediocrity. As many have pointed out, there is something of a split in the art market, with the freshest, most sought-after blockbuster work going for record prices — as evidenced by the stellar lots populating this list — and the merely pedestrian works languishing in salesrooms at or below their low estimates or, worse, not selling at all.
In his New York Times wrap-up of the contemporary auctions in New York, Souren Melikian called it a "disconnect in the art market." Later, Georgina Adam in the Financial Times and Mike Collett-White of Reuters also noted the extremely top-heavy market. After a high buy-in rate at Sotheby's contemporary sale in London, ARTINFO's own Judd Tully wrote that it is currently "a market largely uninterested in B-class material."
Indeed, our own in-depth examination of the market this season suggested that interest for all but the most expensive works is waning. But the exorbitant prices at the top (note that this season's top 10 is a $30 million-plus club) all but make up for the middle-market woes. As the season comes to a close, and the market takes a two-month pause, the question is: For how long can a handful of splashy results buoy everything else, and what happens when the Russian oligarchs get bored?
To see the top 10 auction lots of the spring season — which notably include two works each by Yves Klein and Francis Bacon, but zero Picassos (he's an honorable mention at #11) — click on the slide show.