It's a rare achievement to see a sell-through rate of 100 percent, but that's just what happened at Sotheby's contemporary sale here last Wednesday evening — both by lot and by value. The room resounded with applause when the sale ended and all 27 lots sold after having been furnished with cautious estimates. The two-day sale totaled €15.4 million ($20.6 million) including buyer's premium.
The top lot was Pierre Soulages's oil painting "3 décembre 1956," which fetched €1.6 million ($2.1 million) including buyer's premium, beating its high estimate of €1.2 million. A second Soulages work, "13 novembre 1969," more than doubled its low estimate of €400,000 ($535,000) when it soared to €840,750 ($1.1 million). Jean-Michel Basquiat, who is usually represented in every fall contemporary auction in Paris, was also fought over, with his "MP" surpassing its high estimate of €900,000 ($1.2 million) to sell for €1.3 million ($1.7 million). Part painting and part Xerox collage, the piece serves as an interesting transition between Basquiat's figurative work and his late collages. It was created in 1984, just after the artist signed on with the Mary Boone Gallery, and its provenance was simple and impeccable: the seller bought it from the gallery the very same year.
Zao Wou-Ki's oil painting "12.12.67" sold for €432,750 ($579,000) including buyer's premium, just reaching its high €400,000 estimate. This was a respectable outcome, though not as spectacular as the artist's performance at Sotheby's last May, when his work smashed pre-sale estimates to reach prices of €1.96 million ($2.62 million) and €1.52 million ($2.03 million). However, Chu Teh-Chun's 1998-1999 work "Sombres nuées" ("Dark Clouds") floated beyond its high estimate of €600,000 to fetch €744,750 ($996,500). It was a nice auction début for a work that the seller had purchased directly from the artist.
Last February at Christie's in London, Martial Raysse set an auction record for a living French artist when his 1962 portrait "L'Année dernière à Capri (titre exotique)" fetched $6.4 million. At Sotheby's last May, another female portrait by Raysse reached €1.74 million ($2.33 million). In last week's sale, his 1963 work "Espace zéro" — a Pop image of an astronaut with a real flashing red light on his spacesuit — achieved a more modest €480,750 ($643,250), though it did lift off beyond its high estimate of €400,000 ($535,200).
The sale continued Thursday afternoon with 114 lots, achieving a sell-through rate of 85 percent by lot and 95 percent by value. Thursday's auction featured an Andy Warhol dollar sign that could just as easily have been part of the evening sale. The 1981 work, inscribed "To Iolas, Love Andy, 82," rose far above its high estimate of €200,000 ($267,600) to attain a price of €348,750 ($466,645), including buyer's premium. Chu Teh-Chun was back with a vengeance, with his painting "Ilots noyés de brume" ("Islands Shrouded in Fog") more than doubling its high estimate of €60,000 ($80,300) to reach a price of €144,750 ($193,700).