The Macklowe collection, the world’s most expensive, is set to add a special touch to New York’s fall auctions, which have resumed their in-person events this week, and are expected to lure some really excited buyers after the pandemic.
At auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s, the message is the same: the art market is thriving.
“Throughout the pandemic, there was great demand from our buyers, who weren’t experiencing the same level of supply as they were accustomed to,” a curator told AFP.
For the first half of 2021, when it saw sales increase by 13 percent compared to 2019, Christie’s noted that 30 percent of its buyers were new clients, and 31 percent of those were millennials.
Items on sale in New York will be abundant and seductive, but none of them is expected to fetch more than $116 million.
Set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s, the great Macklowe collection is the subject of a legal dispute following the high-profile divorce of New York real estate developer Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife Linda in 2018. The auction house is billing the pieces, worth $600 million, as the largest collection of modern and contemporary art ever put on the market.
Highlights include Alberto Giacometti’s “The Nose”, a suspended bronze the sculptor began working on in 1947, and Mark Rothko’s minimalist painting “No. 7”. Both are estimated to be worth $70-90 million.
The collection also includes Andy Warhol’s “Nine Marilyns” (worth $40-60 million) and “Sixteen Jackies” (worth $15-20 million) -- as well as several pieces by living artists, such as Jeff Koons, Rudolf Stingel, Wade Guyton and Tauba Auerbach.
