Amidst an extended downturn, Sotheby’s day sale of 27 works from the Abrams Family Collection yielded a hammer total of $11.2 million or $13.14 million with fees, in the middle of its estimate range of $10 million to $14.1 million.
The top lot from the September 27 auction was the Isamu Noguchi marble sculpture Study for Energy Void (1971) which sold for a hammer price of $4 million, or $4.65 million with fees, on an estimate of $3.5 million to $5 million. The winning phone bid was placed by Lisa Dennison, Sotheby’s executive vice president and chairman for the Americas.
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The only other seven-figure lot was the Alex Katz painting Joan (1974), which hammered at $1.2 million or $1.44 million with fees, below its estimate of $1.5 million to $2 million. The 6-foot by 8-foot oil on linen painting had secured an irrevocable bid by a third party as well as a guaranteed minimum price. The winning bid was placed by Courtney Kremers, Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of private sales for the Americas.
Alex Katz’s Joan (1974) sold for $1.44 million with fees. Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The two other works with irrevocable bids and guarantees were Bob Thompson‘s Nativity Scene, which hammered for $750,000 or $870,000 with fees on an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000; and Jesús Rafael Soto’s Écriture d’Arras, which sold for a hammer of $190,000 or $228,000 with fees on an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.
Out of 28 works, the only one that did not sell was a sculpture by Christo, Package on a Luggage Rack, which was signed and dated 1963-90. The work had an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. A five-foot tall by four-foot wide painting by Robert Indiana titled Ballyhoo (1961) was also withdrawn prior to the start of the sale.
Sotheby’s Senior Specialist for Contemporary Art Nicole Schloss told ARTnews she was “beyond thrilled” with the sell-through rate of 96.3 percent and nearly half the works selling for above the high estimates. “I think they speak for the quality of the works themselves, and the high caliber of provenance is coming from the Abrams family collection, which is such a storied name in art collecting in the art world and art book publishing. And to me, it’s just a perfect storm of provenance, quality of work matching up with great collectors who recognize that and really competed to own some of these amazing works.”
There were several bidding wars that also led to works selling well above their high estimates. Early in the sale, Mary Bauermeister’s painting Tichterrelief hammered at $220,000, or $264,000 with fees after more than three and half minutes on an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000.
After more than two minutes, the 86-inch-tall George Segal sculpture Man Leaving a Bus (1967) hammered at $380,000 and sold for $456,000 with fees on an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000. “George Segal, we have seen a pretty stagnant market for him, but this is far and away, the most complex environment of Segals to come to auction from the 60s, proper plaster cast within found object,” Schloss told ARTnews. “And that’s exciting. That was exciting for us.”
Allan D’Arcangelo’s mixed media oil painting Guard Rail (1964) sold for a hammer of $320,000 or $384,000 with fees on an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. Sotheby’s senior vice president and head of contemporary art David Galperin placed the winning bid from the phones.
Yaacov Agam’s large oil painting Evening (1976) also hammered at $320,000 or $384,000 with fees on an estimate of $150,000 to $200,000. The work sold after more than five and half minutes of bidding, including split increments, between three bidders on the phones. “Yakov Agam is such an unsung hero in kinetic art and op art,” Sloss told ARTnews in reference to optical art. “We really don’t see his works come to auction that frequently, and it’s sort of a marker for how the entire collection really was received by the entire market.”
Komar and Melamid’s Portrait of Medved (from Nostalgic Social Realism Series) was the second-last lot of the sale, but it also prompted the longest bidding war, at 5 minutes and 44 seconds between an online bidder and a phone bidder. It sold for a hammer of $220,000 or $264,000 on an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000.
The Abrams family were major players in the fine art and illustrated book publishing industries for seven decades. In addition to the September 27 live auction, Sotheby’s will hold an online sale of 66 items from the art collection of Harry N. Abrams and his son Robert on September 30.