New York (EFE) from Sotheby’s, which ended with a collection close to the minimum.
The work by Basquiat, one of the most sought-after artists in recent years and which has surpassed 110 million, was a circular piece of wood painted black with the inscription “Now’s the time” and “PRKR”, which recreated a Jazz musician Charlie Parker’s 1945 vinyl record.
Second most expensive work of the afternoon
Despite everything, it was the second most expensive work of the afternoon, behind one of the enormous bronze chandeliers by the sculptor Louise Bourgeois, which narrowly surpassed the artist’s own record, raising $32.8 million, but it was far from the most optimistic expectations.
In third place, with 21.8 million, was the painting “4096 Farben” by Gerhard Richter, which evokes a pixelated screen with thousands of colored squares and put an end to his “Color Chart” series, but which also remained behind. below the estimated maximum range of 25 million.
The only other work above $10 million was Wayne Thiebaud’s “Candy Counter,” a painting of a modern still life with candies, sweets and a scale, which at $14.7 million was close to its highest estimate.
The thirty pieces of contemporary art in today’s Sotheby’s sale raised $165.6 million in total, closer to the expected low of $144 million than the high of $193 million.
The prudence of the buyers was also seen in the previous sale, of ultra-contemporary art, with another twenty works that were sold for a total of 37.2 million -between 29 and 42 million were expected-, although they accumulated several records, led by by Simone Leigh (3.1 million).