Despite Quiet Bidding, Christie’s Evening Sales Brought in $489M

Claude Monetâs Peupliers au bord de lâEpte, crÃ©puscule sells for $37 million, displayed with currency equivalents on large screens.” width=”970″ height=”546″ data-caption=’Adrien Meyer sells the top lot of the 20th Century Evening Sale, Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule, for $43 million. Courtesy Christie's’>

The marquee auctions may not have opened with much excitement—especially if this week is meant to test the pulse of the market—but Christie’s highly anticipated sale of the Leonard & Louise Riggio Collection and its 20th Century Evening auction proceeded with muted bidding and minimal risk, ultimately delivering solid results: a combined $489 million total, with 99 percent sold by lot and 98 percent by value across both sales.

Guarantees and irrevocable bids were clearly doing the heavy lifting last night, with more than half the lots already locked in by hefty third-party backing. Notably, despite the auction week kicking off just a day after the U.S. and China agreed to suspend their reciprocal, absurdly high tariffs that almost resulted in a trade embargo, bidding from Asia was largely absent; most works ultimately went to buyers in the U.S. or Europe.

The evening opened with thirty-seven lots from the collection of Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio and his wife, Louise, the longtime chair of Dia Art Foundation. To secure what proved to be the most significant consignment of the past 12 months, Christie’s played it safe, offering the estate an undisclosed guarantee and mitigating risk through irrevocable bids and third-party backers. The strategy paid off: the sale achieved a solid 97 percent sell-through rate, totaling $272 million against a $252-326 million estimate. Yet in practice, most of the lots appeared to follow the script, with top works landing discreetly on the phone with Alex Rotter, recently named global chairman, while saleroom activity remained notably subdued.

Piet Mondrian’s abstract painting featuring a large red square surrounded by black lines and blocks of white, blue, yellow, and pale gray.” width=”970″ height=”991″ data-caption=’Piet Mondrian, Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue, 1922. Courtesy Christie's’>

This was true even for one of the evening’s stars: Piet Mondrian’s Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black (1929), a rare square composition of exceptional quality and one of the few of its kind not already held by a museum. Starting at $34 million, it hammered swiftly on Rotter’s phone for $41 million ($47.6 million with fees), falling shy of Mondrian’s previous $51 million auction record. A similar fate befell René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières, a coveted example from the artist’s most sought-after series. Despite its distinguished provenance (formerly owned by both the Rockefellers before the Riggio family) it attracted only a few incremental bids, selling once again via Rotter’s phone line for $31 million hammer ($34.9 million with fees), the same price it achieved at Christie’s last year. The result paled in comparison to the $121.1 million fetched by Maja Hoffmann’s larger version from the same series in November, which set a record for both Magritte and any Surrealist work at auction. Both the Mondrian and the Magritte were almost certainly absorbed by their guarantors—an outcome Rotter neatly summed up as “the art market in the real world.”

Across the board, most works landed within estimate ranges or slightly below when measured by hammer price rather than premium-inclusive totals. The first lot to hit the block from the Riggio collection was a compelling Portrait de jeune homme by Balthus, previously on view at MoMA. Starting at $1.5 million, it climbed with minimal momentum to $2.7 million hammer ($3.34 million with fees), settling midway within its estimate. That pattern held through many of the sale’s elegant Giacometti sculptures. Le Couple, a lifetime bronze cast formerly shown at MoMA, opened at $2 million and hammered quickly at $3.5 million with Giovanna Bertazzoni on the phone. The standout Femme de Venise sold briskly in the room for $15 million ($17.66 million with fees), again landing squarely within its $15-17 million estimate only once the premium was factored in. The psychologically charged Annette Nu dans l’atelier also barely scraped its low estimate at $7 million hammer ($8.46 million with fees). All three Giacomettis were backed by third-party guarantees, which was likely a key factor in securing their sales.

Andy Warholâs The Last Supper rendered in black and electric blue, with two duplicated images of Leonardo da Vinciâs iconic scene stacked vertically.” width=”970″ height=”972″ data-caption=’Andy Warhol, The Last Supper, 1986. Courtesy Christie's’>

A rare burst of energy came with Picasso’s vibrant portrait of Lee Miller, which made its auction debut and achieved $28 million after fees. Otherwise, the remainder of the Riggio trove—including works with museum provenance and strong exhibition history—proceeded predictably, generally meeting expectations and closing to estimates only once premiums were counted. Magritte’s Les droits de l’homme sold for $15.9 million (estimate: $15-20 million), while Rothko’s moody Untitled closed with minimal bidding just above its low estimate at $8.46 million with fees. Fernand Léger’s Les trois personnages devant le jardin, a close sibling to a version held by the Met, sold for $8.1 million with premium, only slightly above the low end of its estimate. A monumental Barbara Hepworth, acquired directly from the artist’s estate, also stuck to the center of its range at $8 million, while Warhol’s electric blue Last Supper sold quietly for $7.07 million on the phone with Christie’s head of advisory.

By the end of the evening, enthusiasm had noticeably thinned. Less desirable lots slipped well below expectations—including a more challenging work like Stan Douglas’s A Luta Continua (1974), which sold for just $12,600 with fees against a $60,000-80,000 estimate, and Ed Ruscha’s Johnny Tomorrow, which hammered at $800,000, falling short of its $1.5 million estimate even after fees. On the more contemporary end of the spectrum, the few artists included in the trove just barely scraped past their low estimates once premiums were added. The two Kerry James Marshall works sold for $3,801,000 and $2,591,000, respectively, while the museum-quality Glenn Ligon—despite being previously featured in the Whitney Biennial—encountered thin bidding and closed at $2,833,000 with fees, against its $2.5-3.5 million estimate.

A similar trend continued in the second half of the night with the 37-lot 20th Century Evening Sale, which closed with white-glove results, achieving a $217 million total and 100 percent sold by value, but only after the sudden withdrawal of one of the top lots, Andy Warhol’s Big Electric Chair (1967-68), which likely failed to find a buyer due to its challenging subject matter, particularly for such high (undisclosed) asking price in the region of $30 million.

The sale opened with nine top-tier abstract works from the estate of Anne Bass. Here, too, guarantees and irrevocable bids played a central role, not only in securing the prestigious consignment but in ensuring solid results, most often within estimate. The first lot, Gino Severini’s Danseuse, with its dynamism of forms and colors and all the energies of futurism, successfully brought a flash of excitement to the room, landing after a flurry of bidding at $2.6 million ($3,196,000 after premium), squeaking by its $2.5 million high estimate. Momentum continued with Alexander Calder’s elegant white mobile, which achieved $8.46 million with fees—just over its $8 million top estimate.

Several works followed the same tight trajectory. Morris Louis brought in $2.47 million, the first of Frank Stella’s Itata paintings reached $7.07 million and two Agnes Martins sold within expectations at $4.89 million and $1.62 million, respectively. Even the stunning Ellsworth Kelly abstract composition sold almost instantly for $3.7 million with premium, most likely landing with its guarantor. More surprising was the muted reception for the evening’s centerpiece, Rothko’s vibrating purple painting from 1952—also exhibited in MoMA’s historic “15 Americans” show—which hammered at $32.5 million, under its on-request estimate of $35 million. Only after buyer’s premium did it reach $37.79 million, technically clearing expectations but hardly commanding the room.

One of the few lots to spark genuine competition was Frank Stella’s Firuzabad III (1970), a large shaped canvas of two interlocking circles. After an energetic battle between four phone bidders, it hammered at $2.7 million ($3.37 million with fees), well above its $2 million high estimate. But the evening’s most sustained bidding war came later with Claude Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crépuscule, which, after more than five minutes of tense back-and-forth between phones, hammered at $37 million ($42.96 million with fees), setting a new record for the artist’s Peupliers series. The work—offered for the first time after being owned by the same family for three generations—had been on long-term loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Elsewhere, Gerhard Richter’s moody Korsika landscape defied its grey tones to achieve a bright result: $15.25 million, well above its $9-12 million estimate. The sale also underscored collectors’ growing enthusiasm for visionary surrealists: Dorothea Tanning’s uncanny Endgame brought $2.35 million (estimate: $1-1.5 million) and Remedios Varo’s Revelación (El relojero) hit $6.22 million, setting a new auction record for the artist. Near the close, a surprise came with Franz von Stuck’s Die Sünde, which doubled expectations to reach $604,800. Previously held in the collection of the Prince of Serbia, the work achieved a new record for a work on paper by the Successionist artist.

Mark Rothko painting featuring two dominant rectangular color fieldsâan upper section of deep plum and a lower section of blackâset against a faintly glowing orange ground that frames the edges of the canvas.” width=”970″ height=”1173″ data-caption=’Mark Rothko, No. 4 (Two Dominants) (Orange, Plum, Black), 1950-1951. Courtesy Christie's’>

Still, not all was sunny. In the latter portion of the sale, some works fell well short of expectations. Lucio Fontana’s cosmic Concetto spaziale, In piazza San Marco di notte con Teresita—a glittering combination of glass and paint—sold for $7.54 million, less than half of the $14 million it brought at auction in 2017. Whether this signals a shift in fortune for the Argentinian artist or simply a too-ambitious estimate, the spotlight now turns to Fine di Dio, a radiant gold canvas from Daniella Luxembourg’s collection, which will test Fontana’s market again at Sotheby’s on May 14.

Overall, the first night of auction week confirmed what insiders already suspected: the market is a long way from its once-upon-a-time fireworks. With caution in the air, auction houses are playing it safer and smarter, leaning on strategy and heavy guarantees to offset risk and keep the spectacle alive. The show continues tonight, May 13, with Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction and Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale.

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