On Monday, May 18th, Christie’s Rockefeller Center location in New York hosted the sale featuring the art collection of S.I. Newhouse. Through the company Advance Publications, Newhouse and his brother Donald operated the parent company of dozens of local newspapers as well as the Condé Nast group, which includes Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, Wired, Bon Appétit, GQ, and Architectural Digest.
Number 7A by Jackson Pollock
The sale featured two lots with estimates available only upon request, indicating they would be the stars of the sale. One of those was Number 7A, one of the largest drip paintings ever produced by Jackson Pollock, and by far the largest in private hands. Created in 1948 and measuring nearly 11 feet wide, the work has been part of several significant private collections, including that of Harold Diamond and the experimental photographer Herbert Matter. It has spent most of its time behind closed doors, being publicly exhibited only on a few occasions, most recently at the Whitney Museum in 1977. Number 7A is not as densely layered as some of Pollock’s other work, with the main focus being several large drips and pools of black paint on raw, unprimed canvas. It was one of the artist’s early drip masterpieces, among the first to earn Pollock wider recognition. The painting was estimated to sell in the range of $100 million. The bidding started at $82 million and reached $100 million in less than a minute. Auctioneer Adrien Meyer then served as a sort of tennis referee, bouncing back and forth between a bidder in the room and Christie’s global president Alex Rotter in the phone bank, acting on behalf of a client. After just under seven minutes of bidding, the hammer came down at an astounding $157 million (or $181.2 million with premiums), setting the new auction record for Jackson Pollock.
Danaïde by Constantin Brâncuşi
The other lot with an estimate on request was Constantin Brâncuşi’s 1913 sculpture Danaïde. According to Christie’s specialists, works by Brâncuşi, such as this strip figural sculpture, distill to their essentials by “embrac[ing] universal forms that resonate with a unique and timeless sense of purity”. The bust is said to depict the Hungarian artist Margit Pogany, whom Brâncuşi had met in Paris several years before and soon became his muse. The work has had only two owners, changing hands once at Christie’s in 2002, when it sold for $18.16 million w/p. Like the Pollock, it was also estimated to sell in the region of $100 million. While it hammered slightly short of expectations, it hit the mark once premiums were added in… nonetheless, this set the artist’s auction record at $93 million (or $107.56 million w/p).
Several works could have taken the third-place spot, including Picasso’s cubist sculpture Tête de femme (Fernande) and Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black, and Yellow. However, it was Joan Miró’s 1924 painting Portrait de Madame K that became the surprise third-place lot. 1924 was a significant year for the artist, as he abandoned the more detailed surrealist style in favor of a “free-flowing automatic, unconscious, and dream-like approach”. With previous owners including the artist Max Ernst and the collector René Gaffé, the Miró was initially estimated to sell for between $25 million and $35 million. Bidding began at $14 million, continuing for four minutes before the hammer came down at $46 million (or $53.5 million w/p).
Portrait de Madame K by Joan Miró
As the start of the Christie’s May Marquee sales, the Newhouse collection was a true blockbuster. It is now the most expensive sale of the year so far, blowing last week’s Mnuchin collection out of the water. It is also the largest, most expensive single auction since Christie’s 20th Century Evening sale in November 2023. With six of the 16 lots selling within their estimates, Christie’s specialists achieved an accuracy rate of just 38%. An additional seven lots (44%) sold below their estimates, and three lots (19%) sold above. Against a total low estimate of $462 million, the Newhouse collection achieved $540.5 million, or $630.8 million w/p.
The Newhouse Collection at Christie’s
On Monday, May 18th, Christie’s Rockefeller Center location in New York hosted the sale featuring the art collection of S.I. Newhouse. Through the company Advance Publications, Newhouse and his brother Donald operated the parent company of dozens of local newspapers as well as the Condé Nast group, which includes Vanity Fair, Vogue, The New Yorker, Wired, Bon Appétit, GQ, and Architectural Digest.
Number 7A by Jackson Pollock
The sale featured two lots with estimates available only upon request, indicating they would be the stars of the sale. One of those was Number 7A, one of the largest drip paintings ever produced by Jackson Pollock, and by far the largest in private hands. Created in 1948 and measuring nearly 11 feet wide, the work has been part of several significant private collections, including that of Harold Diamond and the experimental photographer Herbert Matter. It has spent most of its time behind closed doors, being publicly exhibited only on a few occasions, most recently at the Whitney Museum in 1977. Number 7A is not as densely layered as some of Pollock’s other work, with the main focus being several large drips and pools of black paint on raw, unprimed canvas. It was one of the artist’s early drip masterpieces, among the first to earn Pollock wider recognition. The painting was estimated to sell in the range of $100 million. The bidding started at $82 million and reached $100 million in less than a minute. Auctioneer Adrien Meyer then served as a sort of tennis referee, bouncing back and forth between a bidder in the room and Christie’s global president Alex Rotter in the phone bank, acting on behalf of a client. After just under seven minutes of bidding, the hammer came down at an astounding $157 million (or $181.2 million with premiums), setting the new auction record for Jackson Pollock.
Danaïde by Constantin Brâncuşi
The other lot with an estimate on request was Constantin Brâncuşi’s 1913 sculpture Danaïde. According to Christie’s specialists, works by Brâncuşi, such as this strip figural sculpture, distill to their essentials by “embrac[ing] universal forms that resonate with a unique and timeless sense of purity”. The bust is said to depict the Hungarian artist Margit Pogany, whom Brâncuşi had met in Paris several years before and soon became his muse. The work has had only two owners, changing hands once at Christie’s in 2002, when it sold for $18.16 million w/p. Like the Pollock, it was also estimated to sell in the region of $100 million. While it hammered slightly short of expectations, it hit the mark once premiums were added in… nonetheless, this set the artist’s auction record at $93 million (or $107.56 million w/p).
Several works could have taken the third-place spot, including Picasso’s cubist sculpture Tête de femme (Fernande) and Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Blue, Gray, Black, and Yellow. However, it was Joan Miró’s 1924 painting Portrait de Madame K that became the surprise third-place lot. 1924 was a significant year for the artist, as he abandoned the more detailed surrealist style in favor of a “free-flowing automatic, unconscious, and dream-like approach”. With previous owners including the artist Max Ernst and the collector René Gaffé, the Miró was initially estimated to sell for between $25 million and $35 million. Bidding began at $14 million, continuing for four minutes before the hammer came down at $46 million (or $53.5 million w/p).
Portrait de Madame K by Joan Miró
As the start of the Christie’s May Marquee sales, the Newhouse collection was a true blockbuster. It is now the most expensive sale of the year so far, blowing last week’s Mnuchin collection out of the water. It is also the largest, most expensive single auction since Christie’s 20th Century Evening sale in November 2023. With six of the 16 lots selling within their estimates, Christie’s specialists achieved an accuracy rate of just 38%. An additional seven lots (44%) sold below their estimates, and three lots (19%) sold above. Against a total low estimate of $462 million, the Newhouse collection achieved $540.5 million, or $630.8 million w/p.