$19.4 million Basquiat and Warhol collaboration breaks auction record at Sotheby’s New York.
Sotheby’s contemporary evening auction, New York, 2024. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Sotheby’s contemporary evening auction and the “Now” sales in New York last night reached a combined total of $267.3 million. The figure represents a year-over-year increase of 30% compared to the equivalent sales last year: The contemporary evening sale totaled $234.6 million, and the “Now” sale totaled $32.7 million, achieving a 92% sell-through rate across both auctions. (All prices include fees).
The evening set four new auction records, led by a painting made by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (1984), which sold for $19.4 million. The sale marks the highest price achieved at auction for a joint work by the duo.
Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1984. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The evening was also marked by significant totals for women artists, which represented 42% of all lots offered, up from 17.8% of lots five years ago. Several works by women artists exceeded their estimates, including Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Representatives of State (2016–17), which sold for $1.96 million, almost double its low estimate of $1 million.
The top five lots across the contemporary evening sales were as follows:
- Francis Bacon’s Portrait of George Dyer Crouching (1966) sold for $27.7 million.
- Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio (1963–64) sold for $23 million.
- Joan Mitchell’s Noon (1969) sold for $22.6 million
- Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1984) sold for $19.4 million.
- Frank Stella’s Ifafa I (1968) sold for $15.3 million.
The top five lots across the “Now” sale were as follows:
- Kerry James Marshall’s Vignette #6 (2005) sold for $7.8 million.
- Cecily Brown’s Functor Hideaway (2008) sold for $3.6 million.
- Adrian Ghenie’s The Uncle (2020) sold for $3.2 million.
- Avery Singer’s Happening (2014) sold for $3.2 million.
- George Condo’s Conversations (2011) sold for $3.1 million.
Other than Basquiat and Warhol, the artists who set new auction records were:
- Lucy Bull, for 16:10 (2020), which sold for $1.8 million.
- Faith Ringgold, for The French Collection Part II, #10 (1991), which sold for $1.6 million.
- Justin Caguiat, for The saint is never busy (2019), which sold for $1.1 million.
