Abstract Expressionist Hedda Sterne breaks artist record at Sotheby’s modern evening auction.
© Sotheby’s. Courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.
The Takeaway: Sotheby’s modern evening auction was an uneven affair, achieving $223.6 million after fees. Notably, eight lots were withdrawn from the sale.
The evening began with Hedda Stern’s Road #7 (1956), which sold for $650,000, a new auction record for the Abstract Expressionist artist. The auction also set a new record for a Mark Rothko work on paper on a green-and-blue colorblock piece, Untitled (1968). Initially estimated at $10 million, the hammer dropped well over its estimate to fetch $23.9 million.
Several sales throughout the night, however, were relatively lukewarm. This was highlighted by a Pablo Picasso work on paper, Buste de Femme (1909), which sold for $13.6 million—significantly below its $18 million to $25 million estimate.
Leading the night was Claude Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, temps couvert (1891), which Sotheby’s estimated at between $30 million and $40 million. The work hammered only slightly above its low estimate to fetch $30.7 million.
Claude Monet, Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, temps couvert, 1891. Courtesy of Sotheby’s New York.
The top five sales were as follows:
- Claude Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, temps couvert (1891) sold for $30.7 million.
- Claude Monet’s Le Moulin de Limetz (1888) sold for $25.6 million.
- Mark Rothko’s Untitled (1968) sold for $23.8 million.
- Pablo Picasso’s Compotier et guitare (1932) sold for $23.4 million.
- Marc Chagall’s Au-dessus de la ville (1924) sold for $15.6 million.
Besides Buste de Femme and Compotier et guitare, three other Picasso works sold last night with mixed results. These included:
- Buste d’homme (1967) sold for $4.6 million, above its low estimate of $4 million.
- La Glace (1912) sold for $3.8 million, slightly above its $ 3 million low estimate.
- Le Cirque (1933) sold for $1.3 million, below its low estimate of $1.5 million.
