{"id":2187517,"date":"2026-10-08T18:32:42","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T15:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2187517"},"modified":"2026-10-08T18:32:42","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T15:32:42","slug":"christies-sothebys-phillips-see-strong-early-fall-auction-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2187517","title":{"rendered":"Christie\u2019s, Sotheby\u2019s, Phillips See Strong Early Fall Auction Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Auction-Scene-of-The-Foujita-Lexicon_Nu-assoupi-sur-la-table.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\n\tThe first sales of the fall auction season offered some encouraging signs for an art market that has spent the last few years searching for them. Buyers were willing to spend, sometimes well beyond expectations. But they were picky on which works they spent their money.<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross recent sales at Christie\u2019s, Phillips, and Sotheby\u2019s in New York, bidders chased down established artists, recognizable bodies of work, and lots carrying estimates that left some room to run, with records and bidding wars along the way.<\/p>\n

\n\tSotheby\u2019s achieved the highest-ever total for a Contemporary Curated sale on October 7, ringing up $38.6 million. The sale featured works picked by the Knicks center forward and six-time NBA All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and Jordyn Woods, a model and socialite, along with the collection of architect Robert A.M. Stern, who died last year. The Stern selection totaled $8.7 million, surpassing its $5.5 million high estimate, and 90% of lots found buyers. The Stern group was led by Andy Warhol\u2019s Flowers<\/em>, selling for $6.3 million. Helen Frankenthaler\u2019s 1974 canvas Return and Exit <\/em>fetched $3 million, twice its low estimate. Other standout lots came from George Condo, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ad Reinhardt. Records were set for Annie Leibowitz at $140,800 and Fritz Scholder at $537,600.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>
Helen Frankenthaler, Return and Exit<\/em> (1974).<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIt wasn\u2019t all knockout results, however.A piece by Avery Singer, born in 1987 and represented by the international powerhouse Hauser & Wirth, reflected the much-commented-on downturn in the market for young artists. Her painting Kundry<\/em> (2018) bore a low estimate of $600,000. It fetched $2.1 million at Sotheby\u2019s New York in 2022, amid a frothier market; was withdrawn from a sale at the same house in 2025; and yesterday fell far short of its estimate, fetching just $243,200.<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, Reflections on Pop, Sotheby\u2019s sale of works from the collection of Lichtenstein and his wife Dorothy rang up at $8.5 million, just exceeding the presale high estimate, with 96% of works sold. The Pop master is the subject of a retrospective opening this week at New York\u2019s Whitney Museum of American Art.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt Christie\u2019s, a sale of postwar and contemporary art on October 1 brought in $28 million. The result was decent rather than spectacular, with the total reaching 86 percent of the sale\u2019s aggregate low estimate.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, there was plenty of competition for the right material.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sale was led by Wayne Thiebaud\u2019s Coastal Farms<\/em> (1997), which sold for $1.86 million, more than twice its $800,000 low estimate. A red Donald Judd sculpture from the collection of Barbara Jakobson followed at $1.3 million, while Sam Gilliam\u2019s Region and Mind<\/em> (1971) brought just over $1 million. A Josef Albers Homage to the Square<\/em> painting sold for $960,000, more than doubling its $400,000 low estimate. (All prices reported include the buyer\u2019s premium.)<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>
Wayne Thiebaud\u2019s Coastal Farms<\/em> (1997). Christie\u2019s Images Ltd. 2026.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIn terms of the market, there\u2019s little risk associated with those names. Thiebaud, Judd, Gilliam, and Albers all have established markets at this point, and their works are frequently represented in museum collections. But Christie\u2019s also found room for price discovery farther down the scale. Judy Chicago\u2019s Pasadena Lifesavers Blue Series #5<\/em> sold for $486,400, while Anni Albers\u2019s Study for B<\/em> brought $166,400 and Anicka Yi\u2019s Counterfactual Imagination<\/em> sold for $83,200. Christie\u2019s said all three prices set auction records for the artists.<\/p>\n

\n\tPhillips makes the selectivity argument even more clearly. Its modern and contemporary art sale on September 26 totaled $6.15 million, with 133 of 166 lots finding buyers, for an 80 percent sell-through rate.<\/p>\n

\n\tTom Wesselmann\u2019s Drawing After Bedroom Painting #6<\/em> (1969) was the top lot at $348,300, landing comfortably within its $300,000 to $400,000 estimate. Yves Klein\u2019s Monochrome bleu sans titre (IKB 321)<\/em> and Rashid Johnson\u2019s Untitled Anxious Red Drawing<\/em> each brought $335,400. Works by Hans Hofmann and John Chamberlain followed at $258,000 apiece.<\/p>\n

The more telling result may have come from Fairfield Porter. His 1969 painting Flowers on a Bank<\/em>, estimated at just $50,000 to $70,000, sold for $148,350. Meanwhile, Cecily Brown\u2019s Untitled (Paradise)<\/em> and Oscar Murillo\u2019s geographical avalanche<\/em> also exceeded their high estimates, each selling for $141,900.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaken together, the sales hardly amount to an all-clear for the art market.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut they do show buyers willing to compete again when the material and the price are right. And unlike a few years ago, when newly hot contemporary artists could seemingly leap from one auction record to another, much of the strongest bidding this time centered on artists whose markets have been built over decades. For an art market that has spent much of the downturn learning the difference between demand and hype, that may be the more useful sign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/christies-sothebys-phillips-fall-2026-auction-results-1234800340\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Auction-Scene-of-The-Foujita-Lexicon_Nu-assoupi-sur-la-table.jpg?w=1024″] The first sales of the fall auction season offered some encouraging signs for an art market that has spent the last few years searching for them. Buyers were willing to spend, sometimes well beyond expectations. But they were picky on which works they spent their money. Across recent sales at Christie\u2019s, Phillips, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2187517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2187517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2187517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2187517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2187517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}