Christie's Double-Header Totals $1.1 B., With Records For Pollock, Rothko

(MENAFN- USA Art News) Christie's Billion-Dollar Evening Sales Show the Market's Strength Runs Below $20 Million

Christie's evening sales of the S.I. Newhouse collection and 20th-century art ended Monday with a combined $1.1 billion across 64 lots, but the most revealing action was not at the very top. The auction house saw unusually deep bidding in the range below $20 million, a part of the market that has often looked thinner in recent years.

The Newhouse sale alone brought in $630.8 million against a presale estimate of $462 million before fees. Christie's 20th-century evening sale added another $490.3 million against a $361.6 million estimate. Together, the results pushed the Newhouse collection's cumulative auction total to just over $1 billion, making it one of the most expensive collections ever sold at auction.

The evening's top lot was Jackson Pollock's Number 7A, 1948, which sold for $181.2 million and became the fourth most expensive painting ever sold at auction. Constantin Brâncuși's Danaïde followed at $107.6 million, making it the second most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction. Mark Rothko's painting reached $98.4 million, setting a record for the artist, while Joan Miró's Portrait de Madame K. sold for $53.5 million, also an artist high.

The Newhouse collection, assembled over decades by the late media mogul S.I. Newhouse Jr. and his wife Victoria with the help of Tobias Meyer, has long been regarded as one of the strongest private holdings to reach the market. All 16 works in the Newhouse sale carried irrevocable bids, and the tranche marked the fourth time Meyer has brought Newhouse property to Christie's on behalf of the family.

What stood out most, though, was the geography of demand. Christie's representatives were active on the phones for U.S. buyers, especially in the western region, while European and Asian participation was comparatively limited and concentrated at lower price points. Works fresh to the market also outperformed those that have circulated in recent years, reinforcing a familiar but still decisive market preference.

The results suggest that, even as the auction headlines remain dominated by nine-figure totals, the real measure of strength may lie in the broader field of serious bidding beneath them.

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