Adrien Meyer sells the top lot of The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G Ross Weis, Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) for $62,160,000. Christie’s
All eyes are on New York—with small interludes in Abu Dhabi art week—for the November marquee sales, the last major thermometer of the market and the U.S. sector in particular, after almost a full year of the Trump administration and the ongoing schism over the Fed’s interest rate decision. Pressure and attention are even higher this season, with more than $1.6 billion worth of art set to change hands, including some of the most notable American collections of the past century.
The start was strong, with $218 million generated by the The Collection of Robert F. Weis and Patricia G. Ross Weis 18-lots single-owner sale, which opened the week for Christie’s yesterday, November 17 at 6 p.m., achieving $218,066,600—well above its $92.35 million to $136.7 million presale expectations—with 89 percent sold by lot and 92 percent by value.
Dominating the headlines was Mark Rothko’s vibrant No. 31 (Yellow Stripe). Held as the grand finale, it sold for $62,160,000 to a phone bidder after a fierce four-minute and forty-second battle—the highest online bid ever placed during a live auction at Christie’s. The 20th Century Evening Sale that followed added another $471,278,400 with a 98 percent sell-through rate and 100 percent by value.
In total, Christie’s brought in $689 million in a single night, already matching what the auction house generated across all marquee sales during the same week last year—enough to provide a reassuring jolt of confidence to the market. While the new era of strategic and secured auctioning continues, Christie’s played it safe, with many lots covered by third-party guarantees. Most didn’t need them: active bidding, including strong participation from the room, routinely pushed lots above estimate, often with five to eight bidders in play.
Pablo Picasso’s La Lecture from the Weis collection achieved $45,485,000. Christie’s
At least half of the Weis collection exceeded their low estimates. Another highly anticipated top lot was Picasso’s iconic portrait of his muse Marie-Thérèse—his most coveted auction subject—with La Lecture achieving $45,485,000. Piet Mondrian’s rare-to-market Composition with Red and Blue landed within expectations, selling for $23,600,000 after fees (estimated $20-30 million), already backed by a third-party guarantee.
Well above estimate soared all the early lots, beginning with Miró’s surreal abstract muse at $4,955,000 (estimate $2.5-3.5 million), followed by Giorgio Morandi’s Still Life achieving $3,003,000 against its $1.8 million high estimate. Henri Matisse’s metalinguistic composition Figure et bouquet (Tête ocre) doubled its low estimate to reach $32,260,000, helped by a remarkable exhibition history including the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1948 and the MoMA retrospective in 1992. Max Ernst’s haunting bronze Le roi jouant avec la reine sold above its high estimate for $20,185,000.
Among the evening’s clamorous unsold lots—despite prestigious provenance—were Joan Miró’s bright surreal landscape Les flammes du soleil rendent hystérique la fleur du désert, which failed to find a buyer at its $8,000,000–12,000,000 estimate, and Franz Kline’s black-and-white Placita, estimated at $10-12 million.
The 20th Century Evening Sale confirmed a still-strong market for modern masters, particularly when reinforced by impeccable provenance and exhibition history. Several star lots came from Japan’s Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, near Tokyo, which closed in March. The highly anticipated Claude Monet Nymphéas triggered at least two minutes of global bidding, landing at $45,485,000—comfortably within estimate even though the auction house’s highest hopes hovered around $60 million. Acquired in 1970 from the Estate of Albert J. Dreitzer via Sotheby’s, the work had long been a cornerstone of Kawamura’s galleries, and its vertical composition is considered among the most luminous and harmonious depictions of Monet’s Giverny waterlily pond. Also from Kawamura was Marc Chagall’s monumental dreamscape Le songe du Roi David, which doubled its high estimate to reach $26,510,000 after at least five minutes of bidding—just shy of the artist’s $28.45 million auction record. Another Chagall, Le Soleil rouge ou Le soleil des amoureux, met its high estimate at $10,525,000. Additional Kawamura highlights—all sold above estimate—included Pierre Auguste Renoir’s sensual Baigneuse, which sold with a third-party guarantee for $10,420,000, and Matisse’s fluid Nu au fauteuil, main gauche sous la tête, which doubled its estimate to reach $6,785,000.
David Hockney’s monumental Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy achieved $44,335,000. Christie’s
Given a prime spotlight in the preview, David Hockney’s monumental Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy (1968)—the first of seven “double portraits” painted between 1968 and 1975—met expectations, selling for $44,335,000 with a staggering 7,000 percent return for its consignors, forty years after failing to sell at Sotheby’s in 1985 for its $625,000 reserve. Time passed, and the dramatic backstory no longer weighed on the canvas, apparently: in the 1980s, the painting was seized by one of the principal creditors of Andrew Crispo Gallery, Rosenthal and Rosenthal, following Crispo’s involvement in the “Death Mask Murder” of a Norwegian male model and his subsequent tax evasion conviction.
The sale also featured works from other notable collections, including four masterpieces from the encyclopedic connoisseur Max Berry. Timed with the Whitney’s “High Wire: Calder’s Circus at 100“, Berry’s Acrobats—considered the artist’s first wire sculpture—surpassed its high estimate, selling for $8,005,000 and setting a new record for a Calder wire sculpture, while his yellow hanging mobile Untitled (1938) achieved $3 million against its $1.5-2 million estimate. Giacometti’s bronze Buste d’homme (Diego) sold slightly below its $5-8 million estimate at $4,345,000, while his 1938 Nature morte achieved $1,966,000, just above its low estimate.
Alexander Calder’s Acrobats from the Max Berry Collection sold for $8,005,000. Courtesy of Christie’s
Performing less well was another highly anticipated collection: that of the “Queen of Las Vegas,” Elaine Wynn. The star lot, Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #40 (1971), ultimately landed within estimate at $17,655,000—far below the $27.27 million she paid at Sotheby’s in 2021, and below the $27.3 million result achieved by a similar painting from the collection of John L. Marion last May. This, despite Gagosian’s newly announced representation of the estate and the accompanying Upper East Side exhibition last week. Wynn’s Joan Mitchell, Sunflower V, met the middle of its estimate at $16,733,000, while her Turner’s Ehrenbreitstein, Fernand Léger’s Les Confidences (Les deux femmes au bouquet), and Lucian Freud’s late self-portrait all sold below their low estimates at $11,955,000 (estimate $12-18 million), $5,687,000 (estimate $6-8 million), and $14,435,000 (estimate $15-25 million), respectively.
Momentum built around John Singer Sargent—fueled by the dazzling new Musée d’Orsay exhibition, one of the highlights of Paris’s art week before traveling to the Met in the spring—proved potent. Opening the sale, his Venice-inspired gouache Gondolier’s Siesta more than doubled its high estimate, selling for $7,395,000 from its $2,000,000–3,000,000 range and setting a new record for a Sargent gouache. Another gouache, Corner of the Church of San Stae, Venice, hit its mid-estimate at $7,395,000, while a dynamic Capri scene oil reached $11,445,000 from its $4,000,000–6,000,000 estimate. All three works came from the Collection of Carol and Terry Wall, which also included other Impressionist masterworks.
John Singer Sargent’s Capri $11,445,000 from its $4,000,000–6,000,000 estimate. Christie’s
The auction also delivered surprises and new records. At lot two, Beauford Delaney’s The Sage Black— the American modernist whose career bridges the Harlem Renaissance, midcentury abstraction, and postwar Paris—soared to $1,524,000 against its $500,000–700,000 estimate. Another record came from Leonor Fini’s theatrical Dans la tour (Autoportrait avec Constantin Jeleński), which achieved $2,515,000, confirming the momentum for overlooked female Surrealist figures across geographies. Meanwhile, Isamu Noguchi’s Myo sold for more than double its high estimate at $7,639,000 after a four-minute, nineteen-second bidding war, marking the second-highest auction price for the artist.
The strong results at Christie’s last night reinforce the renewed confidence already signaled by solid sales in Europe last month, as Emily Kaplan, Christie’s Co-Head of the 20th Century Evening Sale, noted in her post-auction statement. “The outstanding outcome of tonight’s sale is a clear demonstration of the ongoing strength and vibrancy of the market for the highest quality works of art. We were particularly delighted with the results,” she said—echoing her co-head Imogen Kerr, who emphasized the “great excitement, energy, and engagement from clients in our galleries around the world” generated by the prestigious collections included in the sale. The week continues with even higher stakes on Tuesday, November 18, when the $400 million Leonard A. Lauder: Collector sale hits the rostrum at Sotheby’s.
Leonor Fini’s Dans la tour (Autoportrait avec Constantin Jeleński) fetched $2,515,000, setting a new artist’s record. Christie’s