In one of the art market’s most widely anticipated auctions, the first portion of the collection of New York real estate developers Harry and Linda Macklowe fetched a collective $676.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York.
The entire grouping of 35 works was backed by the auction house with a guarantee, with each lot sold by the sale’s end. 21 lots came to the sale with irrevocable bids. The group of works soared over its estimated haul of $439.4 million-$618.9 million. It was the first swathe of 65 total works from the Macklowes’ holdings—which are being sold as part of a court order issued during the couple’s divorce proceedings— to be offered at the house’s New York headquarters. A second standalone sale devoted to the remaining works is set to take place in May.
Among the works that fetched the highest price was Mark Rothko’s No. 7 (1951), featuring stacked blocks of nude pink, chartreuse, and orange sold for $82 million. Coming to the sale with an irrevocable bid, it hammered at $77.5 million, going to a bidder on the phone with Sotheby’s chairman of Asia, Patti Wong, who triumphed over a New York bidder to win it. It is the second most expensive work by Rothko to sell on the open market. It nearly exceeded the abstract expressionist’s auction record of $86.8 million, set in 2012 when Orange, red, yellow (1961) sold at Christie’s.
A bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti titled Le Nez (1947), of a bust with an elongated nose that hangs suspended in an open steel cage sold for $78 million. Just two bidders on the phone with David Schrader, head of private sales and a representative from the house’s chairman’s office in Hong Kong, Yonnie Fu, competed for the work. It hammered with Fu’s client at $67 million, below its high estimate of $70 million.
A second record was set for Jackson Pollock, whose Number 17 (1951), a black spattered painting on a beige canvas, sold for a staggering $61 million, more than double the $25 million estimate. It exceeded the artist’s previous auction record of $58.4 million, set in 2013 for Number 19 (1948) at Christie’s New York. Additional artist records were set for Robert Irwin and Michael Heizer.