Another Rough Night For The Art Auction Market

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Nov 14th 2008 at 8:01PM

Another day, another day of art auction misery, the third in a long week for art sellers. At the Phillips de Pury & Co.'s New York auction the sales were far below event the low estimate of $23 million, coming in at $9.6 million with two-fifths of the lots not selling. Even usual hot sellers like Damien Hirst whose `Beautiful Artemis Thor Neptune Odin Delusional Sapphic Inspirational Hypnosis Painting,'' was part of a series that appeared in September 2007 during a runway show of his collection for Levi Strauss & Co. at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea couldn't find a buyer at $1.8 million.

So what artists are still alluring? The star of the Phillips de Pury auction was Donald Judd's 1977 vertical progression of 10 blue, stainless steel stacks, shown at right, which sold for $3.2 million, lower than presale estimate range of $4 million to $6 million but still a good showing in this market (and a Judd sculpture also sold earlier this week to Eli Broad). While the works may have been of a lower tier than comparable Christie's and Sotheby's auctions, the risk was also smaller. Bloomberg reports that Phillips de Pury guaranteed just one work in the auction, a glowing neon text by Kendell Geers, which had a low estimate of $60,000 and sold for $56,250.

Tags: art, auction, contemporary, damien hirst, DamienHirst, donald judd, DonaldJudd