Lichtenstein

Collectors "Lapped up" Lehman Art

i love liberty Another chapter in the history of Lehman Brothers is now closed. At yesterday's auction, the artwork held by the once mighty financial institution fetched $1.35 million, almost double the $760,800 presale estimate by Freeman's Auctioneers. Nonetheless, it puts hardly a dent in the $250 billion that Lehman owes its creditors.

The auction lasted six hours and featured both fast-paced bidding and generous prices. Unsurprisingly, Roy Lichtenstein's Statue of Liberty print, titled "I Love Liberty," was the top lot at $49,000 (the presale estimate was only $25,000). Robert Indiana's "Polygons" prints brought in $23,750, almost four times the expectation. Every lot moved, the first time we've seen a 100 percent auction (high profile, at least) in a while.

Alasdair Nichol, vice chairman and auctioneer at Freeman's, cites "trophy hunting" as the driver behind Sunday's result. "What's not to like?" he said to Bloomberg News." "It's nice boardroom art, presented nicely, ready to go up on the walls. People lapped it up."

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Tags: art, art auction, art auctions, ArtAuction, ArtAuctions, artwork, auction, auctions, freeman, lehman, lehman bros., lehman brothers, LehmanBros., LehmanBrothers, lichtenstein, philadelphia, roy lichtenstein, RoyLichtenstein, statue of liberty, StatueOfLiberty

Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions

Sotheby's New York held their most successful contemporary art sale to date yesterday, selling almost $130 million worth of art. The best selling piece of the show was Roy Lichtenstein's "Sinking Sun," which came in at $15,696,000, but surprised no one because it was estimated at $15-20 million. The biggest surprise came from an untitled abstract work by William de Kooning, which more than doubled its estimate to sell for the same price as the Lichtenstein. Work by a number of younger artists, including Andreas Gursky, Christopher Wool and Cecily Brown set records, as did pieces from 7 other artists. Only three pieces were unsold when the final gavel fell, two of which were Warhols.