Macklowe Collection hits $922M at Auction


Blue chip treasures from one of Manhattan’s fiercest billionaire divorces Monday night helped Sotheby’s achieve what it calls record total sales for a private art collection at auction, $922 million with fees.

Sotheby’s sells second prize-winning cache of modern and contemporary works owned by real estate magnate Harry Macklowe and his ex-wife, Linda Macklowe, honorary board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of ArtFor $246.1 million. The first installment of the sale rose in November $676.1 million Of 35 lots, works by Mark Rothko ($82.5 million) and Alberto Giacometti ($78.4 million) peaked.

Due to the nature of the sequels, second Macklowe saleof 30 lots, it wasn’t in this league, but it’s run by Rothko at $48 million, Gerhard Richter $30.2 million and Andy Warhol It pushed the final sum of $18.7 million, Sotheby’s said, Peggy and David Rockefeller $835.1 million in collections before inflation at Christie’s in 2018.

The Monday sale, estimated to have raised at least $168 million, kickstarted the second of two weekly modern and contemporary art auctions.

There were several notable parties that exceeded expectations, for example 1961 orange and yellow de Kooning Sigmar Polke’s “The Copyist” sold for $17.8 million above a high estimate of $10 million and sold for $6 million above the over-estimate of $4 million.

“Either art is one of the few assets that appears to have good immune protection against a recession, or inflation is much stronger than we thought,” said Loic Gouzer, former leading Christie’s expert. “The art market feels very close to the aftermarket – good works are hard to find and very expensive.”

For more than 50 years, Macklowes had acquired prime examples of the work of canonical white male artists such as Warhol, Richter, Rothko and Cy Twombly, traditionally seen as blue chip investments. But more recently, most of the energy and money in the market is young, rising namesespecially women artists and artists of color.

“We were thinking about where we were with white male artists,” said Suzanne Gyorgy, global head of Citi Private Bank Arts Advisory and Finance. “Then the Macklowe sale came along and it went extraordinarily well.”

Gyorgy said the Macklowe sale showed there was still a lot of demand for works by museum-approved names, provided they were of A-plus quality. “There are collectors who want the best of the best and are still developing their collections,” said Gyorgy. “Even if there are dips in certain markets, these artists are here to stay.”

The sale of Macklowes’ award-winning artwork New York court decision in 2018. Tired of the feuding couple not agreeing on how to divide their assets, Justice Laura E. Drager The State Supreme Court ruled that the collection, worth more than $700 million at the time, should be sold at an auction.

Although the Macklowes initially shared a love of collecting – stuffing their Plaza and Hamptons home with paintings and sculptures – art became Ms. Macklowe’s main passion. She had hoped to keep large works of art, but that was impossible as most of her assets depended on her art collection.

“Linda Macklowe’s unique eye is on display again tonight,” said Dealer Marc Glimcher. “The fantastic prices were a confirmation of that. We can hope he decides to use these funds to bring back his keen mind, impeccable taste and deep knowledge to artists and collectors.”

Christie’s 2018 charity sale of the Rockefeller collection, a marathon distribution of art and antiques compiled in a different era of collectible pleasure, consisted of six live sales and 1,580 lots offered in one online auction only. The Macklowe collection consisted of only 65 high-value pieces (all sold).

Sales started strong Roy Lichtenstein mirror painting and an Agnes Martin work of hazy lines, each selling nearly three times its high estimates ($6 million and nearly $10 million, respectively).

Last week, Christie’s raised $1.4 million from various sales. 195 million dollars For Warhol’s 1964 silkscreen film “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn”. This week, Sotheby’s, like Phillips, has a Wednesday night Jean-Michel Basquiat painting It is estimated to sell for $70 million.

But while stocks suffer six consecutive weeks of declineFueled by the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine and ongoing concerns about rising inflation and interest rates, the high end of the international art market may be stress-tested.

“I never thought I would see a sale of the Macklowe collection,” said Harry Macklowe at an after-sales press conference, reflecting on all the auctions he has attended as a collector. “I’m excited about this. Not by economy, but by quality recognized by collectors. “It was the biggest payback for everyone to approve of the choices we’ve made in the last 65 years.”



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