A new willingness to deaccession brought some success, but overall picture is of caution in the teeth of the recessionnew york. Prices for 18th- to mid-20th-century American art plunged in May as Sotheby’s and Christie’s struggled to sell just 60% of their New York auctions, making $32.1m, down from $159.6m a year ago. “There were fewer bidders than we’ve seen in a decade,” said Dara Mitchell, the head of Sotheby’s American painting department. “People were cautious and really waiting to see where this market is going.”
“Most of the big players were not around,” said New York American painting dealer Howard Godel. “There wasn’t enough enticing material above $1m to get those buyers salivating.” Even a plentiful array of fresh-to-the-market museum offerings wasn’t enough to bolster weak results.
Christie’s 20 May sale totalled $16.8m for 141 lots, under the $20.6m low pre-sale estimate. Just 62% found buyers, and only three lots surpassed the million-dollar mark. The top lot was Milton Avery’s 1944 Sketching by the Sea which fetched $2.2m, well above the $800,000 high estimate. The painting depicts two figures drawing by a rocky coast line and came from an estate where it had resided since 1946.
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