If you had told anyone six months ago that a painting by Lynne Drexler would be offered at auction in Los Angeles with a low estimate of $500,000, the response would have been laughter. But this week Bonhams announced it would be offering Grass Symphony from 1962 at its Los Angeles sale on September 14th with a $500,000 low estimate.
If you thought the Ernie Barnes wave had run its course, last week gave you a big surprise. During Christie's London sale, Main Street Pool Hall from 1978 made $1.8 million against an estimate under $100,000. That was the third highest price paid for a Barnes painting after the $15 million record Sugar Shack from 1976 and the $2.34 million paid for Storm Dance from 1977. Both of those sales took place in early May.
Christie's announced that Victor Pinchuk and his wife Olena are selling their Jeff Koons Balloon Monkey (Magenta) in London later this month with a £6 million ($7.5 million) estimate.
More art by Claude Monet was sold in New York’s May sales than trades in even the biggest years for the artist. A full $310 million was traded for Monet paintings last month. That’s more than sold in 2019, a banner year for the artist.
Christie’s bringing back to the market an important large Gerhard Richter abstract painting that once set a record price for these works at $34 million. The painting doesn’t have a published estimate but the whisper number isn’t really more than the previous sale. Christie’s will only say they expect the work to sell f