54 lots for Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale LIVE 11 May 2023, New York – underway (will update)
EDWARD HOPPER
Coast Guard Cove, 1929
Watercolor first sold thru Rehn Gallery; MoMa in 1933
signed ‘Edward Hopper Two Lights Me’
Lot 40A (“A” for Paul Allen Estate)
Presale estimate 600,000-800,000. Hammer price 1.6 mil. Price realised USD 1,986,000
In 2014, Allen acquired the drawing from the Paul Mellon Estate sale at Sotheby’s.
Prior to the Hopper lot, “one of the 5 greatest Gas Station” Ed. Ruscha’s Burning Gas Station sold for 19 million (which was below the presale estimate 20 -30 mil; bidding started at 17 million). Among the works that soared past their presale estimates were a Matisse drawing, an Agnes Pelton from 1926, Degas’s Danseus a la barre from the Danforth estate, Renoir’s Square de la Trinité, and a “wonderful” Goya drawing.
O’Keefe’s Black Iris 5–also from the Paul Allen collection–surged past its presale estimate (5-7 million to 18 million); and there was spirited bidding for more than one Hockney. So far the audience broke into applause for two: a Toulouse Lautrec circus elephant drawing and “one of the masterpieces of the week”, a large Rosseau, reached an auction record. “I don’t think you’ll see another,” quipped the auctioneer holding the gavel at 37.5 million. Paul Guston Pull, Picasso Femme Assise, and a Cezanne figure group passed.
Results here
–will update–
Good Morning Gloucester 