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Weird Wednesday with Wally - High end contemporary works still obtain multi-millions
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Beggars' Joys sold at 10.16 million
Something is worth whatever someone will pay for it. How many times have you heard that old saw? It must be entered here in my column at least a dozen times in my 160 posts so far.
That's why it baffles me why nearly 2/3 of the lots at Sotheby's were not sold due to them not hitting the pre-auction estimate, in other words they did not make the reserve.
Why the story deserves my "Weird Wednesday" status is because I feel that Sotheby's and their clients who've consigned these lots, are completely out of touch with reality.
First, these contemporary works have not stood the test of time. When they were purchased the last time, (most likely from Sotheby's or Christie's) the people purchasing them must have known they were gambling. Now that the time has come for them to roll the dice again, they have taken their chips off the table.
From the story:
A large painting named "Archisponge" by Yves Klein was the chief success, selling for over 21 million dollars. However, this was still shy of the pre-auction target announced as "in the region of 25 million dollars." "Beggar's Joys," a painting by Philip Guston, fetched 10.16 million dollars -- well under the target of 15 million dollars. Other bargains included Tom Wesslemann's "Great American Nude" at 4.14 million dollars, where the target had been six to eight million dollars. Of course, the notion of a good deal in the exuberant world of contemporary art is relative. "Mirror Painting" by Gerhard Richter, which consists of a large rectangle of glass covered in red pigment, may have fallen far short of its target, but still sold for more than a million dollars. Click here to read the whole story: I find the second paragraph in blue to be weirdly ironic. The reality of the the situation is, that economically, the are two Americas, one that thinks a bad day is looking into an empty refrigerator, and one who thinks a bad day is when their 25 million dollar work of art only brings 21 million, oh the agony.
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