NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's fall auction of Prints & Multiples concluded this morning in New York with a total of $11.9 million – approaching the sale's high estimate of $12.2 million, and marking one of the highest auction totals for the category at Sotheby's. In all, more than 300 works by artists spanning the 20th and 21st centuries were sold across four auction sessions that commenced on the evening of 18 October.

Mary Bartow, Head of Sotheby's Prints Department in New York, commented: "We are thrilled to have achieved one of our highest auction totals this fall, with strong demand across price points for prints by icons like Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso, and international participation from private collectors as well as the trade. It has been a particular honor to present works collected by the great David Teiger, including Jasper Johns's divine Cicada which led our sale. The work combines the artist’s strong intellectual ideas with beautiful colors and artistic gestures, and its strong result demonstrates the continued broadening of the market for rare graphic art.”

The New York auction opened on Thursday evening with a selection of prints on offer from the Collection of David Teiger – visionary collector, patron and trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Ranging from prints by Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso to Christopher Wool, David Hockney and Olafur Eliasson, the group was led by an extremely rare and complete set of Jasper Johns’s Cicada (ULAE 215) from 1981, which soared to $1.2 million – more than double its high estimate of $500,000. The screenprints illustrate Johns's iconic crosshatch motif across an array of complementary colors, and demonstrate the artist's passion for printmaking. Prior to this sale, a complete set of Cicada had not appeared at auction since 1997, when one sold from the famed Ganz Collection.

Proceeds from Mr. Teiger's collection will benefit Teiger Foundation – soon to be one of the world’s largest and most significant contemporary art foundations – which was set up to support and promote excellence in contemporary art. Sotheby's will next offer works from the collection in our Contemporary Art sales this November in New York.

Outside of the Teiger Collection, the work of Andy Warhol was in high demand throughout the auction, with all 36 prints by the Pop icon sold for a combined total of $3.5 million. Works by Warhol brought six of the auction's top ten prices, led by a complete set of Ten Portraits of the Jews of the Twentieth Century (F. & S. II.226-235) from 1980 that fetched $471,000 (estimate $250/350,000). The portraits are a testament to the achievements of Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Gertrude Stein.

Across the sale, auction record prices were achieved for examples of Andy Warhol’s Grapes, Dracula (record for a trial proof), Paramount (record for a trial proof), Grevy’s Zebra and Albert Einstein prints. Two of those works brought multiples of their estimates: a unique trial proof of Warhol’s Dracula (F. & S. IIB.264) that sold for a record $112,500 (pictured right, estimate $30/50,000) and a single example of the Albert Einstein (F. & S. II.229) screenprint from the Ten Portraits of the Jews of the Twentieth Century that brought a record $81,250 (estimate $20/30,000).

Friday's morning session was dominated by Modern master Pablo Picasso, with more than 50 works sold that demonstrate the artist's diverse interests and skills as a printmaker: Couple et flûtistes au bord d'un lac (Bacchanale) (B. 930; BA. 1259), a linoleum cut printed in colors from 1959, fetched $137,500 (pictured left, estimate $40/60,000); Figure au corsage rayé (B. 604; M. 179), a lithograph printed in colors from 1949, brought $106,250 (estimate $60/80,000); and Minotaure aveugle guidé par Marie-Thérèse au pigeon dans une nuit étoilée (B. 225; BA. 437), an aquatint from 1934 from the Vollard suite, sold for $106,250 (estimate $80/120,000).