NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s reached a new and unprecedented benchmark in auction history this week, generating a grand total of US$1,726,019,375 in a single week of fine art sales in New York. This marked the first time Christie’s New York had combined its traditionally separated categories of Impressionist & Modern and Post-War & Contemporary art into a single sale week of auctions and online-only sales. The week was led by Looking Forward to the Past, a curated sale that presented top-quality works from both categories in a new context. The stellar results demonstrate that accelerated demand for great art from collectors around the world continues to drive strong prices at all levels.

“This has been an extraordinary week for the art market and for Christie’s. Our much heralded total of $1.726 billion is only a part of the story. It was striking that there were 40 bids above $100 million for the Picasso on Monday night and over 45 bids for the Rothko which made $82 million on Wednesday. This is a rich, deep market in which masterpieces elicit the greatest competition and which now attracts high level buyers from all over the world,” said Jussi Pylkkanen, Christie’s Global President.

“By creating a single focused sale week led by an exciting cross-category approach, we encouraged both new collectors and established buyers to look at our offerings in a new context. This strategy paid huge dividends and gives confidence to owners of major works to consign them with Christie’s. We would like to thank all the great collectors who were inspired by our innovative approach to this single New York sale week and particularly to the owners of both the Picasso and the Giacometti masterpieces that have made this spring auction season so particularly memorable.”

Global Activity Bidders from 48 different countries registered to participate in Christie’s New York sale week, creating an electric atmosphere of competition that grew and gained momentum over the course of the sale week. The week’s third Evening Sale, devoted to Impressionist and Modern Art, experienced one of the strongest sell-through rates of the week, with 93% sold by lot and 99% sold by value. The sales were a truly global event, with clients from the Americas, EMERI, and Asia regions all participating across the Evening and Day sales.

Cross-over Buying and Great Collections Throughout the sale week, Christie’s witnessed strong performance across both categories, underpinned by buyers looking to expand their collecting areas. By week’s end, Christie’s has sold over $984.5 million of Post-War and Contemporary Art through a combination of auction and online-only sales. A total of $741.5 million of Impressionist and Modern Art was sold at auction, with a dedicated online-only sale of Picasso Ceramics continuing through May 19. For both categories, the totals mark the highest total ever achieved in a single week of sales. Both categories were buoyed by the success of important private collections: the collection of Ileana Sonnabend and her daughter Nina Sundell fetched a total of $81,957,500, and property from the Estate of late Goldman Sachs chairman John C. Whitehead realized a total of $72,587,250, both far exceeding their high estimates.

New Auction Records Achieved
$179,365,000 Pablo Picasso, Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O') │ RECORD FOR ANY WORK OF ART SOLD AT AUCTION

$141,285,000 Alberto Giacometti, L'homme au doigt│ RECORD FOR ANY SCULPTURE SOLD AT AUCTION

$56,165,000 Lucian Freud, Benefits Supervisor Resting

$28,165,000 Chaim Soutine, Le Boeuf

$50,565,000 Piet Mondrian, Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black

$25,925,000 Peter Doig, Swamped

$24,805,000 Jean Dubuffet, Paris Polka

$20,605,000 Robert Ryman, Bridge

$18,645,000 Robert Rauschenberg, Johanson's Painting

$9,797,000 Cady Noland, Bluewald

$6,437,000 Giovanni Anselmo, Torsione $6,325,000 Hans Hofmann, Auxerre

$5,093,000 Sturtevant, Warhol Diptych

$4,757,000 Rudolf Stingel, Untitled

$785,000 Diane Arbus, Child With A Toy Hand Grenade In Central Park, N.Y.C., 1962

$509,000 Carroll Dunham, Fourth Birch

$317,000 Cheyney Thompson, Chronochrome II

$185,000 Carolee Schneemann, Eye Body: 36 Transformative Actions

Records for the Medium by the Artist
$13,605,000 Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled │ record for a work on paper by the artist at auction

$7,500,000 Jeff Koons, Triple Elvis │ record for a painting by the artist at auction

$5,429,000 Rene Magritte, L’empire Des Lumières │ record for a work on paper by the artist at auction

$4,421,000 Roy Lichtenstein, Collage for Interior: Perfect Pitcher │ record for a work on paper by the artist at auction

$5,317,000 Andy Warhol, Dollar Bill │ record for a work on paper by the artist at auction

$3,525,000 Jackson Pollock, Untitled │ record for a work on paper by the artist at auction

$2,405,000 Robert Delaunay, La Tour simultanée │ record for a work on paper by the artist at auction

$2,405,000 Christopher Wool, Untitled │ record for a work on paper by the artist at auction

$1,205,000 Jean Dubuffet, Pleurnichon │ record for a sculpture by the artist at auction