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By the Numbers: A Breakdown of Results From Christie’s S.I. Newhouse and 20th-Century Evening Sales, May 2023
The night began with nervous energy but the anxiety soon gave way to quiet confidence.
![Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait (1969). Estimated at $22 million to $28 million, it sold for $34.6 million. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023. Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait (1969). Estimated at $22 million to $28 million, it sold for $34.6 million. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023.](https://news.artnet.com/app/news-upload/2023/05/Bacon-Self-Portrait-888x1024.jpg)
The night began with nervous energy but the anxiety soon gave way to quiet confidence.
Tim Schneider
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The annual spring hurricane of auctions made landfall in New York on last night with a double-header at Christie’s Rockefeller Center headquarters. First up: the third dedicated sale of works from the S.I. Newhouse collection. Though the entire assemblage had been guaranteed by the house long ago (and a good portion of the risk was later offloaded to third parties, as you’ll see), the night began with a low thrum of nervous energy in the salesroom stemming from months of chatter about the potential of interest-rate hikes, stubbornly persistent inflation, and other macroeconomic weirdness to disrupt Gotham’s seasonal auction bonanza.
But the anxiety soon gave way to quiet confidence as bidding pushed the third frame of the Newhouse collection into respectable territory. Below, the story by the numbers…
Henri ‘Le Douanier’ Rousseau, Les Flamants (1910). Estimated between $20 million and $30 million, it sold for an artist-record $43.5 million. © Christie’s Images Limited 2023.
Immediately following the Newhouse sale, Christie’s barreled into its 20th century evening session. Although the liveliness of the Newhouse sale had eased some of the aforementioned tension in the Rock, the tone seesawed back and forth throughout the night’s second event, as frenetic bidding for choice lots (including a coda from the Paul G. Allen collection) gave way to more business-like transactions and more than a couple significant passed lots (headlined by Picasso’s Femme assise au chapeau de paille (Marie-Thérèse) being bought in at $18.5 million, just beneath its $20 million low estimate).
Here’s how the data shook out…
Next sale up: Christie’s 21st century evening sale on Monday, May 15.
Check back throughout the week for our continuing coverage of this spring’s sales slate.