A Disappointing Evening at Sotheby's

NEW YORK—The gasps and murmurs at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern auction last night were not for the record-setters—there were very few of those—but for the numerous failures.

The first buy-in came just nine works into the auction with a star lot: van Gogh’s The Fields (Wheat Fields), from 1890. Estimated to bring between $28 million and $35 million, it passed at just $25 million. By the time Picasso’s La Lampe, a 1931 painting of a bust of his mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter (est. $25–35 million), failed 19 lots later, the tone of the evening was irreversible. “When you have a big lot early on that fails,” said London dealer James Roundell after the auction, “it has an impact on the whole sale.”

Of the 76 works offered, a whopping 26.3 percent went unsold, including three more Picassos, a Matisse, a Gauguin, and a Braque, though this was purchased privately after the auction for an undisclosed sum.

Perhaps depressing the mood in the room was yesterday’s slump in the stock market, which saw the Dow drop 360 points. Given the high number of lots that sold for considerably below their low estimate, one dealer ARTINFO spoke with speculated that the reserves may have been reduced.

But the evening did have its successes. When historically important works with reasonable estimates came on the block, there were bidding battles—albeit not at the whiplash speed or in the million-dollar increments that have been seen at some of the recent contemporary sales. Bidders upped their offers cautiously and thoughtfully, often jumping in just as auctioneer Tobias Meyer was about to pound his gavel. By the end of the evening, records had been set for Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Franz Marc, a Max Ernst painting, a Picasso sculpture, and a Schiele work on paper.

Many speculated that the auction’s mediocre results were a sign that the art-market bubble was finally bursting, but department chairman David Norman assured that the buy-ins were due to overeager estimates rather than a global downturn. Roundell concurred, saying, “The market overall is strong. I think this is more an aberration than a trend.”

Click on the photo gallery at left for further details on six highlights of the sale.

Julie Brener is associate editor at Art & Auction. Additional reporting by Sarah Douglas, staff writer for Art & Auction.