A Wild Ride

Photo © Christie’s Images Ltd. 2007

Andy Warhol, "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)" (1963)

Photo © Christie’s Images Ltd. 2007

Mark Rothko, "Untitled" (1954)

Top Five Prices

1) Andy Warhol, Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) (1963)
$71,720,000
(est. $25-35 million)
Anonymous

2) Andy Warhol, Lemon Marilyn
(1962)
$28,040,000
(est. not given)
Anonymous

3) Mark Rothko, Untitled (1954)
$26,920,000
(est. $20-25 million)
Anonymous

4) Mark Rothko, Untitled (1961)
$22,440,000
(est. $14-18 million)
Anonymous

5) Willem de Kooning, Untitled I,
(1981)
$19,080,000
(est. not given)
Anonymous

Andy Warhol Willem de Kooning Cindy Sherman Arshile Gorky Investors Indulge Appetite for Luxury SFMOMA Considers Unusual Expansion Plan Dealer Holly Solomon’s Papers Headed to Smithsonian Phillips de Pury Makes Its (Small) Mark

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Twenty-five other records also were smashed, and bidding was so hyper—with offers flooding in by phone and careening from every direction in the sardine-packed room—that even seasoned auctioneer Christopher Burge was flustered and spent.

“I’m completely stunned, exhausted, and thrilled,” Burge said after the sale.

The grand total came to a breathtaking $384,654,400—the largest sum ever for a contemporary sale (far eclipsing the record of $254,800,000, set at Sotheby’s just 24 hours earlier), and the second highest art auction total in history, Burge said. Only four lots went unsold out of the evening’s 78 works.

Adrenaline was in full force, elevated by a plethora of last-minute bidders. Just as bidding seemed to dwindle for each lot—a split second before the gavel came down—someone would flick a paddle in the audience, revving up the offers again.

Such was the case with Green Car Crash. When the price climbed to what looked like its peak, with offers from two telephone bidders hovering somewhere around $60 million, dealer Larry Gagosian started bidding. One of the phone bidders finally prevailed.

Green Car Crash wasn’t the only star present. Tobey Maguire, of Spiderman fame, was in the audience, clad in T-shirt and baseball cap and surrounded by buddies. He didn’t bid, however, and sauntered out of the room around the 73rd lot.

In addition to Warhol, records were set for Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Georg Baselitz, Cecily Brown, Richard Diebenkorn, Lucio Fontana, Arshile Gorky, Eva Hesse, Damien Hirst, Hans Hofmann, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Morris Louis, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Mark Newson, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, Susan Rothenberg, Wilhelm Sasnal, Cindy Sherman, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Matthias Weischer, and Lisa Yuskavage.

______

Top Five Lots:

1. Andy Warhol, Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I) (1963), sold for $71,720,000 (est. $25-35 million)

This highly anticipated work did not disappoint, with bidding as dramatic as the painting itself. Created as part of Warhol’s horrific Death and Disaster series, the dizzying green piece sources a photograph of an actual 1963 car crash in suburban Seattle, which ended with a man impaled on a utility pole.

The work came out of a private collection, a Christie’s spokeswoman said after the sale, following a trend that started two years ago whereby owners of postwar collections that are just beginning to come of age want to determine the fate of their estates while still living.

2. Andy Warhol, Lemon Marilyn (1962), sold for $28,040,000 (est. not given)

It was a good night for Warhol—no surprise—with Lemon Marilyn raking in the second highest price ever for one of the artist’s works. The high-profile painting was created the month after Marilyn Monroe’s suicide. The iconic piece was in the artist’s first solo exhibition at New York’s Stable Gallery. The work had been with one owner up until last night, when it sold to an anonymous telephone bidder.

3. Mark Rothko, Untitled (1954), sold for $26,920,000 (est. $20-25 million)

Rothko’s oil on canvas paintings were particularly in-demand last night, riding the $72.8 record the artist’s White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) set at Sotheby’s the night before. The vibrant Untitled (1954), which hails from the beginning of Rothko’s classic period, set off a telephone bidding war, ending with the second highest price ever for the artist.

4. Mark Rothko, Untitled (1961), sold for $22,440,000 (est. $14-18 million)

Another Rothko brought in big bucks, this one coming from the Eastman Family Collection, of which it had been a part since it was acquired directly from the artist in 1963. It represents the culmination of a period in which Rothko gradually eliminated figures and other human elements from his work, simplifying the subject matter but adding tenfold to the works’ significance.

5. Willem de Kooning, Untitled I (1981), sold for $19,080,000 (est. not given)

De Kooning, suffering from severe alcoholism and depression, created only six paintings he was willing to show to the public the year before he painted this work. But 1981 marked a new and steady period of production for the artist, and a time when his painting began to change in subtle ways. The oil and charcoal on canvas work went to an anonymous phone bidder.