The Art Newspaper's editors break down the art market's biggest stories and spectacles, with the help of special guests. In our new video report series Hammer Time, our deputy art market editor Margaret Carrigan recaps the highlights of New York's billion-dollar auction week, interviews specialists and brings you live views from the salesroom.
Christie’s post-war and contemporary evening sale on Wednesday night started out hot with the first three lots soaring past their estimates. Yet even with four artist records realised by the end, the night’s results overall were lukewarm, coming in at $279.9m ($325.3m with fees). Like the safely played Impressionist and Modern art evening sales earlier this week, there were fewer big-name estate consignments and only a couple of lots topping $20m.
Ed Rucha’s visual pun word painting Hurting the Word Radio #2 (1964), leading the sale with an estimate of $30m-$40m, set a new world record for the artist when it hammered for $46m ($52.4m with fees) after some rapid bidding that lead the night’s master of ceremonies Jussi Pylkkänen to question “who even needs an auctioneer”. At $8.4m ($9.8m with fees) and backed by a third-party guarantee, Ellsworth Kelly’s Red Curve VII proved a record-breaking amount for the hard-edge painter.
EDITDELETE
Credits:
Hosted and directed by Margaret Carrigan
Filmed and edited by Travis Wood
Produced by Helen Stoilas
