(14 May 1999) English/Nat
A Jasper Johns painting of two American flags sold for 7.1 (m) million U-S dollars on Thursday at Christie's sale of 20th century art.
The sale brought in a total of 62.7 (m) million U-S dollars, just under the auction house's low estimate of 64.2 (m) million, with 52 of 62 lots sold.
But despite spending what, to the uninitiated, seems an extraordinary amount, Christie's officials say buyers are making shrewd investments rather than buying at any cost.
On Wednesday night it was the Impressionists who held centre stage... two works by Monet brought 16 (m) million U-S dollars, and a Van Gogh sold for 18 (m) million.
But Thursday night at Christie's new auction house at New York's Rockefeller centre, saw the more contemporary artists in the spotlight.
There were two works by Spanish artist Joan Miro up for grabs, the 1946 painting L'espoir and an earlier work, Peinture painted in 1927.
L'espoir sold, for four (m) million 512-thousand 500 U-S dollars to a private European bidder, well above the expected price of between two and three (m) million dollars.
Matisse's 1925 work "Les roses Safrano" sold for 5 (m) million 502-thousand and 500, comfortably above the pre-sale estimate of between three and four (m) millions.
But not all the lots went above their anticipated price.
Leger's 1922 work "Les trois femmes au bouquet" was expected by Christie's to fetch between five and seven (m) million U-S dollars, but eventually sold for a little over four million.
But the star of the show was Jasper John's 1973 work, Two Flags.
It's one of nearly 100 works by the artist on the theme of the American flag.
It sold for seven-point-one (m) million dollars.
While the price was within Christie's estimate of seven million to ten million, it was much lower than the $12.1 million the painting fetched at Sotheby's New York in 1989 during the art boom.
Christie's North and South American chairman Christopher Burge says collectors aren't parting with their money lightly, labelling it a very savvy market.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"The collectors are clearly thinking very carefully about what they're going to spend, they have their limits and tend to stick to those, so it's very orderly in the market, but as soon as there's something of top quality and that's been in the private collection for a long time, it obviously does extremely well."
SUPERCAPTION: Christopher Burge, Chairman Christies North and South America
A 1969-1970 Henry Moore sculpture titled "Reclining Figure" sold for four (m) million.
The exact price was $4,072,500, just barely an auction record for the artist.
The previous record was $4,070,000 in 1990 for "Working Model for UNESCO Reclining Figures."
Christie's had estimated that the sculpture would sell for $2.5 million to $3 million.
None of the buyers were identified.
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