Last night's contemporary art auction at Christie's broke numerous records for the artists. For instance, a 1982 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat called "Dustheads" was expected to sell for around $25-35 million—but it went to $48.4 million. The night's sales totaled $495 million; dealer Asher Edelman said, “It was amazing. Nobody knows what to do with their money, I guess.”
Another record was set for Jackson Pollock—his "Number 19" from 1948 sold for $58 million (estimate was $35 million). A collector told Bloomberg, "You have a lot of foreign money, a lot of hedge-fund money. Stocks could go down 50 percent. If this goes down, it will eventually go back up. These are historical pieces.”
Jackson Pollock's Number 19, 1948, which sold for $58 million
Roy Lichtenstein's "Woman With A Flower Hat" (1963) was sold by Ron Perelman for $56 million. The buyer were jeweler Laurence Graff who said, "It’s a masterpiece. I’ve known the painting for years, always saw it in the textbooks... I’ve got a big birthday coming up and I bought it for my birthday." Graff will turn 75.
Christie's CEO Steven Murphy is bullish on the future and the 1%, "Our continuum of growth began in 2006 when all these newcomers around the world started buying more art. We may have paused with the recession in 2008, but we're clearly back."
