CHRISTIE’S NEW YORK
POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING SALE REALIZES $247,597,000 (£153,510,140 / €178,269,840)
ROY LICHTENSTEIN’S I CAN SEE THE WHOLE ROOM!…AND THERE’S NOBODY IN IT! FETCHES $43,202,500–A WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
16 NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORDS
Last evening’s Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale at Christie’s in New York achieved $247,597,000 (£153,510,140 / €178,269,840), demonstrating the continuing appeal of this category among collectors worldwide. Thirty-three works sold above the $1 million mark and 16 new world auction records were established. In total, sell-through percentages were very strong, with 90% sold by lot and 87% by value.
“The world’s top 10 collectors were present in the saleroom tonight, and a global community of collectors was bidding aggressively on works by the preeminent artists in this category,” said Brett Gorvy, Chairman and International Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s. “This is an extremely strong sale result.”
The top lot of the sale was Roy Lichtenstein’s I Can See the Whole Room…and There’s Nobody in It!, which set a new auction record of $43,202,500. Painted in 1961, it is one of the earliest and most important of Lichtenstein’s Pop Art pictures, formerly in the collection of the pioneering collectors Emily and Burton Tremaine. The previous record for a Lichtenstein work was Ohhh … Alright…, 1964, which sold at Christie’s New York in November 2010 for $42.6 million (£26,785,550 / €31,105,800).
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