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- Christie’s blockbuster evening sales on Monday point to a bullish market for historic works.
- Reina Sofía’s director says Basque leaders never asked the museum for a Guernica loan, and Spanish politicians technically have no authority in the matter.
- The UK’s culture secretary has been urged to investigate allegations of antisemitism directed at Southbank Centre chairman Misan Harriman.
The Headlines
BULLISH MARKET COMEBACK? There was plenty to write home about from Christie’s blockbuster evening sales on Monday, with record-breaking sales that included an 11-foot-wide Jackson Pollock drip painting that went for $181.2 million, a gilded bronze head sculpture by Constantin Brâncuși fetching $107 million with fees, and a $98.4 million Mark Rothko abstraction from 1964, No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe). But as ARTnews reports, those works were expected to do well. Perhaps just as intriguing, the sale revealed more about the market below $20 million, which saw deep bidding that has been missing from auctions in recent years. Also of note, most of the action came from US buyers, while European and Asian clients stayed mostly on the sidelines or within lower price points. “Collectors have a lot of capital to play with,” secondary-market dealer Evan Beard told ARTnews. “They’ve psychologically adjusted to higher interest rates. The stock market is at record highs and feeling frothy, and the art market has reset to more inviting levels the past few years. The bullish art market is back (but not for young, emerging artists).”