Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) – Number 7A 1948 sold for $$181,185,000
Jackson Pollock, Constantin Brancusi and Mark Rothko propelled Christie’s to a record shattering sale in New York last night. Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S I Newhouse, co owner of Condé Nast, and the 20th Century evening sale totalled $1,121,126,500. The Newhouse collection made $631 million and sold 100% both by lot and value. The 20th Century sale made $490.3 million. After almost seven minutes of bidding, Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 realised $181,185,000, nearly tripling the artist’s previous record. Brancusi’s Danaïde (circa 1913) inspired lively bidding before selling for $107,585,000. At the 20th Century evening sale Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) made $98,385,000 setting a new record for the artist.
With bidders from around the world the evening set eight new records, including artist records at auction for Constantin Brancusi, Joan Miró, Alice Neel, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Records in medium were set for Henri Matisse, Aleksandr Rodchenko and Remedios Varo.
Together with three prior sales from Mr. Newhouse’s collection sold at Christie’s in 2018, 2019 and 2023, the Newhouse Collection reached a cumulative total of $1.05 billion, becoming the second highest in history after the collection of Paul Allen in 2022 — the only other collection to exceed $1 billion, also at Christie’s.
Roy Lichtenstein – Anxious Girl 1964 sold for $46,060,000
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 2, 2026)
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) – Number 7A, 1948 at Christie’s UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $181,185,000
So far in 2026 the rebound in the art market which began in the second half of last year has continued. In a world full of new uncertainties the big New York art sales this month look set to continue the trend. In a market where the premium is on rarity and quality there are some amazing offerings.
In the late 1940’s Jackson Pollock pioneered a revolutionary painting style that was utterly baffling to most people. Nowadays the art of ‘Jack the Dripper’ is unbuyable unless you happen to be one of the growing global band of billionaires – whose numbers now approach 4,000 from a figure of just 140 in 1987. The largest example of Jackson Pollock’s monumental drip paintings left in private hands, Number 7A, 1948 – from the collection of legendary Condé Nast co-owner S I Newhouse – is at Christie’s on May 18.
The first and only large scale drip painting ever to appear at auction was last seen at an exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 1977.
Constantin Brancusi (1867-1957) – Danaïde, 1913 at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $107,585,000
Another great rarity from the S I Newhouse collection is Danaïde, conceived and cast in 1913 by Constantin Brancusi. Of the six bronzes cast of this model four are held in institutional collections, the Pompidou in Paris, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Tate London and Kunst Museum, Winterthur. This sculpture is the only gilded example left in private hands.
Both works are estimated at around $100 million. The Newhouse collection, which includes masterworks by Bacon, Johns, Matisse, Miro, Mondrian, Picasso, Rauschenburg and Warhol, is poised to become only the second collection ever to surpass the $1 billion mark established in 2022 with the sale the collection of Microsoft founder Paul G Allen.
At Sotheby’s on May 14 the collection of financier Robert Mnuchin featuring Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko is expected to make around $130 million. Sotheby’s Modern evening auction on May 19 is headed by Arlequin (Buste) painted by Picasso in 1909 and estimated in the region of $40 million. There are just ten works at this sale, which offers art by Georgia O’Keeffe, Wassily Kandinsky, Degas, Monet and Matisse.
Elizabeth Peyton (b1965) – Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $1.9 MILLION
With masterworks from the last 80 years the Now and Contemporary evening auction at Sotheby’s in New York on May 14 is led by Basquiat’s Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) (1983). There is art by by Rothko, Fontana and Calder from the collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg. Earl’s Court (Liam + Noel) December 1995 and dated 1996 by Elizabeth Peyton captures Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher kissing his brother Noel on the cheek. By appropriating a photograph from two concerts at Earl’s Court in London in November 1995 at the height of their fame she contrasts their strained relationship, unprecedented success with their care and appreciation as siblings, their glories with their faults. The estimate is $1.5 million – $2 million.
Later last year it became apparent that major collectors are becoming more picky. The upcoming New York sales offer lots of rich pickings for the super rich.
Mark Rothko No. 1 (1949) at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $20.8 million
CLAUDE MONET (1840-1926) – Le Parlement, soleil couchant made $75.9 million
THE final evening sales at Christie’s in New York last night achieved $843.7 bringing the running total for the Spring 2022 Marquee Week sales to $1.26 Billion. The collection of Anne H. Bass made $363.1 million, the 20th century evening sale made $468.2 million and The Raptor sold for $12.4 million. The collection of Anne H. Bass was 100% sold, and 149% sold above the low estimate. There was a new record for Edgar Degas’s Petite danseuse de quatorze ans which soared over its high estimate of $30 million to sell for $41.6 million, breaking his record for the first time in almost 15 years. Monet’s Parlement was the top lot of the sale and made $75.9 Million.
Bonnie Brennan, President of Christie’s Americas, commented, “We were honored to sell the exquisite collection of Anne H. Bass. The twelve masterpieces, beautifully chosen, reflect the unique perspective of a female collector.”
The 20th Century evening sale sold 98% by lot and 99% by value. The Sugar Shack by Ernie Barnes set a new record at $15.2 Million, 76 times its high estimate. In Barnes’ first appearance in an evening sale, the work had competition from 22 bidders. It sold to a buyer in the room after more than ten and a half minutes of bidding. Another artist record was established by Emanuel Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware, which sold for $45 million. The work had hung in the White House for multiple presidencies. Thirteen works in the sale achieved more than $10 million. The top lot of the sale was Number 31, an iconic drip painting by Jackson Pollock which made $54.2 million.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for April 19, April 22 and May 3, 2022)
PABLO PICASSO – TETE DE FEMME (FERNANDE) SOLD FOR $48,480,000
JACKSON POLLOCK (1912-1956) – Number 31 signed and dated ‘Jackson Pollock 49’ (upper left). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $54.2 MILLION
A powerful example of Jackson Pollock’s celebrated drip paintings – Number 31, 1949 – will lead Christie’s 20th century evening sale in New York on May 12. Made of oil, enamel, aluminum paint and gesso on paper mounted on Masonite the estimate is in excess of $45 million. It has been featured in a number of important exhibitions, including the 1967 Jackson Pollock MoMA retrospective in addition to the 1998 retrospective mounted at MoMA and The Tate. Held in the same private collection for over two decades the work is fresh to market.
Alex Rotter, Christie’s Chairman of 20th and 21st Century Art, said: “In the late 1940s, Pollock’s drip paintings categorically redefined how we understand art. This moment saw the art world’s centre of gravity shift for the first time away from the museums and galleries of Paris and into the streets of New York. With his revolutionary new technique, Pollock effectively upended the existing framework of traditional painting practices. True drip paintings were—and still are—the ultimate in mid-century American avant-garde, and are rare to come across in the secondary market. Number 31 is a superb example. It is a fantastic, frenetic combination of rich hues—straight from the paint can.”
Jackson Pollock’s Red Composition will highlight Christie’s evening sale of 20th/21st century art in New York on October 6. This early seminal and painting dates to the end of 1946. It is among the first paintings in which Pollock freed paint from the interference of his brush, allowing it to take on its own form and in the process become a manifestation of true abstraction.
It is being sold by the Everson Museum in Syracuse, New York, as part of a larger museum commitment to refine and diversify its collection and establish a fund for future acquisitions of artworks by artists of colour, women artists, and other under-represented emerging and mid-career artists. The decision to sell is in keeping with guidelines established by the American Alliance of Museums and has the support of the Board of Trustees of the Museum as well as the foundation established by Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman who donated the work in 1991.
Red Composition first belonged to the legendary dealer and gallery owner Peggy Guggenheim, one of Jackson Pollock’s earliest an patrons. Guggenheim gave it to Jimmy Ernst, son of Surrealist painter Max Ernst, in 1947. Ernst Senior was married to Guggenheim between 1941 and 1946. Early in the 1950’s it was acquired by New York businessman Marshall Reisman and his wife Dorothy and in their personal collection for over forty years until it was donated in 1991 to the Everson Museum. It is estimated at $12-18 million.
Number 32, 1949 by Jackson Pollock comes up at Sotheby’s contemporary art evening auction in New York on May 16. Never before seen at auction it is estimated at $30-40 million. The production of the artist’s drip paintings of 1948-9 stands as one of the most radical events in 20th-century art, in which the boundaries of painting were pushed and a new aesthetic established. Number 32, 1949 comes from a critical year for the artist and epitomises the chaotic vibrancy, heroic drama and thrilling vigour that have come to define Pollock’s prodigious legacy.
Jackson Pollock executed his first drip painting in 1947. Over the next two years he would hone this now instantly recognisable, signature technique, producing the monumental Autumn Rhythm (collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and Number 1A, 1948 (collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York). Number32 is one of a small number of more intimate 1949 paintings in which the artist more fully explored the subtleties of the drip technique. It was featured in the second of two shows that year at Betty Parsons Gallery about which Robert M. Coates wrote in the New Yorker: “They seem to me the best painting he has yet done.”
Number 32 is one of a very limited group of 16 drip paintings Pollock created on paper mounted on masonite or canvas in 1949 and one of only eight that feature the aluminium paint that creates a lustrous shimmer around his elaborate gestural movements. Boasting a fully painted surface with intricate layers of dripped and poured oil the work has one of the most complete and richly covered surfaces of the entire series.
Christie’s Post War and Contemporary art sale in London tonight realised £137.4 million. This is the highest total for any sale of Post War and Contemporary art ever held in Europe. The top lot was Andy Warhol’s Six Self Portraits which realised £22.6 million. There were registered bidders from 36 countries across five continents and the aucton was 92% sold by lot and 96% sold by value.
(See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for March 3 and February 12, 2018)
Francis Bacon – Three Studies for a Portrait made £10 million.
Jackson Pollock – Number 21, 1950 made £9.3 million.
An exceptional Cy Twombly blackboard painting made $70.5 million at Sotheby’s contemporary art sale in New York last night. Untitled, New York City instantly became the most expensive work sold at Sotheby’s worldwide in 2015. A rare large-scale Mao by Andy Warhol made $47.5 million and works by Jackson Pollock, Lucio Fontana and Francis Bacon performed well. Combined with last week’s auctions of the Collection of A. Alfred Taubman, Sotheby’s contemporary art sales this season have so far totalled $434 million.
Pollock’s No. 17, 1949 made $22.9 million; Fontana Concetto Spaziale, Attese, 1965 made $16.1 million; a portrait by Francis Bacon made $15.6 million; an untitled Basquiat work from 198 made $8.3 million and Le Tissu Social, 1977 by Jean Dubuffet made $7.1 million.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 16, 2015)
