ALLAN STONE COLLECTION DRAWS STRONG BIDS AT AUCTION, SETS SOME PRICE RECORDS

The quirky eye of the legendary Manhattan dealer Allan Stone drew a loyal following of collectors and dealers last night to Christie’s, where a selection of the art and objects he collected so obsessively opened this season’s auctions of postwar and contemporary art, writes Carol Vogel in the New York Times. The strong prices achieved last night for everything from a striped wooden barber pole ($16,250) to an early abstract painting by Willem de Kooning ($5.3 million) was a confidence builder. Works by both Wayne Thiebaud and John Chamberlain made record prices last night, as did other artists Stone supported, like John Graham and Alfred Leslie. Of the seventy-one lots offered by his family, all but seven sold. The auction totaled $52.4 million, including the buyer’s premiums, coming in under its $59.7 million high estimate. Lesser-known artists also set records. Five bidders went for Nix on Nixon, 1960, by Alfred Leslie, a surviving member of the New York School. The abstract painting was estimated to bring $200,000 to $300,000. It sold to a telephone bidder for $385,000, a record price for the artist at auction.