SALES LESS THAN HALF OF THE LOW ESTIMATE AT PHILLIPS DE PURY & COMPANY

The New York Times reports that the sales at Phillips de Pury & Company on Thursday night totaled just $9.6 million, less than half of the low estimate of $23 million. It was perhaps a bad omen that before the auction of contemporary art even began, five works were withdrawn, including examples by John Currin, Richard Prince, and Anselm Kiefer. As the evening progressed, the results proved dreary, with about 40 percent of the art unsold and those works that did sell going for a fraction of their estimates.

For sale was a disparate array of fifty-one works. The quality of the offerings was on a par with that of Sotheby’s or Christie’s lower-priced day sales. Anything estimated at more than one million dollars was either withdrawn or went unsold, with the exception of Donald Judd’s Untitled (77/23-Bernstein)_, 1977. Fashioned from stainless steel and blue Plexiglas, the work was the cover image of the sale’s catalog. Simon de Pury, chairman of Phillips and the evening’s auctioneer, looked relieved when a lone telephone bidder wanted the sculpture, which he sold for $2.8 million, or $3.2 million with fees, well below its estimate of $4 million to $6 million. “It’s been a phenomenally tough season,” said Michael McGinnis, director of contemporary art worldwide for Phillips, after the sale, explaining that the company had cobbled the auction together during the summer, before the economic picture grew ugly. He said that the house’s experts had been trying for days to persuade sellers to lower their expectations. “Obviously, we’ve seen a modification in the art market,” he added.