Linda and Harry Macklowe's art collection put up for auction due to their divorce brought in around $ 700 million gross in New York.
Sotheby's announced on Tuesday that it was the auction with the highest total value in the history of the auction house. The most expensive piece was the painting “No. 7 ”by the American artist Mark Rothko (1903-1970), which was sold for around $ 82.5 million with a premium. The sculpture “Le Nez” by the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) brought in around 78.4 million dollars. Around 35 other works were auctioned for double-digit million amounts, so that a total of over 676 million dollars were achieved.
Linda and Harry Macklowe were married for nearly sixty years. The New York real estate mogul and the art expert argued long and bitterly in court about the details of their divorce. A judge eventually ordered that the couple's art collection - dozens of modern and contemporary masterpieces acquired over decades - must be largely sold in order to determine the value of the collection. The first part of the collection was now the final highlight of the traditional New York autumn auctions, the second part is to be auctioned at Sotheby's next year.
Further records fell for works by Enrico Donati, Frida Kahlo, Pierre Soulages and a ceramic by Pablo Picasso in the evening auction with Moderne at Sotheby's. In total, it returned $ 283 million, beating the overall upper estimate of $ 282.9 million.
The coup that guaranteed the greatest attention landed an Argentine real estate entrepreneur: For $ 34.9 million with a premium, Eduardo Francisco Constantini secured the coveted self-portrait by Frida Kahlo "Diego y yo" from 1949, which she and hers Husband Diego Rivera shows painfully united. A higher price has never been paid for a work by the Mexican artist at auction: her record so far was 8 million dollars. In 1990, “Diego y yo” had sold at Sotheby's for 1.4 million dollars. Claude Monet's oil painting “Coin du Bassin aux myphéas”, which came on the market after almost 25 in a private collection, achieved 50.8 million.
In total, Sotheby's has already raised 959 million dollars in the auction week, which is followed by five auctions.
Meanwhile, competitor Christie's announced that it had auctioned art worth more than one billion dollars in the fall auctions.