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Auction Analysis: New York Post-War & Contemporary Evening Auctions – November 2017

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NEW YORK POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY EVENING AUCTIONS – NOVEMBER 2017

The post-war and contemporary art evening sales in New York this week raised a total of $633,500,000 (excluding buyer’s premium), against a total pre-sale estimate of $631,940,000 to $830,260,000. The sales total between Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips was up 10.4% from November 2016 but 16.4% below the May results earlier this year. For this report a total of 9 lots were taken out of the calculations and analysis, as these works traditionally belong to other art sectors. This includes Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, which achieved the record-breaking hammer price of $400 million.

Christie’s kicked off the post-war and contemporary evening sales in New York with a 57 lot strong Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction on the 15th of November, which achieved $292.4 million. This was just short of the pre-sale estimate range of $304.6 million to $381.3 million and 22.1% above their sales total in November 2016.

On the following evening (November 16) Phillips was first out with their 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, which achieved a total of $80.4 million. The sale result was just short of the pre-sale estimate range of $80.9 million to $111.1 million and was down 12.6% from their November sale in 2016. Sotheby’s followed later the same evening with their Contemporary Art Evening Sale. The auction achieved a hammer total of $260.7 million, putting it in the lower end, but still comfortably within the pre-sale estimate range of $246.5 million to $338 million. Sotheby’s result was up 9.8% from November 2016.


REPORT CONTENT:
COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE (SOTHEBY’S, CHRISTIE’S AND PHILLIPS).
TOTAL SALES VS ESTIMATE (2008 – 2017).
AVERAGE PRICES 2008 – 2017.
HAMMER VS ESTIMATE RATIOS 2008 – 2017.
AUCTION GUARANTEE ANALYSIS.
AUCTION FLOW ANALYSIS (VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE AUCTION RHYTHM)
TOP AUCTION PRICES.

Post-War and Contemporary Evening sales in New York up 10% from 12 months ago.