Article translated by Amritee Mahabir

On 14th May 2008 the auction house Sotheby’s in New York will begin the session dedicated to the “Contemporary Art Evening Auction”. The auction will showcase 85 lots which will feature great, and famous international contemporary art stars like Banksy, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and many others.
It will be an interesting auction encouraging us to consider the continued rise of the contemporary art market. It is a market that has not yet stopped even if the future and length of this phenomenon is still unpredictable and difficult to analyse in its continuous evolution, subject as it is to the constant and uncertain fluctuation of supply and demand, but also to actual trends. After undergoing a boom period, many experts in the sector fear a huge crisis. Certainly, the situation that has transpired in the contemporary art market has escaped fears of a sudden halt of shares after the stock market crashed following the loan crisis in the US, a phenomenon that didn’t really seem to have any particular consequence in the volume of the buying and selling of art. The contemporary art boom seems to be really solid and as many thought, the Sotheby’s auction on 14th May will prove to be very satisfactory.
As our magazine had already announced, all of the art economy experts have been anticipating this New York sale for months, particularly to see the sale of “Triptych, 1976” whose base price begins from 70 million dollars. Presumably it will smash the current record held by Francis Bacon always at Sotheby’s, when 52.7 million dollars was paid in 2007 for “Study for Innocent X”, 1962. According to Tobias Meyer, the head of the contemporary art department at Sotheby’s, the triptych in question is the most important Irish artwork still in private hands.
Besides this Bacon painting, the New York auction will showcase “Orange, Red, Yellow” (estimate on demand) by Mark Rothko, the most quoted contemporary artist of our times, especially after the exploit of the very beautiful painting “White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose” that went under the hammer for 72.8 million dollars in May 2007 at Sotheby’s New York.
Among the other art pieces to be showcased, we will mention a very beautiful work by Andy Warhol entitled “Detail of the Last Supper (Christ 112 Times) Yellow” that starts out from an initial estimate of 10-15 million dollars and will be presented together with another 7 works by the American artist, of which are “Self-Portrait” (estimated at 2-3 million dollars) and “Joseph Beuys” (estimated at 5,500,000 – 6,500,000 dollars). Warhol’s works are some of the most expensive in the world, even though his art could be defined as commercial, all of his paintings are anything other than unique, with about 100,000 in circulation, and almost all reproductions executed by his Factory assistants.
The New York auction’s selection comprises an important presence of American pop art. Of them, “Over Drive” by Robert Rauschenberg (estimated at 10-15 million dollars), “Sail Boats” by Roy Lichtestein (estimated at 6-8 million dollars) and “Great American Nude No. 50” by Tom Wesselmann (estimated at 6-8 million dollars) stand out.
Of great historical and artistic interest are artworks like “MG9” (estimated at 6-8 million dollars) and “IKBI” (estimated at 5-7 million dollars) by Yves Klein, but also “Achrome” by Piero Manzoni (estimated at 4,500,000 – 6,500,000 dollars). And no less valuable are “Valparaiso Green” by Frank Stella, which starts out from a base price of 3-4 million dollars, “Untitled” by Donald Judd, valued at 5-7 million dollars, but also “Untitled (Prophet I)” by Jean-Michel Basquiat estimated for between 9-12 million dollars.
Regarding the selection of contemporary artworks, it is worth mentioning “Caterpillar Chains” (estimated at 5,500,000 – 6,000,000 dollars) and “Naked Porcelain” (estimated at 1,500,000 – 2,000,000 dollars) by Jeff Koons, “Millionaire Nurse” by Richard Prince (estimated at 3,500,000 – 4,500,000 dollars), while “Abstraktel Bild” by Gerhard Richter starts off at an initial estimate of 5-7 million dollars.