Art Auction Records Smashed: White Center, Green Car, Lemon Marilyn

May 17, 2007 at 7:38 AM

$71 million Warhol leads Christie's record art sale

By Christopher Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Post-war art broke the $70 million mark for a second straight night on Wednesday as Christie's sold a record-smashing $385 million worth of contemporary art, the second-highest total for any auction in history.

This time it was Andy Warhol's "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I)" from the pop artist's Death and Disaster series, which soared to $71.72 million.

The 1963 painting, Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), depicts an overturned car on fire.

It easily beat the previous auction record for work by the pop art pioneer, set last November when a painting of Chairman Mao sold for $17.4m (£8.8m).

The sale, at Christie's, was part of the second most-lucrative art auction ever, earning a total of $385m (£195m).

Final figures beat Christie's most optimistic expectations by some $80m, while only four of 78 works on offer failed to sell.

Records were broken by more than half of the 50 artists represented, including British artist Damien Hirst, Jasper Johns, Gerhard Richter and Donald Judd.

Another Warhol painting, Lemon Marilyn, brought in $28m (£14m).

That was just shy of the $72.84 million fetched by a Mark Rothko at Sotheby's on Tuesday night, which shattered the record for post-war art at auction…

$73 mln Rothko sets postwar art record at Sotheby's

M. Rothko - White Center (YPLonRose)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Records were shattered on Tuesday at Sotheby's $255 million auction of contemporary and postwar art, the biggest in history, which was led by a $73 million Rothko and a $53 million Bacon.

Both works obliterated the old mark for any postwar work at auction of $27.1 million set last November and far exceeded their pre-sale estimates, ushering in a new world of higher prices for contemporary art.

"We're obviously thrilled with the results," said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's worldwide head of contemporary art who also served as auctioneer.

The record results "showed how aggressive and strong the contemporary art market is," Meyer said, adding that like last week's Impressionist and modern art sales, the auction was marked by "lots of international bidding."

Records were set for 15 artists in all, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose untitled work from 1981 fetched $14.6 million including commission, about twice its estimate and nearly three times the artist's old record. The work was being sold by the Israel Museum.

The sale, with 88 percent of its 74 offerings finding buyers, took in $254,874,000, or just under its high pre-sale estimate.

Roughly half of that came from the top two lots: Rothko's 1950 Abstract Expressionist "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)," and Bacon's "Study from Pope Innocent X," which sold for $72.84 million and $52.68 million respectively…

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