Of the $1.6 billion of artwork anticipated to alter fingers throughout this yr’s November gross sales, $1.1 billion was secured by Sotheby’s when the night gross sales concluded on the twentieth. When tallied with the Day gross sales the next afternoon, the public sale home’s fall marquee week gross sales had generated a complete of $1.173 billion—the second-highest complete ever after the $1.33 billion achieved in November 2021 on the peak of the modern and ultracontemporary markets.
Following the success of the Leonard A. Lauder sale, which delivered a $527.5 million Night complete and a clear 100% offered price for the $3.8 million Day sale providing (est. $3.2 million), Sotheby’s accomplished a full white-glove, three-sale marathon. It opened with The Cindy and Jay Pritzker Assortment Night Public sale, which totaled $109.5 million, adopted by the $98.1 million Beautiful Corpus sale and a $97 million Trendy Night public sale. Driving lots of the heaps was robust participation from Asia, which accounted for 30 % of complete bidding, a reminder that Asian collectors reply enthusiastically when true high quality involves market.
Most significantly, if 2021 belonged to the modern and ultracontemporary frenzy, these marquee gross sales confirmed a transparent pivot. Patrons turned towards art-historical touchstones by probably the most established names in Trendy artwork or towards figures lengthy neglected and now present process reassessment. Throughout the November gross sales, Sotheby’s offered $843 million of Trendy works, the very best complete ever for the class in a single season. Prestigious provenance and robust storytelling had been key on this inaugural public sale spherical on the Breuer constructing for Sotheby’s, with single-owner collections accounting for 72.5 % of the week’s complete ($828,244,220 of $1.173 billion). And within the modern phase, it was the artists with the strongest institutional foundations who rose to the highest.
“After years of uneven seasons, this week’s outcomes reveal that the customarily quoted cliche of the three D’s (demise, debt and divorce) powering the artwork market has by no means been more true,” Mari-Claudia Jimenéz, associate and co-head of Withers Artwork & Advisory, confirmed. For the trade’s seasoned knowledgeable, the abundance of fresh-to-market, extraordinary-quality property properties impressed consumers to return with gusto to chase the best-in-class works with impeccable histories.
Sotheby’s night marathon on November 20 started with the gathering of Chicago’s Cindy and Jay Pritzker, who’re finest identified for founding the Pritzker Structure Prize in 1979. The sale instantly set the tone of the evening, producing $109.5 million throughout simply 13 works towards a pre-sale estimate of $73.5 million to $88.5 million.
Main the public sale was Vincent van Gogh’s Romans Parisiens (Les Livres jaunes) (1887), a radiant nonetheless life from the artist’s Paris interval by which a stack of yellow-bound books turns into a portrait of his voracious mind and humanist curiosity. Boasting an in depth exhibition historical past, the canvas was pursued for no less than seven minutes by 5 bidders and offered for a record-setting $62.7 million, effectively above its estimate of round $40 million and setting a brand new benchmark for any nonetheless life by the artist.
Deep bidding additionally accompanied the sale of Wassily Kandinsky’s musical watercolor “Ins violett” (Into Violet) from the peak of his Bauhaus interval, listed as No. 188 in his handlist. Sought by 5 bidders in a spirited trade, it greater than doubled its excessive estimate, fetching $2,368,000 (est. $700,000-$1,000,000).
Different Trendy masterworks within the Pritzker assortment prompted intense competitors. Camille Pissarro’s Bords de l’Oise à Pontoise, courting to the start of the artist’s second sojourn in Pontoise in 1872, was pursued by 4 bidders and achieved $2.5 million towards its $1.2-1.8 million estimate. Félix Vallotton’s poetic home scene, Femme couchée dormant (Le Sommeil), triggered an animated battle between six collectors on the telephones and within the room, pushing it above its $1.8-2.5 million estimate to promote for $2.8 million. The canvas had been acquired by the Pritzkers from Wildenstein & Co., New York, in 1985 and remained with them ever since, as did most heaps within the sale.
Lot 10, the Cubist Nature morte by Fernand Léger, additionally sparked back-and-forth bidding from 5 contenders, driving the work to $2,214,000, practically double its $800,000-$1.2 million estimate. This was adopted by a $9,200,000 outcome for Max Beckmann’s classics-inspired canvas, sought by 5 bidders, and Joan Miró’s uncanny sculptural reinterpretation La Mère Ubu, which achieved $5,052,000 after a battle between 4 bidders, touchdown close to the midpoint of its $4-6 million estimate. The bronze had been acquired by the couple in 1980 from legendary vendor Pierre Matisse in New York.
One other spotlight, Henri Matisse’s Léda et le cygne, offered for $10.4 million, assembly its excessive estimate with charges. One of many only a few architectural items by the artist—nearly all of that are in public areas or museums—and the primary of its form to look at public sale, the distinctive work was commissioned in 1943 by Argentine diplomat Marcelo Fernández. Final exhibited publicly throughout the 1984-85 Matisse exhibition on the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Louisiana Museum of Trendy Artwork in Humlebæk, it was acquired the next yr by the Pritzkers from Feingarten Galleries in Los Angeles. However Paul Gauguin’s La Maison du Pen du, gardeuse de vache from his Nabis interval failed to seek out sufficient bidders to fulfill its $6-8 million estimate, promoting as a substitute at its reserve for $4,930,000.
Frida Kahlo’s $54.7 million report
The night continued with a bit totally devoted to Surrealism, because the motion continues to achieve momentum, additional ignited by the most important Surrealist present that has simply opened on the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork, and as its unsettling aesthetic resonates uncannily with the chaos, sentiments and want to exorcise it that outline our time. In just one evening, Sotheby’s positioned greater than $123 million of Surrealist works, the very best complete for Surrealist artwork ever offered in a single night at Sotheby’s.
The devoted single-owner sale Beautiful Corpus supplied works from one of the vital distinguished personal Surrealist collections, collected over 4 a long time, but saved rigorously unnamed consistent with the motion’s aura of thriller. Nonetheless, provided that lots of the heaps appeared within the Guggenheim’s 1999 exhibition “Surrealism: Two Personal Eyes,” which celebrated the collections of Daniel Filipacchi and report producer Nesuhi Ertegun—who collectively assembled an important grouping of Surrealist artwork in personal fingers—we will moderately speculate that the consignor is most probably the Ertegun property, particularly as soon as noticing that a number of works checklist of their provenance that they had been acquired from the Parisian vendor Daniel Filipacchi, ruling him out because the consignor. Artnews reached the identical conclusion, reporting that the 1940 Kahlo was consigned by the property of Selma Ertegun, who constructed the gathering along with her late husband Nesuhi Ertegun. The session closed with a white-glove results of $98.1 million, with 67 % of works promoting above their excessive estimates.
The undisputed star of the gathering was Frida Kahlo’s masterpiece of thriller and spirituality, El sueño (La cama), which ignited spirited worldwide bidding earlier than hammering at $47 million, or $54.7 million with charges, to Anna Di Stasi, Sotheby’s senior vice chairman and head of the Latin American artwork division. The outcome not solely set a brand new report for the artist but additionally for any lady artist at public sale, surpassing the earlier $44.4 million benchmark set by Georgia O’Keeffe in 2014. The magical canvas had been bought by the consignor at Sotheby’s in 1980 for $51,000 and remained within the assortment since then, marking a return of roughly 107,000 %.
Depicting a skeleton floating above the artist as she lies in her mattress—herself suspended midair as a fragile terrestrial vessel—Kahlo visualizes what artwork historian Whitney Chadwick describes because the “Mexican perception within the indivisible unity of life and demise.” Thought of a key work in Kahlo’s profession, the place she reached the peak of her symbolic and psychological resonance, the canvas boasts a significant exhibition historical past, having appeared in “Frida Kahlo and Tina Modotti” (1982-83) on the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Haus am Waldsee in Hamburg, Kunstverein Hannover, Kulturhuset Stockholm, New York College’s Gray Artwork Gallery and the Museo Nacional de Arte in Mexico Metropolis. It additionally featured prominently within the Guggenheim’s 1999 present “Surrealism: Two Personal Eyes,” and within the Tate’s landmark Kahlo survey in 2005, which later traveled to the Walker Artwork Heart and the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork in 2007-08.
We are going to see this masterpiece once more quickly in a slate of upcoming exhibitions, together with “Frida y Diego: The Final Dream” at MoMA in New York (March 22-September 7, 2026), “Frida: The Making of an Icon” at Tate Trendy in London (June 25, 2026-January 3, 2027), “Frida Kahlo—The Painter” at Fondation Beyeler in Basel (January 31-Could 17, 2027), and “The Autonomous Gaze” on the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Kunstmuseum Basel, the Espoo Museum of Trendy Artwork and BOZAR Brussels (December 2026–July 2028).
One other standout of the night, Salvador Dalí’s jewel-like Symbiose de la tête aux coquillages, captivated a number of bidders with its hallucinatory energy, reaching $4,198,000 (est. $2-3 million) on the cellphone with an Asian bidder. With a distinguished exhibition historical past—from the Hayward Gallery’s Dada and Surrealism Reviewed (1978), to Centre Pompidou’s “Salvador Dalí: rétrospective, 1920-1980 (1979-80),” to the Guggenheim’s “Surrealism: Two Personal Eyes (1999)”—the work was acquired from Daniel Filipacchi in Paris in 1977 and remained with the consignor ever since, which means they had been additionally liable for these museum loans.
The marketplace for Paul Delvaux additionally stays robust, together with his haunting Composition reaching the excessive finish of its estimate and promoting for $3.8 million (est. $2.5-3.5 million).
Feminine Surrealists stay a vibrant spot. First exhibited in 1953 as a part of her solo present at Alexander Iolas in 1958 and previously within the assortment of William N Copley, Dorothea Tanning’s otherworldly Inside with Sudden Pleasure offered for $3.2 million (est. $2-3 million), setting a brand new report for the artist. Her earlier report, Endgame (1944), achieved $2.3 million at Christie’s final Could.
Extremely coveted amongst collectors are the extraordinarily uncommon work on masonite by Remedios Varo. Created shortly after Varo fled war-torn Europe, marking a pivotal shift within the artist’s storied observe, her Sans titre from 1943 approached the million mark after charges, touchdown at $952,500 (est. $500,000-700,000). Her present report, Revelación, was set final Could at Christie’s at $6.22 million, surpassing her earlier $6.19 million report for Armonía (Autorretrato Sugerente) in 2020. Reflecting the rising curatorial effort to decentralize Surrealism past Paris, the latest main survey celebrating the motion’s centenary dedicates its remaining room to a compelling dialogue between Varo and Leonora Carrington.
One other hanging leap got here for the French artist, illustrator and long-underrecognized Surrealist insider Valentine Hugo, whose Le Crapaud de Maldoror climbed to $825,555 after seven bidders pushed it far past its $150,000-200,000 estimate. And for many who benefit from the footnotes of Surrealist intrigue, the piece dates from the interval when Hugo was additionally romantically entangled with André Breton.
New consideration to Surrealist influences in Latin American modernism additionally propelled Óscar Domínguez’s La Machine à écrire, which greater than doubled its excessive estimate and offered for $3.7 million (est. $1-1.5 million). Extra broadly, as establishments work to broaden the canon, neglected figures outdoors Surrealism’s Parisian core are gaining the long-overdue recognition they deserve.
Certainly one of them is Austrian-Mexican artist Wolfgang Paalen, a member of Abstraction-Création from 1934 to 1935, who joined the Surrealist motion after relocating to Mexico in 1935 and remained a major determine till 1942. His revelatory, surreal panorama, Fata Alaska, set a brand new public sale report for the artist at $1,016,000 (est. $350,000-450,000).
One other double report arrived courtesy of Hans Bellmer, who broke his public sale report twice in a single evening. First, his uncanny gouache Principal et Bras achieved $508,000 (est. $100,000-200,000). Then, a uncommon and intensely erotic oil on canvas—a medium he not often used, being much better identified for his pictures of dolls—practically reached the million-dollar mark, fetching a record-setting $942,000 (est. $300,000-400,000). “The starting-point of want, with respect to the depth of its pictures, just isn’t in a perceptible complete however within the element,” Bellmer wrote in his anatomy of picture. “The important level to retain from the monstrous dictionary of analogies/antagonisms which represent the dictionary of the picture is {that a} given element, comparable to a leg, is perceptible, accessible to reminiscence and obtainable, briefly, is actual.” It’s a reflection that completely encapsulates the stress between fascination and horror, erotism and violence that animates all his seductive but unsettling work.
A $97 million Trendy Night
The night concluded with the core providing of the Trendy Night public sale, which throughout its 29 heaps generated $97 million, surpassing the pre-sale estimate of $71.1-101.9 million. One of many night’s most anticipated heaps, René Magritte’s Le Jockey Perdu, led the sale, reaching $12.3 million after charges. The beautiful gouache encapsulates Magritte’s signature play with visible paradoxes, sustaining the sense of spatial disorientation and uncanniness—alongside the sly playfulness—that runs via his total oeuvre. First conceived as a papier collé in 1926, the motif was shortly adopted by an oil of the identical title, which headlined the artist’s first one-man exhibition in 1927 at Galerie Le Centaure in Brussels. Evidently fascinated by the theme, Magritte returned to the picture of the misplaced jockey in a number of gouaches and oils all through his profession. The work got here from the gathering of the late actual property magnate Matthew Bucksbaum and his spouse Carolyn, whose group of works within the sale introduced a mixed complete of $25.2 million.
Regardless of the practically three-hour marathon, the Trendy session opened energetically with Joan Miró’s oil-on-burlap panel, Personnages et oiseau devant le soleil, additionally from the Bucksbaum Assortment. It prompted a dynamic bidding battle between seven contenders, quickly pushing it far past its $400,000-600,000 estimate to land at $2,368,000. The couple had acquired the work in 1998, when it final appeared at Sotheby’s, consigned by Perls Galleries.
Different high outcomes of the night included Georgia O’Keeffe’s Massive Darkish Pink Leaves on White, which landed at $7.9 million, simply shy of its excessive estimate. Jean Dubuffet’s Restaurant Rougeit II sat comfortably inside its vary, promoting for $7.5 million. Degas’s pastel of three ballerinas, Trois danseuses, was chased by 5 bidders and fetched $5.8 million.
A Trendy sale can be incomplete with out Monet. Certainly one of his famed Impressionistic views, capturing the shifting gentle round Rouen Cathedral, greater than doubled its low estimate, promoting for $7.4 million after a prolonged bidding battle amongst six bidders in numerous geographies. The portray was virtually recent to public sale, having remained within the Schlumberger assortment for over 60 years, and appeared at public sale for the primary time final evening.
One other artist who impressed robust curiosity was Childe Hassam, one of many main American Impressionists and a central determine in what turned referred to as the “Ten,” the group that broke from the Society of American Artists to champion a extra progressive, trendy method on the flip of the twentieth century. His Newport, October Sunset from 1901 was fiercely pursued by 4 bidders, reaching $2,002,000 above a $1.8 million excessive estimate. The portray got here from the Sam and Marilyn Fox Assortment, two distinguished patrons and civic leaders from the St. Louis area, whose group generated a complete of $2.7 million, exceeding its excessive estimate of $2.4 million.
As MoMA lastly pays overdue tribute to the work of Cuban artist Wifredo Lam with a present that opened earlier this month, his Ídolo (Oyá/Divinité de l’air et de la mort) drew robust consideration within the room, promoting for $7.4 million and marking the second-highest public sale value ever achieved for the artist. The renewed institutional highlight clearly bolstered market confidence, positioning the canvas as one other spotlight of the night and Lam as a reputation we are going to seemingly see rise additional at public sale within the coming seasons.
Whereas the Trendy part closed with white gloves, a number of heaps nonetheless fell beneath their low estimates. Arthur Garfield Dove’s Rose and Locust Stump, backed by a assure and irrevocable bids, offered for $681,000, practically half its low estimate, regardless of its intensive exhibition historical past. Andrew Wyeth’s darkish panorama, East Waldoboro, additionally offered beneath expectations at $3,588,000 (est. $4-6 million). Jacques Lipchitz’s sculpture Baigneuse assise went for half its low estimate at $381,000, regardless of its prestigious provenance from the Geri Brawerman Assortment, which generated a complete of $16.7 million throughout the evening.
Sotheby’s continued with its day gross sales on November 21, which delivered an extra aggregated complete above $51 million, between the $46,404,999 of the Trendy Day Sale and the $4,912,868 for the Beautiful Corpus Day session. Sotheby’s Up to date day sale, held just a few days earlier, generated $111.4 million, the very best complete ever for a Day sale at Sotheby’s. The white-glove providing for the Lauder day session introduced the overall for the Lauder assortment to $531.3 million.
Finally, Sotheby’s was the clear winner this spherical, producing a stable and unequivocally profitable $1.173 billion with its Night and Day gross sales. In the meantime, Christie’s fall marquee gross sales totaled $965 million, whereas Phillips introduced in $92,139,589 throughout its numerous classes. In complete, throughout all three public sale homes, the November marquee gross sales have generated greater than $2.2 billion, a quantity that means the market has rediscovered a few of its power. Miami, nonetheless, would be the actual litmus check of the season, as a result of what we noticed in motion and at public sale this week was solely the very high of the market.
