{"id":240951,"date":"2026-05-22T20:35:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240951\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:35:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:35:17","slug":"who-won-new-yorks-2-1-billion-auction-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240951\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Won New York\u2019s $2.1 Billion Auction Week?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u00a0version of this article originally appeared in\u00a0The Back Room,\u00a0our lively recap funneling only the week\u2019s must-know art industry intel into a nimble read you\u2019ll actually enjoy.\u00a0Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access\u2014subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to receive the newsletter in your inbox every Friday.<\/p>\n

What a week in New York City! Around $2.1 billion worth of art sold across the Big Three auction houses\u2019 evening sales (day sales are being tallied as this newsletter goes to press). That was up more than 100 percent from last May, where the same sales brought in just over $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s break down how each house fared.<\/p>\n

Phillips Makes a Comeback<\/p>\n

Everyone\u2019s favorite underdog pulled big numbers out of the hat this season, bringing in $115.2 million<\/a> across 41 lots at its modern and contemporary auction, up 121.5 from the equivalent sale last May. It was a white-glove affair, at least if you exclude two withdrawn lots.<\/p>\n

The result was good news for a house that has had a hard run of late. Last year, Phillips brought in just $390.9 million in fine-art sales, its lowest total since 2016<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Andy Warhol, Sixteen Jackies (1964) Courtesy of Phillips.<\/p>\n

A bevy of guarantees and its recently launched<\/a> priority bidding helped the house achieve its strongest New York spring sale since 2022<\/a>, when it brought in around $225 million. (It\u2019s still a long way from that figure.)<\/p>\n

The firm used to be the place for young artists to set records, but the ultra-contemporary sector has yet to warm up again and more established names dominated its evening sale. The top lot on Tuesday night<\/a> was Andy Warhol\u2019s Sixteen Jackies (1964), which sold for $16.2 million against a $15 million low estimate (sale prices include fees, estimates do not).<\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s Continues to Dominate<\/p>\n

Christie\u2019s had a first-place $1.3 billion haul, which came from 105 lots and three evening sales: the records-heavy $630.8 million<\/a> S.I. Newhouse collection and its 20th- and 21st-century<\/a> auctions. That\u2019s a stunning 115.6 percent increase from the same sales last year, which included Len Riggio\u2019s holdings.<\/p>\n

Three big auction records were set, led by Jackson Pollock\u2019s Number 7A (1948), which sold for $181.2 million, nearly triple the artist\u2019s previous high. Constantin Brancusi\u2019s bronze Dana\u00efde (1913) fetched $107.6 million, around 50 percent above the sculptor\u2019s prior auction peak. Both were from the Newhouse trove. Meanwhile, a 1964 Mark Rothko work owned by Agnes Gund, No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe), sold for $98.4 million.<\/p>\n

\"Abstract<\/p>\n

Constantin Brancusi, Dana\u00efde (ca. 1913). Courtesy of Christie\u2019s Images, Ltd. 2026.<\/p>\n

If you ignore the Newhouse works, which \u201cslightly distort the sales with the sheer star power of the lots and their resulting prices,\u201d advisor Morgan Long said, \u201cthe auctions are still quite different from where we were a year ago.\u201d She pointed to an influx of new buyers with cross-category interests. The Newhouse sale was \u201cjust the spectacle\u201d these buyers needed to get them excited about looking at amazing objects once again. It certainly got Nicole Kidman looking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s Comes in Strong<\/p>\n

Sotheby\u2019s kicked off the marquee week extravaganza way back on May 14 with a $433.1 million contemporary auction<\/a> that included its \u201cThe Now\u201d sale. It was preceded by a swift single-owner sale of holdings from the late dealer Robert Mnuchin. Including a solid $303.4 Impressionist and modern sale<\/a> on Tuesday, the house netted around $737 million across 102 lots\u2014a 97.9 percent increase in value over last May.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mark Rothko, Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957). Courtesy of Sotheby\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Top lots included one of Mnuchin\u2019s Rothko, Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957), which went for $85.8 million last Thursday, and La Chaise Lorraine (circa 1919) by Henri Matisse, which sold for $48.4 million on Tuesday after a 10-minute bidding battle.<\/p>\n

The Bottom Line<\/p>\n

Still, it seems that the market is largely narrowing upward, with trophy lots doing a lot of the heavy lifting. There were still signs of a softness in every sale, but as Long told me, \u201csellers are becoming slightly more realistic in terms of estimates and a willingness to just move on from holding works and, if necessary, take a loss.\u201d That\u2019s good news for business sentiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And at least among the Big Three this season, there were no real losers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u00a0version of this article originally appeared in\u00a0The Back Room,\u00a0our lively recap funneling only the week\u2019s must-know art industry…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[94169,8363,90560,77094,90559,20023,94166,94174,94172,94171,9,24,55,54,94165,56,94168,94170,94167,94175,94173],"class_list":["post-240951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-art-market-recovery","tag-art-news","tag-artnet-pro","tag-artnet-news","tag-artnet-news-pro","tag-auctions","tag-christies-evening-sales","tag-contemporary-art-auctions-new-york","tag-jackson-pollock-auction-record","tag-mark-rothko-auction","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-new-york-may-auctions-2026","tag-ny","tag-phillips-auction-results","tag-s-i-newhouse-collection","tag-sothebys-may-auctions","tag-the-back-room","tag-trophy-art-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}