$35 million Warhol Coke bottle lifts Sotheby`s auction
Baku, November 10 (AZERTAC). A black-and-white Coke bottle on canvas by Andy Warhol sold for $35.36 million on Tuesday at Sotheby`s robust contemporary and post-war art auction, Reuters reports.
The sale of 54 works, an impressive 91 percent of which found buyers, totaled $222.4 million including commissions, beating the high pre-sale estimate of $214 million.
Five artists set auction records as collectors continued vying for works in the post-war art sector, an increasingly sought after sector of the art world.
"In this new market, it was a huge success," said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby`s worldwide head of contemporary art, who also served as auctioneer.
It was the fourth successful sale in two weeks for Sotheby`s, Christie`s and Phillips de Pury & Co.
After a precipitous decline following the 2008 financial crisis, the art market has made a solid recovery in 2010, driven in part by a huge infusion of new collectors abroad with fortunes newly forged in oil, gas and gold.
Led by Warhol`s "Coca-Cola (4) (Large Coca-Cola)," which far surpassed the high estimate of $25 million, the sale was more evidence of the growing appetite for post-war works.
The market for such works, along with contemporary art, has in recent years challenged and sometimes eclipsed the demand for earlier Impressionist and "modern" auction categories.
"What`s happening is that people have been moving into this market from the Impressionist market. ... It`s become one market," said Meyer.
Prices commanded by top Warhols had put the pop artist in the same league as Matisse and Picasso, he added.
On Monday, Warhol`s "The Men in Her Life," a multi-image depiction of favored subject Elizabeth Taylor, soared to $63.4 million at Phillips.
"It`s a global, 20th-century iconic market," Meyer said.
Other highlights included a pair of works by Gerhard Richter that fetched $13.23 million and $11.3 million, and Francis Bacon`s "Figure in Movement," which sold for $14 million. Each more than doubled the low estimate.
In all, six works sold for more than $10 million, including an untitled Rothko which went for $22.5 million.
The auctions conclude on Wednesday with Christie`s contemporary and post-war sale, which is expected to be the season`s biggest.
Other news in this section
