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Saturday, 14 May 2011 02:06

In Contemporary Art Sales, Big Is Better and Famous Is Best

Urs Fischer’s monumental bronze bear  went for $6.8 million. Urs Fischer’s monumental bronze bear went for $6.8 million. Christie’s

There comes a moment in any market when prices rise so high that professionals wonder how much longer the fluke can last. There is a limit to everything, and at times this week, as the Contemporary art sales continued, that limit did not seem to be very far away.

When Sotheby’s held its Monday evening session that dealt with the collection built up by the legendary dealer Allan Stone, the room was carried away. Sotheby’s expected the 42 works of art to bring $46.8 million in the best of cases. The score was $54.8 million. Only three insignificant pieces went unsold.

In the first part of the session, works from the New York school of the 1950s to the 1970s stirred up sentimental emotions in the older generation of Contemporary art fans.

They pounced on the first lot, an “Untitled” essay in Abstract Expressionism signed by Franz Kline in 1957. The tiny piece in oil and collage on paper, only 27.9 by 21.3 centimeters, or 11 by 8 3/8 inches, shot to $446,500, more than triple the upper estimate.

Another small work of art followed, John Chamberlain’s 1961 jumble of crushed steel and torn fabric supported by a thick backing board 30.5 centimeters long. Also untitled, the work looked like a preparatory study and was treated like a master’s relic with bids rising to $662,500.

Until this week, Contemporary art had to be big and colorful to hit the roof. Not any more.

The Chamberlain study paved the way for the real thing, a big jumble of crushed steel with the paint flaking off as if Chamberlain had picked up the material on a scrap heap.

Titled “Nutcracker,” the jumble had been “executed in 1958,” the experts wrote before reeling off the list of shows that had taken it to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and elsewhere. Clearly Chamberlain’s mess of old steel was art. The “Nutcracker” more than doubled the highest expectations and became the most expensive Chamberlain ever at $4.78 million.

The second part of the Allan Stone sale focused on Wayne Thiebaud. It was described in the second volume of the catalog, which played up the “collection” theme, thus giving the paintings an additional aura of respectability. Thiebaud’s works, rarely seen at auction, sold like hot cakes.

No clear connection between style or period and the prices achieved could be detected. The evocation of the simple joys of everyday life was what mattered. “Four Pinball Machines” was a small study of 1962, only 28.3 centimeters high. It ended up at $3.44 million, more than three times the high estimate.

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