Art auction market report: April 2014
In April 2014, ArtSell recorded 3,170 auction lots from 18 auction houses, of which 1,951 sold (62% sell-through). The 1,951 sales with a published price total $30,323,922, with a median of $4,375 (USD at the sale-date rate). The top sale was Hiroshi Sugimoto, “The Music Lesson”, at $629,000 (Phillips). 15 artists set a new high compared with every earlier result in the database.
Top sales
Top American artists
Ranked by total of priced sales in the month; region from the artist’s recorded nationality.
| # | Artist | Total sold | Priced sales | Top result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andy Warhol American | $1,057,823 | 14 | Camouflage — $353,000 |
| 2 | Irving Penn American | $524,500 | 9 | Vogue Fashion Photograph (Café in Lima) , Peru (Jean Patchett) — $137,000 |
| 3 | Granville Redmond American | $401,500 | 4 | Annandale wildflowers — $269,000 |
| 4 | Roy Lichtenstein American | $373,500 | 10 | Weisman Award (Yellow Brushstroke) — $161,000 |
| 5 | E. Charlton Fortune American | $365,000 | 1 | Hall of Flowers, Panama-Pacific International Exposition — $365,000 |
| 6 | William Eggleston American | $325,375 | 12 | Sumner, Mississippi — $100,000 |
| 7 | Edgar Alwin Payne American | $316,250 | 9 | Lake Lucerne, Switzerland — $112,500 |
| 8 | Richard Diebenkorn American | $308,000 | 2 | 41 Etchings Drypoints — $233,000 |
| 9 | Vik Muniz American | $249,474 | 6 | Jackie (from Pictures of Chocolate) — $79,382 |
| 10 | Richard Avedon American | $217,500 | 2 | Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California, June 14 — $155,000 |
Top European artists
| # | Artist | Total sold | Priced sales | Top result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diego Giacometti Swiss | $860,138 | 3 | Pair of side chairs — $306,892 |
| 2 | Alexandre Noll French | $448,146 | 1 | Important and large sculpture — $448,146 |
| 3 | Gio Ponti Italian | $293,229 | 10 | Pair of armchairs, designed for the First Class Ballroom of the ‘Augustus’ transatlantic ocean liner — $79,876 |
| 4 | Pablo Picasso Spanish | $233,733 | 12 | Françoise — $80,000 |
| 5 | Max Ingrand French | $218,608 | 7 | Mirror — $88,284 |
| 6 | Elger Esser German | $208,441 | 4 | Cap d'Antifer, Frankreich — $118,750 |
| 7 | Constantin Brancusi Romanian | $168,750 | 2 | Endless Column in Steichen’s Garden at Voulangis — $100,000 |
| 8 | Thomas Demand German | $137,000 | 1 | Büro/ Office — $137,000 |
| 9 | Le Corbusier Swiss | $136,547 | 2 | Pinton Freres Aubusson (Manufacturer) Traces de Pas Dans la Nuit 1948 - 1957 — $126,037 |
| 10 | Charlotte Perriand French | $135,159 | 4 | Sideboard, from Cité Cansado, Cansado, Mauritania — $63,060 |
New artist records
The artist’s best price this month exceeded every earlier priced result for them in the ArtSell database (artists with at least three earlier priced results).
Auction houses this month
Phillips (1,049)Pananti (385)Strauss & Co (292)Sloans & Kenyon (263)Bonhams (259)Morgan O'Driscoll (126)Jackson's International Auctioneers (124)Twents Veilinghuis (109)Smith & Singer (98)Clarke Auction Gallery (98)Art+Object (94)deVeres (78)Agra-Art (68)Toovey's (49)SOGA (47)HAUS Galerii (21)Artmark (5)Sopocki Dom Aukcyjny (5)