A Record-Shattering Night as Christie’s surpasses $1 Billion
Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art sales week in New York marks a season of remarkable collections, including S.I. Newhouse, Agnes Gund, Henry S. McNeil, Jr., Marian Goodman and Lorinda Payson De Roulet, as well as Marilyn Arison and Joanna Carson, amongst others.
The week kicked off on 18 May with Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse followed by the 20th Century Evening Sale. Together the sales showcased a century of sweeping change and radical reinvention in the art world. Cumulatively, the evening’s sales totalled $1,121,126,500, selling 97% by lot and 99% by value.
The evening set eight new records, including artist records at auction for Constantin Brancusi, Joan Miró, Alice Neel, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Records in medium were set for Henri Matisse, Aleksandr Rodchenko and Remedios Varo.
Monday night’s auctions attracted bidders from around the world, garnering action in the room, on the phone and online. The palpable excitement in the saleroom followed a 10-day exhibition that broke the attendance record for any one sale exhibition preview at Christie’s Rockefeller Center in New York with nearly 20,000 visitors.
Brancusi’s Danaïde (circa 1913) inspired lively bidding before selling for $107,585,000. The sculpture, modelled after a young Hungarian art student, Margit Pogany, set a new record at auction for the artist.
After almost seven minutes of bidding, Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948 realised $181,185,000, nearly tripling the artist’s previous record. The large-scale work was painted when the artist was 36 and represents an especially significant masterpiece from his oeuvre.
Jackson Pollock, Number 7A (1948). Courtesy of Christie's Images, Ltd.
Joan Miró’s Portrait de Madame K. (1924), a bold vision of femininity and eroticism, sold for $53,535,000, establishing a new auction record for the artist.
Building on the night’s momentum, several works by Picasso also achieved exceptional results: Tête de femme (Fernande) (1909), Homme à la guitare (1913), La femme enceinte, 1er état (conceived in 1950; this bronze version cast circa 1951-1953) and Tête de femme (1907) sold for $48,360,000, $40,885,000, $22,485,000 and $14,435,000 respectively.
The energy continued as the night transitioned into the 20th Century Evening Sale. Overall, the sale realised a total of $490.3 million, selling 96% by lot, 99% by value.
Three magnificent works by Mark Rothko, Cy Twombly and Joseph Cornell from The Collection of Agnes Gund together sold for $150.8 million. Rothko’s No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) set a record for the artist at auction, selling for $98,385,000. Gund acquired the work directly from the artist in 1967 during a visit to his studio.
Another centrepiece of Monday evening’s auction, Roy Lichtenstein’s Anxious Girl, never before seen in public, sold for $46,060,000. Many works more than doubled their estimates, including Claude Monet’s Pommiers, Vétheuil, which realised $19,600,000, and Edgar Degas’s Enfants et poneys dans un parc, which sold for $5,443,000.
Main Image: Constantin Brancusi, Danaïde (ca. 1913). Courtesy of Christie’s Images, Ltd. 2026.