Roy Lichtenstein's record busting "Ohhh...Alright..." fetched $42.6M at Christie's from seller Steve Wynn

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Roy Lichtenstein’s 1964 painting of a pouting redhead sold for an artist record $42.6 million last night at Christie’s International in New York, as buyers stuck with 1960s pop art to sustain a market recovery.

Lichtenstein’s Ohhh…Alright… soared past his previous auction peak of $16.3 million, to help the closely held auctioneer reach $272.9 million in sales for the evening, its biggest total in the category since May 2008 and nearly four times last year’s result. The tally brings the sum for the three-night autumn series of postwar art auctions, including sales by rivals Phillips de Pury & Co. and Sotheby’s, to $632 million, almost triple the $216 million a year ago.

“The patient has made a full recovery,” said New York art adviser Stefano Basilico. “Not that we are back to 2007, to those crazy levels but we are back to healthy, good shape.”

The two-hour, 75-lot sale left collectors complaining about the long evening, but that didn’t hurt results as 93 percent of lots found buyers. Auction records tumbled for six artists, including abstract painter Mark Grotjahn,…

Tobias Meyer with Warhol Coke bottle at Sotheby's press preview. © Photo: Lindsay Pollock

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Andy Warhol’s painting of a Coca- Cola bottle sold for $35.4 million at Sotheby’s yesterday, making the artist the star of New York’s contemporary art auctions for two nights running as the market recovers slowly from a slump.

While eight bidders vied for the 7-foot-tall Warhol, they failed to reproduce the drama at rival Phillips de Pury & Co. a day earlier, when another 1962 Warhol, of actress Elizabeth Taylor, sold for $63 million.

“It was not frothy,” said dealer Harry Blain after the $222.5 million sale, the largest in the category since May 2008. “It was good, solid, considered buying, nothing outlandish.”

Author James Frey, fashion designer Valentino Garavani and Michael Dell’s money manager, Glenn Fuhrman, were at the front of the saleroom as 91 percent of the 54 lots found buyers. Five artist auction records were set, including Julie Mehretu and Larry Rivers, helping the total rise just above the $214.5 million presale high estimate, which does not include commissions.

A year ago, Sotheby’s contemporary sale tallied $134 million. “It was incredibly strong considering that we are…

Andy Warhol's 1962 "Men in Her Life" sold at Phillips de Pury for $63M. Photo: Courtesy Phillips

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Andy Warhol’s blotchy 1962 black-and- white painting of serially married movie star Elizabeth Taylor sold for $63.4 million last night at Phillips de Pury & Co. in New York, the second-highest price for the artist at auction.

Warhol’s Men in Her Life helped the Russian-backed auction house record its highest total, $137 million, as 52 of the 59 lots offered found buyers. Nine artists achieved auction records including Cindy Sherman, Felix Gonzalez-Torres and Rudolf Stingel.

The seven-foot-tall Warhol, based on a photo from Life magazine depicting a demure Taylor with third husband Mike Todd and future husband Eddie Fisher, had been estimated to sell for around $40 million, a tag some dealers said before the sale was ambitious. The price soared past the estimate in a battle between two telephone bidders.

“Two people wanted it — as simple as that,” said New York dealer Christophe Van de Weghe. “What a great way to kick off the week.”

Phillips’s sale begins a trio of contemporary art auctions that are a benchmark for the industry’s recovery from last year’s slump. Sotheby’s…

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Henri Matisse’s life-size bronze of a woman’s back sold for $48.8 million, an auction record for the artist, as Christie’s International’s New York Impressionist and modern art sale sustained a recovery from last year’s recession.

As collector and SAC Capital Advisors LP Founder Steven A. Cohen watched from a sky box, last night’s two-hour auction totaled $231.4 million with commissions, slightly above Christie’s $198.3 million low estimate, which doesn’t include the buyers’ premiums. The result was triple Christie’s year-ago tally of $74.2 million.

Dealers said the sale was strong for quality items, with 80 percent of the 84 lots finding buyers, similar to the previous night’s sale at Sotheby’s, which totaled $227.6 million, led by a $69 million Amedeo Modigliani nude.

“We are in a happier place,” said New York dealer Maxwell Davidson IV, after the sale. “There is not as much doom and gloom. If there’s quality, you can sell it.”

Davidson bought a $1.4 million pink Wassily Kandinsky watercolor and a blue Picasso watercolor for $818,500.

The Matisse, from an edition of 10, was conceived in 1930 and cast…

Record setting Modigliani nude

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An Amedeo Modigliani 1917 nude sold for $68.96 million, a record for the artist, helping Sotheby’s reach its highest total for a New York Impressionist and modern art sale since May 2008.

The auction tallied $227.6 million with commissions, below Sotheby’s top estimate of $266 million, which doesn’t include the buyers’ premiums. That reflected a sober mood in the room brimming with cautious dealers and collectors. A quarter of the offerings failed to sell, including works by Francis Picabia, Joan Miro and Henri Matisse.

“The sale was strong in areas, and weak where it should be,” said London dealer Alan Hobart of Pyms Gallery, who bought Henri Matisse’s bronze Deux Negresses, for $8.5 million on behalf of a client.

Modigliani’s Nu Assis sur un Divan (La Belle Romaine) was offered early in the 61-lot sale, the first of the two-week New York autumn season. Five phone bidders vied for the work, described in the catalog as a “post-coital rendering.”

“It really set a benchmark,” said dealer David Nash of Mitchell-Innes & Nash. The artist’s previous record was…

Sender curator Sarah Aibel with Chris Ofili sculpture in entrance to New York's Exis Capital

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A black-and-white Ed Ruscha painting with the words “Let’s Be Realistic” spelled out in bold white letters hangs outside the sound-proof trading room at art collector Adam Sender’s hedge fund.

Sender’s curator, Sarah Aibel, 28, is giving me a tour of the art-stocked office in an old loft building in New York’s SoHo district.

“Trading is what he does for work,” Aibel says of Sender. “And when he’s not trading, art is what he does for love.”

In the trading room, the light is movie-theater low. Sender, who declined to be interviewed, is seated at what resembles a science-fiction command center, surrounded by two dozen glowing monitors.

Out in the hall, a Kara Walker mural runs along a wall. A pink-and-green neon sculpture by minimalist Dan Flavin illuminates a corner. An otherwise generic conference room is hung with a piercing John Currin painting. “The Activists” depicts a frail elderly woman seated before a microphone, holding a sheet with a presumed list of grievances.

“The traders are so focused on finance, the art gives them a break,” Aibel says.

Sender, 41, has collected art since…

Maxfield Parrish "Daybreak" sold for $5.2 million at Christie's. Image: Christie's

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By Lindsay Pollock

May 20 (Bloomberg) — Maxfield Parrish’s famous 1922 “Daybreak” sold for $5.2 million today at Christie’s International in New York, at the low end of the $4 million to $7 million presale estimate.

The seller was actor Mel Gibson and his wife, Robyn, who filed for divorce last year. The buyer was an unnamed phone bidder.

The price was well below the $7.6 million Robyn Gibson paid at Christie’s in 2006. At the time, the price established an auction record for Parrish.

The painting had previously sold for $4.3 million at Sotheby’s in 1996 when it was purchased by billionaire James Jannard, founder of the Oakley Inc. sunglasses company.

“The Parrish market is very small,” said dealer Betty Krulik, standing near the front of the Christie’s Rockefeller Center salesroom. “The owners were the big recent buyers,” she said. “Another big buyer — Michael Jackson — is dead. That limits competition.”

Jim Halperin, co-chairman of Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, was one of two contenders bidding for the Parrish over the phone. He said he owns about a dozen Parrish paintings, and…

Photo: via Bloomberg News

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By Katya Kazakina and Lindsay Pollock

May 14 (Bloomberg) — A painting of a blue-eyed nurse by Richard Prince and an aluminum couch by Marc Newson were among the artworks sold by Halsey Minor that helped the CNET Networks Inc. founder raise $21.1 million to pay his creditors.

His collection accounted for just 22 of the 74 lots offered at a contemporary art-and-design auction last night held by Phillips de Pury & Co. in New York, yet they took in more than half of the $37.9 million total, and were the highlight of the evening.

“He’s got a good eye,” said John Good, a director at Gagosian gallery in New York. “Between Prince, Newson and Ruscha, these are A pieces.”

Proceeds from the sale of Minor’s artworks will go toward a $21.6 million judgment obtained in October by ML Private Finance, a Bank of America affiliate, on a delinquent loan to Minor.

The Minor collection is too young for provenance to contribute to artworks’ value, said Todd Levin, director of New York-based advisers, Levin Art Group.

“It matters when…

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Coverage from Wednesday night follows…

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By Lindsay Pollock and Philip Boroff

May 13 (Bloomberg) — A purple Andy Warhol portrait of himself looking wild-haired and gaunt fetched $32.6 million at a New York auction last night, twice the work’s presale estimate, as buyers sought rare art amid financial-market volatility.

The nine-square-foot 1986 “Self-Portrait,” completed a year before the artist’s death, was offered by fashion designer Tom Ford and went to an unidentified buyer. The silkscreen ink, acrylic paint on canvas was the priciest item of Sotheby’s 53- lot sale that tallied $190 million, against the company’s presale estimate of $161.8 million. Just three lots were unsold.

“Self Portrait” ranks among the three most-expensive works by Warhol sold at auction and is the costliest of his latter-year works. The record was the $71.1 million paid in 2007 in New York for his 1963 “Green Car Crash.”

“People are willing to break (price) boundaries with late Warhols,” said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby’s chief auctioneer and head of the contemporary-art department, after the sale.

Yesterday’s sale brings the two-week total of Sotheby’s and rival…

Bloomberg’s Philip Boroff has the news of Christie’s June 9 sale of artworks from the defunct Salander-O’Reilly Galleries. The whole group is estimated to sell for over $2.5 million.

One of the most unusual and intriguing aspects of the sale is that all the Salander lots are covered by Aris, a title insurance company.

Click here to read Boroff’s Bloomberg story.