Sotheby’s Wraps May New York Sales with $154.2M Across Three Auctions
Image © Sotheby's / Untitled © Jean-Michel Basquiat 1981
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Sotheby’s wrapped up New York’s May sales with $154.2M across three tightly packed auctions. The Gladstone and Luxembourg collections delivered white glove results, totalling $48.7M. The momentum continued with the $105.4M into The Now & Contemporary Evening Sale, led by works from the Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein Collection.
Strategic Wins from White-Glove Gladstone and Luxembourg Single-Owner Sales
In this round of sales, Sotheby’s delivered a confident performance. While both the Barbara Gladstone and Daniella Luxembourg collections were relatively small, they packed a strategic punch. The Gladstone Collection featured just 12 lots - none of which were supported by auction house guarantees or third-party support. It was a calculated risk that paid off: every lot sold, most above estimate, pushing the total to $15.1 million, an impressive 19% above the low estimate. The standout was a rare black Flowers canvas by Andy Warhol, which achieved $3.8 million with fees.
The Luxembourg Collection, titled Im Spazio: The Space of Thoughts, presented a group of mixed-media works by Italian artists. Like Gladstone, it achieved a white glove 100% sell-through, bringing in $33.6 million - 18% above estimate. In this sale, all lots were backed by Sotheby’s, with eight also third-party guaranteed. While guarantees, in the current market, are a clear sign of caution, they have always been a standard practice and mirror the strategy Christie’s used to great success with its Riggio Collection.
The momentum continued with The Now & Contemporary Evening Sale, which brought in $105.4 million, landing just above its presale estimate by 2%. Though down from last year’s combined total of $228 million (when Sotheby’s split “The Now” and “Contemporary Evening” sales and had no single-owner collection), this year’s total across all three sales - $154.2 million - still marks a solid showing, albeit a 32% drop year-over-year.
Basquiat and Lichtenstein Anchor Sotheby’s Evening Sale as Top Performers
Still, the evening sale wasn’t without its high points - there were several standout results. The night was anchored by its sole eight-figure lot: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (1981), an oil stick composition dominated by a skeletal figure rendered in jagged lines and explosive blocks of colour. Surrounded by abstract symbols, scribbled grids, and vibrant bursts of yellow, orange, and green, the work encapsulates Basquiat’s signature fusion of anatomy, chaos, and coded visual language. It exceeded its $15 million high estimate, achieving $16.3 million with fees - now the highest price ever paid for a work on paper by the artist.
Rounding out the sale were six high-value works from the Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein Collection, including originals and three editioned sculptures, contributing a combined $23.4 million to the sale. These results reinforced strong market confidence in both Lichtenstein’s unique and editioned works and played a pivotal role in the overall success of the evening.
Other highlights included Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1990), a cool-toned, squeegeed abstraction which reached $6.9 million with fees, and Warhol’s brightly coloured Flowers (1964), a small-format canvas (24 x 24 inches) that soared to $4 million, smashing its $1.5 million high estimate and becoming the second-highest price paid for a work of that size in the Flowers series.
Image © Sotheby's / Reflections: Art © Roy Lichtenstein 1988The Dorothy & Roy Lichtenstein Collection Sparks Market Momentum in Contemporary Day Sale
The real standout of the season though - and arguably the most energetic bidding seen across all houses this May - came during the opening session of Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Auction on Friday, 16 May. Closing out the week, the sale began with 34 Additional works from the Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein Collection, a mix of original studies on paper, enamel porcelain editions, sculptures, and editioned prints. While all lots were backed by house guarantees, bidding was remarkably competitive. All but one work either met or surpassed expectations, signalling robust demand and strong market momentum for Lichtenstein’s works across formats.
Originals vs Editions: A Market Test for Lichtenstein
What made this group of works particularly compelling was the direct dialogue it created between Lichtenstein’s originals and his editions - offering a rare opportunity to compare market appetite across mediums. Water Lily Pond With Reflections (Study) (1992) made its public auction debut with a $700,000 high estimate and soared to $1.5 million with fees - a strong result for a study on paper. But notably, its editioned counterpart, a printer’s proof of the same composition, holds an auction record of $1.8 million (with fees) set in 2023.
Another example, Roommates (Study) (1993), achieved $609,600, just above its low estimate with fees. In contrast, the editioned version of this work - an Artist’s Proof (AP) from the same collection - fetched $1.2 million at Sotheby’s 2024 November sale. The results suggest a notable collector preference for Lichtenstein’s editioned prints, likely due to their iconic use of Ben-Day dots and bold graphic clarity, which more strongly reflect the visual language that defines his market.
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Image © Sotheby's / Two Nudes (State 1) (AP) © Roy Lichtenstein 1994Lichtenstein Editions Set Records Across Nudes and Reflections Series
Lichtenstein’s most in-demand editions also delivered standout results, setting a series of new records that underscored collector appetite. Reflections on Crash (AP) (1990) reached a new high at $215,900, while Reflections on Girl (AP) (1990) achieved $317,500 with fees, just shy of its record high.
His Nudes series continued to prove especially strong. Two Nudes (State I) (AP) (1994), an exceptionally rare work last seen on the market in 2014 when it sold for just $97,250, surged past its $250,000 high estimate to achieve a new record of $444,500 with fees. Thinking Nude (AP) (1994), which hadn’t surfaced publicly since 2022, set another record at $482,600 with fees. Nude Reading (AP) (1994) followed suit, selling for $457,200 after competitive bidding. Together, these results demonstrate robust demand for Lichtenstein’s late-period editions, particularly those that rarely appear at auction.
Looking Ahead: Provenance and Format Diversity Drive Demand
Overall, these results were remarkably strong - and arguably the most exciting moment in an otherwise restrained New York May sales season. While it may not signal a full market recovery, it clearly reflects renewed appetite for rare works with strong provenance. It’s a reminder of the untapped collections still to come and the breadth of material that resonates with today’s collectors. Notably, the success of editioned works alongside originals signals a growing confidence in alternative formats - something we expect to see more of across the rest of the 2025 market calendar.
