“The air is very thin above $10 million,” said Hugo Nathan, director of London-based Beaumont Nathan Independent Art Advisors. “A lot of that crazy money has wised up in the past few years. When you take away the guarantees and there is no safety net, there might be a push-back. Do you really want to be the lone bidder at $25 million?”
Collectors seemed to be more comfortable in the seven-figure range.
Kerry James Marshall, whose 1992 painting-collage “Plunge” sold for $2.2 million, was among artists for whom records were set. The consignors bought it at Marshall’s first solo show in New York in 1993 when it cost $7,500, according to the artist’s dealer, Jack Shainman.
Art advisers Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher won Joan Mitchell’s 1969 abstract painting at $9.8 million on behalf of a client, surpassing the high estimate of $7 million.
“Barbara would have gone much higher,” Asher said.