The evening’s eight unsold lots included paintings by Edgar Degas and Jasper Johns, each estimated at $15 million to $20 million. Milton Avery’s painting fetched $1.7 million, below the low estimate of $2 million. Pierre Bonnard’s portrait of a woman in a red striped shirt sold for $2.1 million, below the low estimate of $2.5 million.
One high point was a red 1961 painting by Frank Stella made with Benjamin Moore house paint. It fetched $13.7 million, setting an auction record for the 79-year-old American artist. About seven bidders chased after “Delaware Crossing," with the result exceeding its high estimate of $12 million and almost doubling its previous auction record of $6.7 million.
The unsold works are likely to find buyers in the days after the auction, said Simon Shaw, co-head of Sotheby’s worldwide Impressionist and modern art department. “We are already getting offers. I suspect we sell at least one significant work tonight,” he said, declining to specify.