Unsold lots included Joan Mitchell’s 1956 abstract painting, featuring a forest palette and estimated at $6 million to $9 million. Four paintings by Warhol also went unsold, with a combined low estimate of $20.2 million.
“You can’t push prices on things that are mid-quality,” said Nicholas Maclean, co-owner of Eykyn Maclean gallery in London and New York and former co-head of the Impressionist and modern art department at Christie’s. “The market has already been pushed far enough. You can’t jack it up season after season.”