16-05-2025
New York's ‘Chaotic' Mega Auction Season Ends on a Mixed Note
As Sotheby's contemporary evening sale wound down on Thursday night, Charles Stewart, the company's chief executive officer, stood in the back of the room with a look of undisguised relief.
Up until that evening, New York's spring auction week, during which Christie's, Phillips and Sotheby's planned to move more than $1 billion worth of art, had been a grind. Most of the art was selling, but often with notably meager bidding, particularly when prices were over the $5 million mark. On Thursday, though, the room came alive with real, aggressive competition for works from the estates of the dealer Barbara Gladstone and the artist Roy Lichtenstein. 'This has been, I think, the high point of the week,' Stewart said. 'If you want to feel good about the art market, this is the night, and this is the sale.'
