A 1960 canvas with sponges applied to it by French artist Yves Klein fetched $21.4 million Tuesday night at Sotheby’s contemporary art auction, below presale expectations yet faring better than experts had feared.

The financial market has made for a gloomy scenery for art auctions and many feared that Sotheby’s contemporary art auction on Tuesday would have no bright results yet sales were more than decent. Totaling $125 million, including commission, it set records for artists Philip Guston, John Currin and Richard Serra. Forty-three of the 63 lots found buyers.

The top lot was French artist Yves Klein’s “RE 11 Archisponge,” a 1960 work of natural sponges applied to a canvas which was afterwards painted a special blue – the artist’s signature International Klein Blue, developed in the late 1950s. Its presale estimate had been $25 million.

Philip Guston’s painting “Beggar’s Joys,” estimated at $15 million, sold for little over $10 million while Jeff Koons’ “Wishing Well” fell under the low estimate of $2.5 million.

John Currin’s “Nice ‘N Easy” was an exception to the rule, selling for $5.5 million, above its presale estimate of $4.5 million.

Jeff Tom Wesslemann’s “Great American Nude” sold for $4.1 million, against an estimate of $6 million to $8 million.

Roy Lichtenstein’s “Half Face with Collar” failed to sell; it had been valued at $15 million to $20 million. Another Liechtenstein work, “Study for New York State Mural,” sold for $3.9 million, slightly below its presale estimate.

A work by Andy Warhol, featuring four empty boxes, estimated at $2.5 million to $3.5 million, also failed to sell.

Sotheby’s and Christie’s experienced similar below-expectations results last week in their New York auctions of impressionist and modern art.

Image: From Yves Klein’s Sponge series, Do-Do-Do (Re 16), 1960.

http://www.yvesklein.com/