This 2024 has been a year full of events in the art market, and that is why we want to provide a summary of the year’s trends.
“From a multimillion-dollar banana to the end of a museum, here are the highlights of a year of auctions.” This is the subtitle of the article by Eileen Kinsella, Senior Market Editor of ArtNet: Sold! 5 Auction Moments That Rocked the Boat in 2024.
It is not by chance that the expert talks about the now famous “Banana di Cattelan” and the closing of the museum of Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz, whose art collection ended up at auction due to the death of the collector Rosa.
If it may seem that the result achieved by Cattelan is a sign of the stability of the art market, in truth the sector has recorded many gallery closures in 2024.
It was also a year that recorded significant auction records for artists who express themselves through different media such as Jadé Fadojutimi, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Lucy Bull, and Sarah Sze.
Furthermore, many artists have distinguished themselves as “activists,” stepping out of the confined walls of a gallery to directly impact communities and get noticed by a diverse audience.
Regarding the auctions of Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Philips, the absence of the sale of large collections defined as blockbuster – Rockefeller, Macklowe, and Paul Allen – has weighed in.
In the first six months of 2024, there was a 30% decline in auction sales, compared to the same time period in 2023.
Market Trend 2024: the story of Comedian
A joke, a tease, or a deep reflection? The fact is that Maurizio Cattelan knows exactly where to strike and, like an artist fully immersed in his time, he manages to interpret current events and the mechanisms of communication with irony and playfulness. His now-famous Burraco that involve the artist and design community.
Comedian, a well-known news by now, was sold for $6.2 million at the Sotheby’s New York auction.
Comedian had been proposed by the Perrotin gallery during the 2019 edition of Art Basel Miami, unleashing the art world and attracting disdain, derision, euphoria everywhere, with sarcastic comments and a boomerang of back-and-forth on social media.
How can a banana taped to the wall be a work of art, in an edition of three specimens? The first ones were sold for 120,000 dollars each, while the third for 150,000 dollars. One specimen then went to auction and when this happens a bubble is created, already the starting price was 1 million dollars, guaranteed by Sotheby’s.
The auction started at 800,000 dollars, with bids being placed both in the room and over the phone, as well as with online bids; at the hammer Jen Hua, specialist at Sotheby’s.
The king of cryptocurrencies Justin Sun then acquired Comedian, paying for it in cryptocurrencies. If we calculate the buyer’s premium, the final price rose to 6.2 million dollars. We also know that in a publicity stunt Justin Sun ate the banana live (as had already happened at the fair).
After the New York Times published the news about the astonishment of the man who sold the banana to a Sotheby’s representative for only 25 cents, Sun announced that he will purchase 100,000 bananas from the same fruit stand to show his appreciation to Shah Alam who, however, not being the owner of the stand, might not see most of the money promised by the unexpected patron.
The most expensive artworks sold in 2024
Reaching the peaks of sales were paintings of surrealist origin, great classics of Impressionism, and leading artists of contemporary art.
Let’s start with René Magritte. At the Christie’s New York auction, L’empire des Lumières (1954) found a home for 121.2 million dollars, immediately setting a new record for one of the most well-known Belgian artists. The work was part of the Estate of designer and collector Mica Ertegun, who passed away in 2023.
The artwork had an estimate of 95 million dollars and already had a sales guarantee. The previous auction record for a Magritte artwork was 79.8 million dollars: a version of L’empire des Lumières from 1961, Sotheby’s auction 2022.
Another excellent sale was achieved by Phillips, the third auction house after Christie’s and Sotheby’s: 46.5 million dollars during the May auction in New York for a 1982 work by Jean-Michel Basquiat Untitled (Elmar).
This is not surprising given the sky-high prices reached in the past by Basquiat’s paintings, first among them Untitled (1982) sold for a whopping $110.5 million at the Contemporary Art Evening Auction at Sotheby’s NY in May 2017.
New record also for Leonora Carrington known to the general public thanks to the attention dedicated to the Surrealists during the Venice Biennale of 2022, curated by Cecilia Alemani, to the exhibition on Surrealism at the Guggenheim in Venice and the one currently at the Centre Pompidou, with all the satellite exhibitions on the surrealists open in Paris.
In May, at Sotheby’s New York, Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945), a tempera by Carrington, was the absolute star of the modern art auction, reaching 28.5 million dollars (premium included) after 10 minutes of bids and raises. The buyer is the Argentine builder and businessman Eduardo F. Costantini, who founded the Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires (MALBA).
The museum of Rosa de la Cruz
The private museum of Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz has closed its doors due to the death of the philanthropist and collector Rosa de la Cruz. Her collections have been sold by Christie’s.
Christie’s was chosen to sell the majority of the collection, estimated at more than 30 million dollars. On the evening of May 15, the auction house guaranteed all 26 lots, but one was still withdrawn.
The remaining 25 pieces were sold for 34.4 million dollars with the “buyer” premium, thus falling within the initial estimate of 25-37 million dollars expected from the event.
The best sales of 2024 in the world of art
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, 1964. $ 68.3 million
Christie’s, as well as the second highest price of all 2024. It is titled Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half, it belonged to the Texan magnate Sid Bass and was exhibited in the important retrospective Now/Then by Ruscha at the MoMA in New York and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Claude Monet, Nymphéas, 1914–17. $ 65.5 million
After over 17 minutes of bidding between phones and the room, in 2021, at Sotheby’s, Le Bassin aux Nymphéas went under the hammer for $71.4 million, in 2023, at competitor Christie’s, other softly colored flowers found a buyer for $74 million.
René Magritte, L’ami intime, 1958. $ 42.1 million
Figure with the bowler hat, the ordinary man turned away (complete with prestigious provenance from the Gilbert and Lena Kaplan Collection) closed the deal at $ 46.5 million.
Andy Warhol, Flowers, 1964. $ 35.5 million achieved in 1964 in response to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
By the same artist, it is the second most expensive work ever sold at auction, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, which reached the result of $195 million. It is the most expensive work of the 20th century overall.
Claude Monet, Meules à Giverny, 1893. $ 34.8 million
Sotheby’s, last May, offered in New York the same subject that, 5 years ago, set – again by Sotheby’s – an absolute record for the artist, when another Meules reached the starry ceiling of $ 110.7 million coming from the collection of the American artist Dwight Blaney.
Vincent van Gogh, Coin de jardin avec papillons, 1887. $ 33.2 million
He painted it in 1887 – an important date, it corresponds to his return to Paris after ten years of absence from the city
Mark Rothko, Untitled (Yellow and Blue), 1954. $ 32.5 million
Untitled (Yellow and Blue) found a buyer at Sotheby’s for HK$ 252.5 million (about $ 32.5 million). In 2015, the same work was sold by Sotheby’s New York for $ 46.5 million.
She has collaborated for many years with art magazines such as Artribune, XIBT Contemporary, ArtApp, Insideart and Espoarte, preferring contemporary art in its many facets and media drifts.
