Auction Results: New Records for Noah Davis and Antonio Obá at Sotheby's, Major Paintings by Barkley L. Hendricks and Kerry James Marshall Went Unsold

Sotheby’s New York held its Now & Contemporary Evening Auction on November 18 at the newly opened Breuer building, featuring works by Black artists. Noah Davis’s “The Casting Call” (2008) sold for $2 million, setting a new auction record for the late artist, while Antonio Obá’s “Alvorada – Música Incidental Black Bird” (2020) achieved $1.016 million, nearly ten times its low estimate. However, major paintings by Barkley L. Hendricks and Kerry James Marshall went unsold, highlighting a mixed market for exceptional figurative works. The auction followed a blockbuster sale of Leonard A. Lauder’s collection, where Gustav Klimt’s portrait sold for $234 million.

Record $236.3m Klimt leads Sotheby’s first night of auctions in Breuer Building

Sotheby's first evening auctions in its new Manhattan headquarters, the former Whitney Museum building designed by Marcel Breuer, achieved a record total of $605.1 million ($706 million with fees) on November 18. The night was headlined by the sale of 24 works from the collection of the late billionaire Leonard Lauder, which alone brought in $456.2 million. The standout lot was Gustav Klimt's 'Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer, 1914-16)', which sold for $205 million ($236.3 million with fees) after a nearly 20-minute bidding war, becoming the second-most-expensive painting ever sold at auction. A subsequent contemporary art auction added $148.8 million ($178.5 million with fees) across 44 lots.

Gustav Klimt portrait sale breaks modern art record

Gustav Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for $236 million (£180 million) at Sotheby's in New York, setting a new record for the most expensive work of modern art ever sold at auction. The painting, completed between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of Klimt's most important patrons and was part of the collection of the late cosmetics billionaire Leonard Lauder, who had purchased it in 1985. The sale took place during Sotheby's first evening sale at its new Manhattan headquarters, with bidding starting at $130 million and narrowing to two contenders before the hammer fell at $236 million.

This month’s New York auctions could bring up to $2.3bn

New York's leading auction houses, including Sotheby's and Christie's, expect to generate between $1.7bn and $2.3bn during their November sales, driven by major consignments such as 55 works from the estate of Leonard Lauder and 37 works from the collection of Jay and Cindy Pritzker. Sotheby's, which has moved its headquarters into the former Whitney Museum's Breuer Building, leads the season with estimated sales of $863m to $1.175bn, featuring Gustav Klimt's Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (estimated at $150m) and Frida Kahlo's El Sueño (La Cama) (estimated at $40m-$60m).

Princeton University Art Museum graduates to expansive new home

The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is opening a new 146,000-square-foot facility on October 31, doubling its previous exhibition and education spaces. The original 1880s building, which underwent multiple additions before being demolished in 2021, could only display about 2% of Princeton's 117,000-object collection. Designed by Adjaye Associates with executive architect Cooper Robertson, the new three-story museum features nine interlocking pavilions, 80,000 square feet of exhibition space, classrooms, and a grand hall. Curators have rethought the installation to move away from rigid geographic and chronological categories, instead emphasizing cross-cultural and cross-media pairings, such as placing Andy Warhol's Blue Marilyn (1962) alongside a 14th-century Italian Virgin and Child.

A Jean-Michel Basquiat Rarity And Banksy's Spray-Painted Flag Head To Frieze London 2025

Frieze London 2025 returns for its 23rd edition from October 15-19 in Regent's Park, featuring over 280 international galleries. Major auction houses are staging blockbuster sales during the week, including Sotheby's evening and day sales in partnership with Celine, Christie's 20th/21st Century Evening Sale and a trilogy of drawings from the Klaus Hegeswich collection, and Phillips' Modern & Contemporary sales. Highlights include a Jean-Michel Basquiat rarity, Banksy's spray-painted flag, a Francis Bacon portrait, a Picasso etching, and a Lucian Freud self-portrait estimated at up to $16 million.

Headed to Paris for Art Basel? Here are the 17 museum shows not to miss

Art Basel Paris is underway, and this article highlights 17 must-see museum shows across the city. Key exhibitions include a joint tribute to Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and Pontus Hultén at the Grand Palais; a Rick Owens fashion retrospective at Palais Galliera; the first French monographic show of John Singer Sargent at the Musée d'Orsay, featuring his scandalous 'Portrait of Madame X'; a Bridget Riley exhibition exploring her debt to Georges Seurat; a Minimalism survey at the Bourse de Commerce; and a major Jacques-Louis David retrospective at the Louvre marking the bicentenary of his death.

Mary Boone Stages a Triumphant Return With the Art Titans of 1980s New York

Mary Boone has co-curated "Downtown/Uptown: New York in the Eighties" at Lévy Gorvy Dayan in New York, a sprawling exhibition of over 60 works by artists who defined the 1980s art scene, including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Cindy Sherman, and Julian Schnabel. The show, running until December 13, 2025, features Warhol's portraits of Boone's former stable of artists and highlights the cross-pollination of Neo-Expressionism, street art, and political critique that made New York the epicenter of the art world.

New exhibition highlights work from '80s art superstars

The Lévy Gorvy Dayan Gallery on Manhattan's Upper East Side has opened "Downtown/Uptown: New York in the Eighties," an exhibition co-curated by Brett Gorvy and legendary downtown gallerist Mary Boone. The show features works by iconic 1980s New York artists including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, Barbara Kruger, Jeff Koons, Francesco Clemente, Kenny Scharf, the Guerilla Girls, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and Louise Lawler. Admission is free, and the exhibition runs through December 13.

Christie's to offer the Collection of visionary Danish collector Ole Faarup as a key highlight of its October 20/21 Marquee Week - Christie's

Christie's will auction the collection of Danish collector Ole Faarup during its October 2025 Marquee Week, featuring around 140 lots with an overall estimate of £16–22 million. Highlights include major works by Peter Doig, Chris Ofili, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, alongside Danish and international artists. Proceeds from the sale will benefit The Ole Faarup Art Foundation, which supports emerging artists and cultural institutions.

A blockbuster Gerhard Richter retrospective, co-organised by Nicholas Serota, is coming to Paris

A major retrospective of German artist Gerhard Richter, co-curated by former Tate director Nicholas Serota, will open at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris from 17 October 2025 to 2 March 2026. The exhibition features 270 works spanning 1962 to 2024, including paintings, drawings, watercolours, overpainted photographs, glass works, and digitally generated Strip images. It is organized chronologically, with sections devoted to Richter's early photo-based works, his 1972 Venice Biennale pieces, abstract explorations, sombre reflections including the October 18, 1977 series, and his later experiments beyond painting. Key loans come from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate, the Hirshhorn Museum, and Museum Ludwig, Cologne, alongside works from the Fondation's own collection.

The best museum shows to see alongside Art Basel in Basel 2025

This article highlights the best museum shows to see alongside Art Basel in Basel 2025, covering exhibitions at Fondation Beyeler, Schaulager, Kunsthalle Basel, Kunsthaus Baselland, and Kunstmuseum Basel. Featured artists include Vija Celmins, Jordan Wolfson, Steve McQueen, Ser Serpas, Dala Nasser, and Medardo Rosso, with works ranging from VR installations and immersive light-and-sound pieces to textile art and historical retrospectives.

Christie's 20/21 sales achieve $693 million

Christie's 20th and 21st Century Art sales in New York from 12-15 May 2025 achieved a total of $693 million across six sales, reaching 123% of the low estimate. The top lot was Piet Mondrian's 1922 painting *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue*, which sold for $47.56 million. Other highlights included Claude Monet's *Peupliers au bord de l'Epte, crépuscule* (1891) at $42.96 million, and Marlene Dumas's *Miss January* (1997), which set a record for a living female artist. The Leonard & Louise Riggio collection alone brought $272 million, while the 20th Century Evening Sale achieved $217 million with a 100% sell-through rate. New artist records were set for Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Louis Fratino, Simone Leigh, and Emma McIntyre.

Despite record-breaking results for four women artists, Phillips’s evening auction in New York sparks few fireworks

Phillips’s evening sale of modern and contemporary art in New York on May 13 achieved a total hammer price of $44.2 million ($52 million with fees), falling just below the low pre-sale estimate of $45.3 million. Four works were withdrawn before the sale, and five lots failed to sell. Despite the subdued overall results, the auction set new auction records for four women artists: Kiki Kogelnik, Ilana Savdie, James Turrell (Light and Space artist), and Grace Hartigan. Other strong performers included works by Yu Nishimura, Olga de Amaral, Barbara Hepworth, and Danielle McKinney. The top lot was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s *Untitled* (1984), formerly owned by David Bowie.

Marlene Dumas’s $13.6m semi-nude breaks auction record for a living female artist

Christie's 21st century evening sale on Wednesday achieved $79 million ($96.5 million with fees), falling within revised estimates but below original projections and prior sale totals. The standout lot was Marlene Dumas's 1997 painting *Miss January*, which sold for $13.6 million with fees, setting a new auction record for any living female artist. The sale saw three of four records set for women artists, including Simone Leigh, Emma McIntyre, and Louis Fratino, though bidding was subdued overall with heavy reliance on third-party guarantees.

Walk the auction: your guide to Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art sales in NY this May

Christie’s is holding its spring 20th and 21st Century Art sales week in New York from 12–15 May 2025, featuring over 500 works across six live auctions. Highlights include the single-owner collection of Leonard and Louise Riggio, led by a rare Piet Mondrian and René Magritte’s *Les droits de l'homme*; the 20th Century Evening Sale headlined by a Claude Monet from his *Les Peupliers* series; and the 21st Century Evening Sale, where Jean-Michel Basquiat’s *Baby Boom* sold for $23.4 million. Other notable consignors include Anne and Sid Bass, Tiqui Atencio, and Ago Demirdjian. The free public exhibition runs from 3–15 May at Christie’s Rockefeller Center galleries.

Artist’s Choice: Arthur Jafa—Less Is Morbid

Arthur Jafa has curated a new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as part of the museum's ongoing Artist's Choice series. Titled "Less Is Morbid," the show runs through July 5 and features over 80 objects selected from MoMA's collection. Jafa, an artist and filmmaker known for his emotionally charged collages and installations, brings together works by figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Lygia Clark, Roy DeCarava, Piet Mondrian, and Lutisha Pettway. The exhibition challenges binary oppositions like minimalist/maximalist and sparse/dense, and critiques the historical hierarchies that have governed art institutions.

After a failed export block by the UK, Nicolas Poussin masterpiece goes on show at Louvre Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) will make its vast, previously inaccessible art and artifact holdings public over the coming year, including publishing an online catalogue and offering research opportunities. To mark this shift, DCT is presenting Nicolas Poussin’s *Confirmation* at Louvre Abu Dhabi—a masterpiece that had been held in Britain for 240 years and was blocked from export by the UK government in 2022 when it failed to raise £19m to match the buyer’s offer, now presumed to be DCT. The painting goes on show alongside Poussin’s *Self-portrait* from the Musée du Louvre.

A Tale of Two Cities: Spring Auctions in Hong Kong and Shanghai

Christie's and Sotheby's held their spring marquee auctions in Hong Kong and Shanghai, timed to coincide with Art Basel Hong Kong for the first time. Christie's evening sale of 20th and 21st century art in Hong Kong achieved HKD 560 million (USD 72 million) with a 95% sell-through rate, led by Jean-Michel Basquiat's *Sabado por la Noche (Saturday Night)* (1984) at HKD 112.6 million. Other highlights included a new artist record for Zhang Enli's *Intimacy* (2002) at HKD 23.4 million, and strong sales for works by Yayoi Kusama, Zao Wou-Ki, and Adrian Ghenie, though most lots sold near their low estimates.

Auction record

A new auction record has been set, with a significant artwork selling for a high price at a major auction house. The sale took place recently, drawing attention from collectors and the art market.

Basquiat's intense works on paper are at the center of his first exhibition in Denmark

Le intense opere su carta di Basquiat sono al centro della sua prima mostra in Danimarca

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, is hosting "Headstrong," a retrospective of 50 works on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat, running until May 17. The exhibition focuses on Basquiat's depictions of the human head and body, created between 1981 and 1983, and first shown posthumously in 1990. It is the first solo museum presentation of Basquiat in Scandinavia, featuring loans from private collections and international museums, highlighting a lesser-known aspect of the artist's practice.

A landmark exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat's early works is coming to Brooklyn this May

The Bishop Gallery in Brooklyn will host a landmark exhibition titled "Our Friend, Jean: Early Works of Jean-Michel Basquiat" during New York Art Week this May. The show features rare early pieces and intimate photographs from the collection of Alexis Adler, who lived with Basquiat between 1979 and 1980. The exhibition focuses on the artist's formative years, showcasing works created on unconventional surfaces like doors and furniture before his rise to global stardom.

These are the 30 best museum exhibits in NYC right now

New York City’s cultural landscape is undergoing a significant transformation with the reopening of the New Museum in its expanded 60,000-square-foot building designed by OMA. The inaugural exhibition, "New Humans: Memories of the Future," features over 200 contributors exploring the intersection of technology and humanity. Simultaneously, major institutions are launching landmark shows, including a massive Raphael retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the 2026 Whitney Biennial, which focuses on artificial intelligence and climate grief.

Singapore Art Week captures the many sides of this multi-faceted city

Singapore Art Week (SAW) 2026 showcases the city-state's multifaceted identity through a diverse range of artistic offerings. Highlights include the second iteration of Wan Hai Hotel, adapted from Shanghai's Rockbund Art Museum, which explores themes of water, migration, and diaspora with artists like Ho Tzu Nyen, Dawn Ng, and Robert Zhao Renhui. The premier art fair Art SG (23-25 January) runs alongside S.E.A. Focus, aiming to boost market access and solidify Singapore as a hub for Southeast Asian art.

Art Week holdovers: Here are some exhibits you can still catch in Miami

Miami Art Week has concluded, but several exhibitions remain on view for locals to enjoy. The article highlights shows at venues including Collective 62, El Espacio 23, Fifth & Biscayne Micro Gallery, KDR Gallery, Spinello Projects, and Locust Project, featuring artists such as Tara Long, Susan Kim Alvarez, and Jennifer Basile. These exhibitions range from text-based art and photography to large-scale installations, with closing dates extending through early 2026.

From subways to galleries: Miami's Museum of Graffiti traces the appeal of street art

Miami's Museum of Graffiti, located in the Wynwood neighborhood, is hosting a new exhibition that chronicles the origins and development of graffiti and street art, timed to coincide with the annual Art Basel fair and its satellite shows. The museum, founded six years ago by Alan Ket, bills itself as the first museum in the world dedicated to graffiti and street art. The exhibition features works by artists like JonOne (Jon Perello), who began tagging New York subways as a teenager, and highlights key moments such as the 1973 Razor gallery show, which helped legitimize graffiti as an art form.

Miss Subway NYC is a landmark solo exhibition by trailblazing artist Lady Pink.

D'Stassi Art has opened "Miss Subway NYC," a landmark solo exhibition by trailblazing graffiti artist Lady Pink in Shoreditch, London. The show features a full-scale recreation of a graffiti-covered NYC subway station, displaying original works, new commissions, archival pieces, sketches, and ephemera from her early career. Lady Pink, one of the first women to break into New York's graffiti scene, began tagging trains at 17 and exhibited at MoMA PS1's landmark 1981 show "New York/New Wave" alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. The exhibition's title references the historic Miss Subways beauty pageant, and includes a self-portrait of Lady Pink as Miss Subways 2025.

Basquiat's family portrait painting could bring $30m at Christie's auction

Christie's will offer Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 painting *Baby Boom* as a highlight of its 21st century evening sale this May, with an estimate of $20–30 million. The work, a stylized family portrait believed to depict Basquiat with his parents, was first shown at his landmark Fun Gallery solo exhibition in 1982 and has been featured in major retrospectives at the Brooklyn Museum, Fondation Beyeler, and Fondation Louis Vuitton. Previously owned by collector Peter Brant—who bought it for $1 million in 2001—the painting was later offered at Levy Gorvy's Art Basel stand in 2017 for $30 million.

Who’s The Next Obsession? 12 European Collectors Reveal How They Discover New Talent

Cultured magazine asked 12 European collectors how they discover new talent, timed to the 61st Venice Biennale. Collectors like Nicole Saikalis Bay, Amélie du Chalard, Belma Gaudio, and Laurent Asscher share their personal approaches—ranging from emotional resonance and dialogue with existing works to long-term obsession with an artist before acquiring a piece. The responses reveal a diversity of methods, from instinct-driven buying to conceptual and technical evaluation.

art collector questionnaire dallas art fair 2026

Cultured magazine interviewed five Dallas collectors ahead of the 18th edition of the Dallas Art Fair, which runs April 17–19 at the Fashion Industry Gallery. The article features collectors Rachel and Adam Green, who discuss the city's collaborative art scene, their 20-year collection journey, and how local collectors grow alongside artists. Adam Green, who founded the Green Family Art Foundation and Adam Green Art Advisory, and Rachel Green, founder of L'Epoque Parfums, highlight works by Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, Ilana Savdie, and Lynda Benglis, among others.