Christie’s Posts ‘Rock Solid’ Contemporary Sale, Led by Marian Goodman’s Gerhard Richters
Christie’s 21st-century evening auction in New York on May 20 brought in $162.7 million, a 69 percent increase from the same sale last year and the house’s highest New York evening total in the category since 2021. The sale featured 42 lots, including a single-owner collection of Minimalist works owned by Henry S. McNeil Jr. and eight Gerhard Richter works from the collection of the late gallerist Marian Goodman. The top lot was Richter’s photorealistic painting *Kerze (Candle)* (1982), which sold for $35.1 million, falling short of its $50 million high estimate. Other notable results included a Donald Judd Plexiglas stack that sold for $12.8 million and works by Richard Artschwager and Carl Andre that far exceeded their low estimates.