Christie’s spring marquee auctions in New York brought in a combined $489 million with fees across two evening sales: the Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works sale and the 20th Century sale. The Riggio collection, featuring 39 works heavy on Surrealism, modernism, and Minimalism, achieved $272 million with buyer’s premium, led by Piet Mondrian’s Composition With Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue (1922) at $47.56 million and René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières (1949) at $34.9 million. The 20th Century sale included major canvases by Monet, Rothko, and Warhol, but the hammer total of $409 million fell below the $446 million pre-sale low estimate, indicating the auction house did not meet expectations.
The results provide a telling snapshot of the high-end art market: steady, stratified, and reliant on proven names amid economic uncertainty. Art advisors noted the market is “tight” and that buyers made decisions late, with estimates not encouraging “fireworks.” The Riggio sale, guaranteed across the board, served as a public farewell to one of New York’s great collecting couples, while the overall evening highlighted a cautious but not disastrous market, with collectors leaning on blue-chip artists like Mondrian, Magritte, and Giacometti.