Sotheby's and Christie's May marquee sales in New York saw a surge of high-value consignments from estates, including a $450m collection from media magnate S.I. Newhouse. Jackson Pollock's *Number 7A* (1948) sold for $181m and Constantin Brâncuși's *Danaïde* (c.1913) for $108m, both setting auction records. Mark Rothko's *Brown and Blacks in Reds* (1957) from the estate of dealer Robert Mnuchin fetched $85.7m at Sotheby's. However, works by artists under 40 were scarce: Sotheby's evening sale had only two such lots, Christie's one, and Phillips's sale featured just one, Anna Weyant's *Dinner* (2019) at $980,400.
This divergence matters because it signals a market shift away from speculative "red-chip" contemporary works toward blue-chip Modern and classic contemporary trophies, driven by the Great Wealth Transfer and estate sales. The ArtTactic Confidence Report shows a widening gap between secondary market confidence (60 points) and primary market confidence (45), with general economic confidence at just 15. Collector Alain Servais notes the speculative froth has been removed except for a few pockets, suggesting a cautious, bifurcated market where only the best 20th-century works command premium prices while younger artists struggle.