The March auction season has concluded. The month is typically a pivotal period in auction house calendars and is viewed as a broad indicator of how the secondary and blue-chip art markets are performing.
Here, we run through the key takeaways and notable sales that took place across the major auction houses over the course of the month.
According to the Artsy Price Database, overall sales at auction were significantly lower this March than they were over the same period in 2022. This was particularly pronounced on the blue-chip side of the market. From February 28, 2022, to March 31, 2022, 14 artworks sold for $10 million or more, and 157 works achieved seven-figure prices. Over the same period this year, just six artworks realized $10 million or more, and 82 sold for a seven-figure sum.
Several economic headwinds are likely to have played a part in this. Times of economic uncertainty have historically made sellers less likely to place top-quality works at auction, and 2023 has certainly been a volatile year thus far: Persistent inflation, stubbornly high interest rates, geopolitical uncertainty, and fresh worries about a global banking crisis have contributed to a general sense of anxiety in the economy.
Nevertheless, there were a number of significant sales under the hammer in March. Below are some of the main takeaways.
The five most expensive artworks to hammer at auction in March came from one sale: Sotheby’s modern and contemporary art evening auction in London, which presented works by several 20th-century heavyweights.
The five top lots are as follows:
- Wassily Kandinsky’s Murnau With Church II (1910) sold for $44.8 million.
- Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1986) sold for $29.1 million.
- Pablo Picasso’s Fillette au bateau, Maya (1938) sold for $21.8 million.
- Lucian Freud’s Ib Reading (1997) sold for $20.5 million.
- Edvard Munch’s Dans på stranden (Reinhardt-frisen) (“Dance on the Beach (The Reinhardt Frieze)”) (1906) sold for $20.4 million.
The rest of the month’s most notable sales were spread across auction houses:
- Yoshitomo Nara’s Lookin’ for a Treasure (1995) sold for $10.7 million at Phillips’s 20th-century and contemporary art sale, its first sale at the auction house’s new Hong Kong headquarters.
- Robert Delaunay’s Rythme circulaire (1937) sold for $8.6 million at the aforementioned Sotheby’s sale.
- Andy Warhol’s Debbie Harry (1980) sold for $7.9 million at the aforementioned Sotheby’s sale.
- Willem de Kooning’s [No Title] (1984) sold for $7.3 million at Phillips’s 20th-century and contemporary art evening sale in London.
- Alexander Calder’s Black Disc With Flags (1939) sold for $5.5 million at Christie’s “ADAM” sale in New York, which featured a selection of lots from the collection of investor Adam Lindemann.
The ascent of ultra-contemporary women artists’ works at auction was a key trend that continued in March.
Caroline Walker’s Threshold (2014) sold for $1.1 million at Phillips, making it the highest record price from a female ultra-contemporary artist in March. The total caps a remarkable trajectory for the Scottish artist, whose works’ prices under the hammer have risen at a remarkable pace over the past two years. Walker’s previous record was set by The Puppeteer (2013), which sold for $835,923 at Christie’s in February. Over 30 lots by Walker sold at auction last year and already 18 works have sold at auction in 2023 so far. In fact, of all ultra-contemporary artists since the beginning of 2023, only Aboudia’s works have sold more frequently at major auction houses than Walker.
Other works by ultra-contemporary women artists that broke records at auction in March include:
- Marina Rheingantz’s Paisagem que Anda (2013) sold for $107,950 at Sotheby’s. Her previous record was $31,250, set in 2016.
- Angela Heisch’s Egg White Blue (2020) sold for $91,058 at Phillips. Her previous record was $44,100, set in 2022.
- Tania Marmolejo’s Dreams of Escape (2021) sold for $88,900 at Phillips. Her previous record was $88,285, set in 2022.
- Tammy Nguyen’s Dust Season (2020) sold for $88,900 at Phillips. Her previous record was $8,820, set in 2022.
Other notable new records set at auction in March include:
- Alma Thomas’s Snow Reflections (1973) sold for $3.3 million at Sotheby’s.
- Cuban sculptor, installation artist, videographer, and photographer Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons’s work Soy una fuente (I Am a Fountain) (1990), sold for $100,800 at Christie’s, marking the first time the artist’s work crossed the six-figure mark at auction.
See more sales that broke auction records in March here.
March also saw a number of artists’ works arrive at major auction houses for the first time, with some resulting in impressive, estimate-beating sales:
- American painter and Artsy Vanguard 2022 alum Dominic Chambers made his major auction debut at Sotheby’s with Untitled (Karrine in Red) (2020), which sold for $73,315—the most expensive auction debut of the month, and 52% higher than its low estimate.
- American artist Bisa Butler’s work beat low estimates by 133% with the quilted portrait Whirlwind (2016), which hammered for $69,850 at Phillips in New York.
- British artist Daisy Dodd-Noble’s work exceeded estimates by a staggering 1,064% when Three trees on an island (2020) sold for $69,850 at Phillips in New York.
While May is typically the next major moment in the auction calendar, there are a handful of sales for collectors to keep an eye on next month.
- In Paris, Christie’s will hold its Impressionist and modern art sale, featuring works by Jean Arp, Henri Matisse, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre Bonnard. In New York, the auction house will present its prints and multiples sale, with works from the likes of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein. Christie’s New York will also host “The Sale of the Century: An Important Corporate Collection of Prints and Multiples,” which comprises more than 400 lots, including an “unprecedented selection of complete portfolios.” Highlights include works by Barnett Newman, David Hockney, El Lissitzky, and László Moholy-Nagy.
- Phillips will hold its sale of editions and works on paper in New York midway through the month, with selected highlights from Tom Wesslemann, Donald Judd, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol.
- Sotheby’s will hold a series of Hong Kong spring sales, led by its 50th-anniversary modern and contemporary evening auctions. Highlights at the contemporary sale include works by Yoshitomo Nara, Roy Lichtenstein, and Zeng Fanzhi; and at the modern sale, works by Picasso, Miró, and Zao Wou-Ki lead the selections. In London, the auction house will hold its “Contemporary Curated” sale with works from the likes of Banksy, Robert Longo, Glenn Brown, and George Condo.
- Artsy will hold a street art sale from April 18th through 27th, featuring “sought-after works by some of the most desired names in the market right now.”
