Roy Lichtenstein's $30 Million USD Painting to Lead Christie's Four-City Global Auction
Among other prominent works by Pablo Picasso and Ed Ruscha.
On July 10, Christie’s will hold a new auction, titled “ONE: A Global Sale of the 20th Century,” at its international headquarters in New York, London, Paris and Hong Kong. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to shift auction houses online, the one-day sale of modern and contemporary art and design will replace the previously scheduled New York 20th century evening installments slated for the week of June 22.
The new format gives the auction houses flexibility: works of art will be exhibited at each location, which will allow collectors to stop by depending on government social distancing regulations. They can then get access to other offices for real-time video tours of the works on display there. “With our virtual and physical worlds rapidly merging, we felt that it was vital that we meet this new reality with an innovative platform,” said Alex Rotter, Christie’s chairman of postwar and contemporary art in New York. “And so it begins, we begin again, with ONE.”
Top lots in New York include Pablo Picasso’s Les femmes d’Alger (version ‘F’) (1955), which is estimated to fetch $25 million USD, as well as Roy Lichtenstein’s 1994 Nude with Joyous Painting carrying an estimate of $30 million USD — the sale will mark the painting’s auction debut. The late-career nude done in Lichtenstein’s Pop Art style was completed before the artist’s death in 1997. Ed Ruscha’s Annie (1962) will also lead the New York sale. Standing almost six feet tall, the slogan-on-landscape work is estimated to sell for between $20 million and $30 million USD.
Led by Elaine Kwok, the auction will begin in Hong Kong at 8 p.m. HKT with Zao Wou-Ki’s two-meter high painting 21.10.63 — estimated at $10 million USD — among other works. Bidders will be available to participate online via Christie’s Live bidding channel and, where government policy allows, in each sale room location.
In other news, former CEO of online auction house Paddle8 Valentine Uhovski is being sued for $1 million USD.
