Christie’s auction house in Recent York.
CNBC
A version of this primary article appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Enroll to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
Auction house Christie’s just sold a painting for greater than $100 million, although the artwork, the customer and the vendor were officially kept a secret.
In an interview with CNBC, CEO Guillaume Cerutti said Christie’s sold a painting in January in a personal sale with a price “in excess of $100 million,” though the auction house declined to offer details.
Art dealers aware of the transaction told CNBC the painting was Mark Rothko’s “No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red),” painted in 1951. It was sold by Russian billionaire and collector Dmitry Rybolovlev, who purchased the piece for a reported 140 million euros in 2014.
Kenneth Griffin, the hedge fund billionaire and Citadel CEO, bought the piece from Rybolovlev last month. Griffin, a significant collector of nine-figure artworks, declined to comment through a spokesperson.
Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, at CNBC’s Delivering Alpha on Sept. 28, 2022.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
The mysterious nature of the sale, with few publicly available details, highlights the rapid growth lately of personal sales — a little-noticed and secretive corner of the auction world. In a personal sale, a piece is brought for a possible sale to an auction house, which reaches out to its top clients and brokers a deal. Private sales have surged because the Covid-19 pandemic, as increasingly more collectors prefer discreet transactions outside the general public eye.
Last 12 months, Christie’s racked up $1.2 billion in private sales, up 49% from pre-pandemic levels and adding to its $5 billion in public auction sales. Auction house Sotheby’s reported $1.2 billion in private sales, up from $1.1 billion in 2022.
Mark Rothko, No. 6 (Violet, Green and Red).
Private sales are especially effective for coveted masterpieces and may often eclipse top prices at auction. Last 12 months, the costliest work Christie’s sold at public auction was a $74 million Monet water lily painting, yet Cerutti said it sold a piece in a personal sale for an undisclosed higher price.
He said private sales do especially well during times of economic uncertainty. Last 12 months, total sales at the main auction houses were down 19%, in line with ArtTactic.
“[Private sales] are the right market to be contracyclical,” he said. “When the market is harder with auction, the sellers or the consigners may feel that there’s a risk for them of not selling the article and subsequently, when an object doesn’t sell, it becomes harder to sell it in the approaching years. When the market is tougher, generally private sales do higher.”
Cerutti also said clients prefer it “since it’s quick and confidential.” It is also a way for Christie’s to “approach the perfect collectors on the planet.”
The $100 million sale may be a positive sign for the broader art and collectibles market as Christie’s gears up for its spring sales. Its auction of “The Collection of Sir Elton John,” with greater than 900 items from the musician’s former Atlanta home, totaled $20.5 million — greater than twice the estimate.
The highest lot was Banksy’s “Flower Thrower Triptych” that sold for $1.9 million. A Rolex Daytona wristwatch with a leopard-print dial sold for $176,400, and a pair of silver platform boots went for $94,500 — greater than 19 times the low end of estimates. John’s beloved 1990 Bentley Continental went for $441,000, far above its low estimate of $25,000.
Christie’s said greater than 450,000 collectors and fans browsed the sales online within the weeks leading as much as the auctions. The live auction attracted nearly a million views from world wide, the auction house said.
Enroll to receive future editions of CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank.
