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Christie’s three major evening auctions in New York this May brought in a combined total of $585.4 million across 114 lots, with all sale totals including buyer’s fees. While the Leonard & Louise Riggio Collection and 20th Century Evening Sale together accounted for $489 million on May 13, the 21st Century Evening Sale added a further $96.4 million the following night. The results confirmed a season shaped by attention to provenance, strategic guarantees, and a historic record set by Marlene Dumas.

Riggio’s Mondrian Highlights 20th Century Sales

Christie’s opened its New York spring season on May 12 with an evening of back-to-back sales. The night began with Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works, which achieved $272 million against a presale estimate of $252 million to $326 million. It was followed by the 20th Century Evening Sale, which totaled $217 million on a $194 million to $260 million estimate. While both auctions landed within their forecasted ranges after fees, the combined hammer total of $409 million fell short of expectations.

Piet Mondrian. Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue, Painted in Paris in 1922. Oil on canvas.

The Riggio Collection, offered in a tightly curated sequence of 38 lots, was defined by its emphasis on surrealism, minimalism, and 20th-century modernism. Assembled over three decades by Barnes & Noble founder Leonard Riggio and his wife Louise, the collection reflected the couple’s deeply personal engagement with art and included many works that once hung in their Park Avenue home. All but one lot sold and there was one withdrawal. The top lot of the evening was Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue, 1922. Estimated in the region of $50 million, the painting hammered at $41 million and sold for $47.6 million, falling just short of the artist’s record of $51 million set at Sotheby’s New York in November 2022.

Pablo Picasso. Femme à la coiffe d'Arlésienne sur fond vert (Lee Miller), Painted in Mougins on 2 September 1937. Oil and Ripolin on canvas.

René Magritte, the top-selling artist at auction in 2024, anchored the Riggio sale with two major works. L’empire des lumières sold for $34.91 million, matching its result from Christie’s in November 2023. A second work by the artist, Les droits de l’homme, achieved $15.94 million – just shy of its $15 million low estimate. Other highlights from the Riggio collection included Pablo picasso’s Femme à la coiffe d'Arlésienne sur fond vert (Lee Miller), which realized $28.01 million against a $20 million to $30 million estimate, and Alberto Giacometti’s Femme de Venise I, which fetched $17.66 million, in line with expectations.

Following a brief intermission, the subsequent 20th Century Evening Sale brought forward 37 catalogued lots with two withdrawals, resulting in a 94% sell-through rate. Monet’s Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crepuscule, 1891, was the highlight, achieving $42.9 million on a $30 million to $50 million estimate after a five-minute bidding contest.

Dorothea Tanning, Endgame, 1944, oil on canvas.

Beyond the Monet, the 20th Century Evening Sale saw a small group of strong performers. Mark Rothko’s No. 4 (Two Dominants) realized $37.79 million, while Gerhard Richter’s Korsika (Schiff) surpassed its $12 million high estimate to bring in $15.25 million. Dorothea tanning’s Endgame, 1944, set a new auction record at $2.35 million, exceeding its $1.5 million high estimate, while Remedios Varo’s Revelación (El relojero), 1955, achieved $6.2 million. The back-to-back results not only underscored sustained market interest in Surrealism, but also reaffirmed the rising recognition of historically overlooked female artists within the movement.

Marlene Dumas Sets Record for Living Female Artist at 21st Century Evening Sale

Christie’s continued its spring auction series on May 14 with its 21st Century Evening Sale, which realized $96.5 million across 39 offered lots, within its revised presale range of $79.5 million to $114 million. The hammer total reached $79 million. While that figure falls short of the equivalent sales held in May 2024 ($114.7 million) and November 2023 ($106.5 million), it nonetheless delivered several notable moments, particularly for works by female artists. Of the lots offered, 24 came with house guarantees and 17 with third-party backing. Three were withdrawn and four failed to sell, resulting in an overall sell-through rate of 81%.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Baby Boom, Executed in 1982. Acrylic, oilstick and paper collage on canvas.

The top lot of the evening was Jean-Michel basquiat’s Baby Boom, 1982, a seven-foot-wide painting interpreted as a familial portrait. The work carried an estimate of $20 million to $30 million and hammered at its low estimate. With fees, the final price was $23.4 million. Its sale was immediately followed by a milestone result for Marlene Dumas, whose Miss January, 1997, sold for $13.6 million, setting a new auction record for a living female artist. The towering portrait, depicting a beauty queen nude from the waist down except for a single pink sock, was consigned from the Rubell Family Collection and had an estimate of $12 million to $18 million.

Auctioneer Yü-Ge Wang sells Marlene Dumas’ Miss January, 1997.

While Miss January attracted only two bids, the moment was symbolically significant. Dumas’s result surpassed the previous record held by Jenny Saville’s Propped, which had achieved $12.4 million in 2018. The spirit of momentum carried into the next lot, with Simone Leigh’s Sentinel, 2020, – a 10.5-foot-tall bronze – setting a new auction record for the artist at $5.7 million.

Several ultra-contemporary artists also achieved new benchmarks. Danielle McKinney’s The Fool, 2021, estimated at $70,000, sold for $207,900 after a protracted bidding contest. Emma McIntyre’s Up bubbles her amorous breath, 2021, fetched $201,600, and Louis Fratino’s You and Your Things, 2022, reached $756,000. Each set new auction records. These results stood in contrast to quieter showings for Félix Gonzalez-Torres, Ellsworth Kelly, and Louise Bourgeois who were either bought in or passed.

While the total fell short of past spring sales, Christie’s leaned on price discipline, strategic guarantees, and strong provenance to maintain stability. The evening ultimately affirmed a trend already visible earlier in the week: works by women, especially those tied to major collections, proved among the most compelling to bidders. With $585.4 million in evening sales, Christie’s outpaced Sotheby’s $372.5 million total and underscored its stronger market positioning.

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