<img decoding="async" class="size-full-width wp-image-1601130" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/SOTHEBYS2025_1118_065348-6367_ALIVE.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt="An auctioneer, Oliver Barker, stands at the Sothebyâs podium with his arms raised while taking bids in a crowded auction room. Behind him is a large projected screen showing Gustav Klimtâs Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer with a bid of 205 million USD, and the actual painting hangs on the wall to his right. Audience members photograph the moment with their phones.” width=”970″ height=”647″ data-caption=’Oliver Backer led the white-glove $527.5 million Lauder collection sale at Sotheby’s in New York. <span class=”media-credit”>Photography courtesy of Alive</span>’>
Following Christie’s successful start to the week, Sotheby’s debut at the Breuer building on November 18 marked another auction for the books, showing that buyers are willing to spend significant amounts on art and remain active internationally when it comes to masterpieces. Dominating headlines last night was Gustav Klimt’s towering masterpiece Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer (Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer) from 1914-16, which topped the white-glove auction of Leonard A. Lauder’s once-in-a-generation collection of 20th-century masterpieces with its $236.4 million result. The sale closed with a record-setting $527.5 million total, surpassing its presale estimate of $379.2-412.5 million.
Klimt’s portrait also exceeded expectations, hammering on the phone for $205 million before fees—well above its $150 million estimate—to become both the most valuable work by the artist and the most valuable work ever sold in Sotheby’s Modern category. The previous record was held by Picasso’s 1955 Les Femmes d’Alger (Version O), sold at Christie’s New York in 2015 for $179.4 million.
Following the 24-lot Lauder sale, the 21st-century The Now and Contemporary sale was led by Maurizio Cattelan’s viral 18-karat golden toilet, which achieved $12.1 million, marking the artist’s second-highest result at auction and extending his momentum this season after last year’s $6.2 million duct-taped banana.
By midnight, as the evening closed, Sotheby’s reported a final total of $706 million once the additional $178.5 million from The Now and Contemporary was added (over an estimate of $143.6-198.25 million). The combined total was nearly double the auction house’s presale expectations of $379.2-412.5 million, resulting in the highest total ever generated in a single evening by Sotheby’s.
“We witnessed art market history tonight at Sotheby’s,” Sotheby’s CEO Charles F. Stewart said in his statement to the press, noting that this extraordinary result was a fitting inauguration for the auction house’s new building, one to which Leonard A. Lauder’s vision and generosity were so closely tied. In a CNBC interview in recent weeks, Stewart had also noted that “the supply [is] catching up with the demand” in the current season.
There was strong demand for the high-value trophies Sotheby’s secured for the first section of its multimillion-dollar marquee week, driven in particular by bidders in Asia. Within the Leonard A. Lauder auction, two additional Klimt masterpieces—landscapes depicting the artist’s beloved summer retreat, Attersee—also soared above estimates. Blumenwiese (Blooming Meadow) (c. 1908) sold for $86 million against its $80 million estimate, while Waldabhang bei Unterach am Attersee (Forest Slope in Unterach on the Attersee) (1916) achieved $68.3 million. The latter went to Patti Wong, a power advisor at Patti Wong & Associates and, most recently, a founding member of New Perspectives Art Partners. Two pencil-on-paper studies by Klimt also surpassed expectations, bringing the artist’s total for the night to $391,683,300. “Demand for art among Asian collectors has remained strong, despite speculation sometimes to the contrary. Collectors are actively seeking works at the highest level,” Wong told Observer after the sale. “Last night we helped three different clients pursue each of the three masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, and were also direct underbidder on the Edward Munch.”
Wong narrowly in fact missed another Lauder highlight: Edvard Munch’s Nordic-tinged Sankthansnatt (Midsummer Night), which sold in the room for $35.1 million after a seven-minute bidding fight among three contenders. Igniting an even longer 10-minute battle toward the end of the sale was Agnes Martin’s meticulous, subtle, multicolored grid canvas The Garden (1964), which sold for $17,630,000 after being pursued by three bidders. The work made a symbolic return to the building where it had been publicly shown in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s landmark 1992-94 retrospective. Lauder acquired it immediately after that show in 1995.
Also returning to the Breuer since its inclusion in a 2000 Whitney exhibition was another Agnes Martin canvas, Untitled #4 (1995), a later work similar to the paintings currently on view at Pace—works in which the artist achieved a serene, reconciliatory clarity after her long, relentless pursuit of order in cosmic chaos. It achieved $7.4 million after fees, more than doubling its previously estimated $3 million high.
The six Matisse bronzes also drew strong demand, generating a combined $49 million and surpassing their $30.8-42.6 million presale range. Leading the group was Matisse’s Figure décorative, considered one of the earliest and most significant examples of his engagement with the traditional nude, which sold for $16.7 million (est. $12-18 million) after attracting competition from five bidders, now the second-highest price for a Matisse bronze at auction.
Right before that, Van Gogh’s raw, essential rural scene Dans un champ de blé au soleil couchant (1888), a pen-and-ink drawing distilling many of the key traits of his style, sold just above its high estimate for $11,115,000. Backed by both a third-party guarantee and an irrevocable bid, it is now the highest price ever paid for a Van Gogh drawing at auction.
Bidding remained strong to the end of the Lauder sale, with the model for Claes Oldenburg’s 45-foot-tall ten-ton Clothespin—a key symbol in the creation of his iconic soft sculptures—fetching $2,063,000 from its $600,000-800,000 estimate after several minutes of competition.
<img decoding="async" class="size-full-width wp-image-1601133" src="https://observer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/11/SOTHEBYS2025_1118_203234-8829_ALIVE.jpg?quality=80&w=970" alt="Auctioneer Phyllis Kao stands at the Sothebyâs podium gesturing toward bidders during a contemporary art sale. A large screen behind her displays Maurizio Cattelanâs gold toilet sculpture America with bids reaching 10 million USD. The Klimt painting from the earlier sale hangs on the wall beside her, and staff and audience members watch from the room.” width=”970″ height=”647″ data-caption=’Phyllis Kao leading The Now and Contemporary sale, where Maurizio Cattelan’s 18-karat gold America achieved $12.1 million. <span class=”media-credit”>Photography courtesy of Alive</span>’>
After a short break, Sotheby’s was ready to resume with dynamite auctioneer Phyllis Kao (spelled in the catalog as Phillys Khao, though the correct spelling is Phyllis Kao), who kept the momentum high for the 45-lot The Now and Contemporary sale. It added another $178.5 million, marking a 40 percent increase from the May evening sale ($127.1 million) and a 92 percent rise from last year’s November sale ($92.9 million).
The result wasn’t driven only by Cattelan’s gleaming golden toilet but by a string of record prices, a 95 percent sell-through rate, and 59 percent of the lots selling above estimate, evidence of a vibrant market for contemporary and living artists, particularly those with strong institutional footing rather than mere ultracontemporary hype.
The sale opened strongly with Raymond Pettibon’s Surfing series drawing, consigned by Marcel Brient, which reached $2,734,000 (est. $1-1.5 million). Next came Henry Taylor’s portrait of his ex-partner and fellow painter Cassi Namoda, reportedly consigned by gallerist Jeff Poe and his wife Rosalie Benitez, selling for $2.3 million from its $800,000-1,200,000 estimate after interest from three bidders. Many recognized the work from Taylor’s major exhibitions at MOCA Los Angeles and the Whitney Museum, which clearly bolstered its value.
Immediately after came Antonio Obá’s Alvorada – Música Incidental Black Bird (2020), described as one of the artist’s most important works to appear at auction and the cover of his 2023 monograph. It reached $1,016,000, shattering his previous record of $359,900 set in 2024, after a prolonged five-way battle that drove the result to more than seven times its estimate.
Another major record followed with Cecily Brown’s High Society (1997-1998), which achieved $9.8 million (est. $4-9 million) and surpassed her previous benchmark of $6,766,200 set by Approximately Last Summer (1999). A seminal work, one of the first in which Brown introduced a more identifiable figure, High Society was central to her 1998 Deitch show and was recently included in last year’s major retrospective across the Dallas Museum of Art and the Barnes Foundation. As reported by Forbes, it likely comes from the collection of Palm Beach philanthropists Martin and Toni Sosnoff.
A few lots later, a poetic, evocative painting by rising Japanese artist Yu Nishimura, thicket, achieved a new record at $711,200, selling for roughly five times its $80,000-120,000 estimate (which was closer to his current primary prices since he joined Zwirner) and hundreds of thousands more than the consignor originally paid for it at Galerie Crèvecœur, Paris in 2020.
Then came one of the night’s absolute stars: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1981 Crowns (Peso Neto), which exceeded even its ambitious $35-45 million estimate, already the highest ever assigned to a work from this pivotal year, achieving $48.3 million. Sold to an Asian client on the phone with Jen Hua, deputy chairman Asia and chairman China, the work was fresh to market and reportedly consigned by French collector Francis Lombrail. First exhibited at Basquiat’s inaugural U.S. solo show at Annina Nosei Gallery in March 1982, it is a key work in the artist’s trajectory.
Between these triumphs came a surprising pass: a sentimental sunset scene by Kerry James Marshall failed to find a buyer for its $10-12 million estimate, despite being billed as one of the most valuable Marshall works ever offered. It had appeared in the artist’s major mid-career retrospective, “Kerry James Marshall: Mastry,” at the Met during its Breuer brief moment in 2016. Most recently on view at The Church in Sag Harbor, the work comes from longtime collector Neda Young and will likely return to her unless a private sale intervenes.
But momentum returned quickly. After his recent success in London, Peter Doig’s winter scene exceeded expectations, selling for $2,978,000. Though it shares the title of the monumental canvas from the Ole Faarup collection that achieved $19.1 million at Christie’s London last month, this example is far more modest in scale (46.7×50.5 cm.), justifying the different result.
After a cheerful interlude with a blooming cherry tree painting by Hirst, which sold within estimate for $3,040,000, the sale reached the news-making Cattelan golden toilet. Starting from a $9.9 million estimate indexed to the daily price of gold, it ultimately sold just after a straightforward bid for $12.1 million to a “famous American brand,” according to Sotheby’s, on the phone with Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman of Sotheby’s science and natural history. During preview days, the work had become a viral phenomenon: over 25,000 visitors queued to experience it firsthand, making Sotheby’s quite possibly the most crowded auction house preview in history, a mix of collectors, enthusiasts, and general audiences.
Buyers were not discouraged even by Cady Noland’s well-known tendency to disavow works shown without her consent. At the next lot, her provocative Cowboy Eating with Shoulder Hole (1990), from her most acclaimed early aluminum cutouts, sold for $2,002,000, far above its $600,000-800,000 estimate, and followed her recent reappearance at Gagosian last month. Last shown in the landmark exhibition “New West–Old West” at Luhring Augustine Hetzler in 1990, the work had been acquired by the legendary San Francisco collector Byron R. Meyer, who is now consigning it.
Jess’s Fig. 6–A Lamb for Pylaochos: Herko, N.Y. ’64: Translation #1 also set a new record, three times the artist’s previous benchmark. A less frequent presence at auctions, Jess (Burgess Franklin Collins, 1923-2004) left his former role as a chemist on the Manhattan Project after a disturbing premonition led him to reinvent himself within San Francisco’s postwar bohemian and Beat circles. His dense “paste-ups,” combining comics, engravings, and mystical symbolism, have since been honored with major museum retrospectives.
Another highlight was a rare early blue sponge sculpture by Klein, Sculpture éponge bleue sans titre (SE 167), circa 1959, which achieved $19 million, just above its $18 million high estimate. Held for over six decades in the Durand-Ruel family collection and last shown publicly in Klein’s pivotal 1967 exhibition at The Jewish Museum, the piece is one of only six works of its scale, three of which now reside in major institutions.
A more surprising pass came with Barkley L. Hendricks’s playful but perhaps overly monumental Arriving Soon (1973), which failed to sell against its $9-12 million estimate. But the tone shifted immediately after when Noah Davis’s The Casting Call, a narratively dynamic painting made even more iconic after his 2022 Zwirner exhibition, set a new auction record. The artist is currently celebrated with his most extensive retrospective to date, which has traveled to DAS MINSK Kunsthaus, Potsdam; the Barbican, London; and the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and will open at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2026.
Among the Black painters, Mark Tansey’s majestic The Myth of the Depth also surpassed its estimate, selling for $4,686,000 after being pursued by four bidders. As with many lots in the sale, value was reinforced by its extensive exhibition history, including the artist’s 1993-94 mid-career retrospective at LACMA, MFA Boston, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Following their momentum and after taking center stage at Gagosian’s booth at Frieze New York last May, another edition of Jeff Koons’s bombastic “Hulk Elvis” sculptures sold for $4,442,000 to Larry Gagosian himself, likely more than a million higher than the price achieved for the edition shown at Frieze after spirited competition from five bidders — probably Larry already had someone to sell it even at even higher price?
The sale also included a selection of works from the Roy and Dorothy Lichtenstein collection, all of which sold, achieving a combined total of $20.7 million.
Closing the evening and aimed squarely at the digital art crowd (crypto payments accepted) was Robert Alice’s phygital work Block 1 (24.9472° N, 118.5979° E), 24-karat gold leaf, suspended pigment and acrylic on canvas mounted on panel, presented in an artist’s frame and accompanied by an NFT. It sold within estimate for $762,000, setting a new record for the British digital artist.
The marquee sales continue at Sotheby's on Thursday with two more truly exceptional single-owner collections: The Cindy and Jay Pritzker Collection and Exquisite Corpus, alongside several gems in the Modern Evening Auction. Meanwhile, the baton will pass tonight (Nov. 19) to Christie’s for their 21st Century Evening Sale, Featuring Works from the Edlis | Neeson Collection, starting at 6 p.m. in New York.
Want more insights? Join Working Title - our career elevating newsletter and get the future of work delivered weekly.
