Phillips, the third largest auctioneer in New York, opens its evening sale (May 19) with property from the estate of the Miami philanthropist Tina Hills, who bought major works by the artists Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler, and works from the private collection of John L. Loeb Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, who has a particularly impressive collection of paintings of tranquil interior scenes by Vilhelm Hammershoi, who has been called the Danish Vermeer.
Other highlights of the Phillips sale include Claude Monet’s “La route de Vétheuil, effet de neige,” which the artist painted in Vétheuil, France, in 1879, with an estimate of $7 million to $10 million, as well as a rare work on canvas by the American sculptor Lee Bontecou, “Plate 166,” which could fetch $1.2 million to $1.8 million.
“We’re going to have blockbuster after blockbuster, between Mnuchin, Gund and all these other estates,” Ward said.
Given that there is so much material for sale, one must wonder if there is sufficient demand within the market for so many big-ticket items. Art dealers seemed to feel that the concentration of wealth among the very prosperous means there is real buying power, if the work is high quality and rare to the market.
“Rich people are richer than they’ve ever been, at least on paper,” the New York art dealer Marianne Boesky said in an interview. “A lot of what has impacted the market in recent years is mood, and people not having the attention with everything that’s going on.”
That mood can change in an instant, however, especially with President Trump’s unpredictable approach to world affairs. Optimism, after all, is merely a state of mind, and the art market, like the stock market, is driven by a feeling of security.
