New York’s marquee spring auction week, which began on Monday, May 12th, has not been without its disappointments. But one bright spot lifted the mood at Christie’s 21st-century evening sale on Wednesday, May 14th: Marlene Dumas’s Miss January (1997)—a portrait of a blonde woman nude from the waist down—soared to $13.63 million, setting a new auction record for an artwork by a living woman artist. (All prices include fees.)
The previous record for a living woman artist was held by Propped (1992) by Jenny Saville, which sold for £9.5 million ($12.69 million) at Sotheby’s London in 2018. The sale is still around $77.44 million less than the record-holding work by a living male artist: Jeff Koons’s Rabbit (1986), which sold at Christie’s for $91.07 million in 2019.
Wednesday’s 21st-century evening sale at Christie’s brought in a total of $96.46 million, pushing the house’s spring total to $626.5 million. The sale’s top lot was Baby Boom (1982) by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which sold for $23.41 million. This work, depicting three figures in the artist’s signature style amid frenetic strokes of blue paint, was created in the same year as his most expensive paintings, including Untitled (1982), which set the artist’s auction record when it sold for $110.48 million at Sotheby’s in 2017.
Tension rose among market-watchers early in the week, perhaps set off by the last-minute withdrawal of Andy Warhol’s Big Electric Chair (1967–68), which carried an undisclosed low estimate of around $30 million, at Christie’s 20th-century sale on May 13th. Nine lots were withdrawn from Sotheby’s 20th-century sale on May 13th. Four lots were withdrawn at Christie’s 21st-century evening sale, including an unguaranteed Christopher Wool painting with an estimate of $3.5 million to $5.5 million.
Three of the four records set at Christie’s on Wednesday were by women artists. Simone Leigh’s Sentinel IV (2020) sold for $5.73 million, surpassing her previous record set by Las Meninas II (2019), which sold for $3.08 million at Sotheby’s in 2023. Emma McIntyre’s Up bubbles her amorous breath (2021) sold for $201,600. This smashed the New Zealand–based artist’s previous auction record, set by If there is light that has weight (2021), which sold at Christie’s in 2024 for £100,800 ($126,147).
The fourth auction record set at Wednesday night’s sale was for Louis Fratino’s You and Your Things (2022), which sold for $756,000. The artist’s previous record was held by An Argument (2021), which sold for $730,800 at Sotheby’s in 2022.
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