Thereafter things began to move in the Drexler market. Two prominent New York galleries, Berry Campbell (specialists in marginalised artists) and Robert Mnuchin (a legendary dealer in Abstract Expressionist art) got together with newly formed advisory firm, Art Intelligence Global, to plan twin exhibitions of her work. But before that happened, in March 2022 Christie’s offered a large painting, Flowered Hundred (1962) – which had been gifted to the Farnsworth Art Museum by the Drexler Archive in 2002 – and sold it for a staggering $1.2 million.
The next shift happened in January 2023, when Mnuchin’s partner Sukanya Rajaratnam, left the gallery, but kept on her role as adviser to the increasingly valuable archive. In September 2023, it was announced that she had joined Jay Jopling’s ever-expanding White Cube gallery. The following November, the gallery had sealed an agreement to represent The Lynne Drexler Archive worldwide, apart from in America, where Berry Campbell still holds the reins.
Rajaratnam has organised this month’s Drexler exhibition for White Cube. Prices will range from five figures for works on paper to $1.5 million for the larger paintings. Privately, some works have sold for as much as $3 million, says Rajaratnam. Next stop, she adds, will be Asia where White Cube has galleries in Seoul and Hong Kong – a long way from those $50 sales on Monhegan Island.
A $1 million banana? Don’t make me laugh
Later this week, New York’s November sales go on view. They boast a $95 million (£73 million) Magritte and a $60 million Monet together with a $2 million wooden shovel by Marcel Duchamp and – no joking – a $1 million banana, Comedian (2019) by Maurizio Cattelan.
Comedian went viral when it was first shown by the dealer, Emmanuel Perrotin at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019, and all three from the edition of three were sold for between $120,000 and $150,000 dollars each. The one now at Sotheby’s has already made a handsome profit; it is currently touring ten Sotheby’s locations worldwide. For anyone concerned about ripeness, it’s not an actual banana for sale, but an artist’s certificate allowing the purchaser to tape it wherever they want as an original work of art by Cattelan, whose other works have sold for up to $17.2 million. Sotheby’s says, “the buyer receives a certificate of authenticity, including official instructions for installation plus a roll of tape, and one banana”. The banana can be replaced “as needed”. Phew!
At Phillips, the eye catcher is a 1981 painting by Andy Warhol of Trump Tower, entitled New York Skyscrapers. According to Warhol’s posthumously published diaries, he met Donald and Ivana at the suggestion of a mutual friend, made several designs in different colours based on an architect’s model and sprinkled them with diamond dust. Of the meeting Warhol wrote: “It was so strange; these people are so rich. They talked about buying a building yesterday for 500 million dollars or something…”
