20th and 21st Century auctions in New York total $965 million

Rockefeller Center, New York, updated: 21 November 2025, 5:00pm ET.

On the heels of dynamic sales in Paris and London, a banner 20th and 21st Century Art sales week at Christie’s New York concluded on Friday 21 November, generating nearly one billion dollars. The $964,536,953 sale total was the auction house’s highest in three years. Cumulatively, sales were sold 108 per cent against low estimate, selling 90 per cent by lot and 96 percent by value.

Bidders and buyers were engaged across all platforms, with active and spirited bidding in the room, on the phones and online — including the highest online bid ever cast in a live Christie’s auction which was placed for the top lot of the week, a Mark Rothko canvas that sold for $62.1 million.

Additionally, masterworks by Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and David Hockney also each achieved prices in excess of $40 million. Twenty-two works sold for over $10 million, including a monumental Christopher Wool painting which sold to a bidder in the room for $19.8 million.

The week saw 15 records broken. New artist records were set for Beauford Delaney, Leonor Fini, Firelei Báez, Olga de Amaral, Joan Brown, Lynne Drexler, Julia Jo and Catherine Goodman. Works by John Singer Sargent and Alexander Calder each set a record for a work on paper by the artist, while a work by František Kupka set a record for a single work on paper by the artist. A work by Richard Prince set a record for a sculpture by the artist. A work by Glenn Ligon set a record for a neon sculpture by the artist. A work by Alexander Calder set a record for a wire sculpture by the artist.

Reports below:

• The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis

• 20th Century Evening Sale

• 21st Century Evening Sale Featuring Works from the Edlis | Neeson Collection

• Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale

• Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper Sale

• Impressionist & Modern Day Sale

• Picasso Ceramics

The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis

On 17 November auctioneer Adrien Meyer, Global Head of Private Sales and Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art, took the rostrum to lead a packed saleroom for The Collection of Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis. The collection achieved a total of $218,066,000, selling 89 per cent by lot and 92 per cent by value.

The crown jewel of the Weis collection, Mark Rothko’s No. 31 (Yellow Stripe) (1958), was the top lot of the night, selling for $62,160,000. This part of the evening was led by the stunning Rothko as well as Picasso’s tender 1932 portrait of his beloved muse Marie-Thérèse Walter, which realised $45,485,000. The sale presented one of the most thoughtful private collections of 20th-century art in the United States, previously unseen for decades.

Henri Matisse’s Figure et bouquet (Tête ocre) (1937), fetched $32,260,000, soaring past its high estimate and inspiring a thoroughly positive night for the artist. Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red and Blue (1939-1941) realised $23,060,000. Max Ernst’s bronze icon of Surrealist sculpture, Le roi jouant avec la reine, conceived in 1944 and cast in 1961, fetched $20,185,000.

20th Century Evening Sale

Directly after the Weis sale on 17 November, auctioneers Adrien Meyer and David Kleiweg de Zwaan, Senior Specialist, Impressionist and Modern Art, led the 20th Century Evening Sale. The auction realised a total of $471,728,000, selling 98 per cent by lot and 100 per cent by value.

The sale opened with John Singer Sargent’s Gondolier’s Siesta (circa 1902-1903). Well-timed to the artist’s recent exhibitions at the Musée d’Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it went for $7,395,000, more than doubling its high estimate and setting a record for a work on paper by the artist. An oil on canvas by Sargent, Capri (1878), was another triumph, sailing to $11,445,000.

Claude Monet’s masterpiece Nymphéas (1907), achieved $45,485,000 as part of Property from the Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art in Japan. The painting derives from the legendary body of work he devoted to waterlilies captured in an extraordinary landscape he created at Giverny. One of David Hockney’s rare double portraits, a masterpiece of pictorial drama from 1968, Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, also exceeded $40 million, selling for $44,335,000.

Marc Chagall had his moment in the spotlight when the monumental composition Le songe du Roi David (1966) more than doubled its high estimate selling at $26,510,000 after five minutes of lively bids.

Another highlight of the evening was Birth of the Modern: The Arnold and Joan Saltzman Collection led by Fernand Léger’s Composition (Nature morte) (1914), which sold for $19,610,000. Henry Moore’s magnificent Reclining Woman: (Elbow) (1981), achieved $13,860,000. Matisse’s Femme au chapeau fleuri (1923), dating to the artist’s fruitful years in Nice in the 1920s, realised $10,985,000.

Alexander Calder’s monumental Painted Wood (1943), the largest and most significant wooden Constellation mobile ever to come to auction, achieved $20,415,000. Two Calders from Collector/Connoisseur: The Max N. Berry Collections, Acrobats and Untitled, reached $8,005,000 and $3,003,000 respectively, with Acrobats achieving a new record for a wire sculpture by the artist while the latter vaulted over its high estimate. Acrobats’ star turn dovetails with High Wire: Calder’s Circus, the just-opened centennial exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

A major painting from Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park series and Joan Mitchell’s Sunflower V, both from Elaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn, achieved $17,655,000 and $16,735,000 respectively.

Isamu Noguchi’s granite sculpture Myo (1957-66), which presided over the garden at the Rockefeller family retreat Fieldwood Farm for over 30 years, generated a bidding war between the phones before selling for $7,639,000.

Following the Argentine-Italian Surrealist’s retrospective at the Palazzo Reale in Milan, a new auction record was notched for Leonor Fini when Dans la tour (Autoportrait avec Constantin Jeleński) (1952) garnered $2,515,000.

One of the nation’s finest collections of African American art, the Collection of Faye and Robert Davidson, was led by The Sage Black (1967). Described as an unforgettable portrait of the writer James Baldwin by his dear friend Beauford Delaney, it achieved $1,524,000, a record price for the modernist luminary.

21st Century Evening Sale Featuring Works from the Edlis | Neeson Collection

On Wednesday 19 November, auctioneers Adrien Meyer and Yü-Ge Wang, Associate Director and Senior Client Advisor, steered the 21st Century Evening Sale Featuring Works from the Edlis | Neeson Collection. The sale totalled $123,585,950, selling 98 per cent by lot and 97 per cent by value.

Christopher Wool’s Untitled (RIOT) (1990) was the night’s top lot, selling for $19,840,000. A headline, an announcement, a command, a demand, a threat or a warning? The word, composed of pooled blue enamel, evokes all these meanings in work that exemplifies Wool’s incisive examination of visual symbols.

The evening began with the collection of Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson. Renowned for their daring collection of contemporary art, the couple was celebrated for their generosity to the Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions. Andy Warhol’s The Last Supper (1986) achieved $8,127,000, while Ed Ruscha’s How Do You Do? (2003), the largest of the artist’s celebrated Mountain paintings to come to market, fetched $6,785,000.

Also from the Edlis | Neeson Collection, four works by Diego Giacometti, whose tactile surfaces became a hallmark of his practice, performed exceptionally well, concluding in applause. His ‘Berceau’ Low Table, Modèle aux Renards (circa 1974), sold for $4,528,000 after a seven-minute bidding war, and the ‘Promenade des amis’ Console (designed circa 1977) sold for $3,979,000. Two ‘Bibliothèque au Mexique’ designs by the artist more than doubled their high estimates. Further sales of art and design from the Edlis | Neeson Collection will continue through 2026 at Christie’s.

Additional standouts included Kerry James Marshall’s Portrait of John Punch (Angry Black Man 1646) (2007) — an imagined portrait of the first person sentenced to lifelong enslavement in the British colony of Virginia in 1646 — which sold for $7,151,000.

From the collection of Elaine Wynn, Olga de Amaral’s gilded tapestry Pueblo H sold for $3,125,000, more than doubling the 93-year-old fibre artist’s previous record. A monumental canvas by Firelei Báez additionally established a new record for the artist when it sold for $1,111,250, more than five times its high estimate.

Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale

On Thursday 20 November, the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale totalled $88,779,332, selling 90 per cent by value and 86 per cent by lot.

The morning opened with seven Alexander Calder works from the Max N. Berry Collections, all of which beat their high estimates. The Lion Tamer (1932) proved a highlight, selling for $508,000 — more than 14 times the high estimate and a record for a work on paper by the artist.

On the heels of Gerhard Richter’s acclaimed Paris retrospective and Joan Mitchell’s centennial, abstract masterworks by the respective artists tied for the highest price of the day: Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (2009) and Mitchell’s Untitled (1978-1979) both secured $2,759,000.

Next in line came Lynne Drexler’s Keller Fair II (1959-1962), soaring past its high estimate to achieve $2,027,000, a record for the artist. Brimming with chromatic richness, the work hails from a revered moment in the Abstract Expressionist painter’s career.

Works by Fernando Botero, Ed Clark, Grace Hartigan, Kenneth Noland and Jacob Lawrence all flew, far exceeding their estimates.

Impressionist and Modern Day Sales

On Tuesday 18 November the Impressionist & Modern Works on Paper Sale totalled $10,112,375, selling 82 percent by value and 84 percent by lot.

Edgar Degas’ Danseuses sur la scène (c. 1879) garnered the sale’s highest price, soaring past its high estimate to achieve $1,143,000. The vivid gouache on paper has been in the same family collection for nearly 90 years.

Personnage, oiseau, étoiles (1942) by Joan Miró secured the second highest price, surpassing its high estimate to achieve $914,400. With bursts of saturated colour and cosmic motifs, the work reflects Miró’s enduring fascination with dreamlike imagery and the subconscious.

Four works by Paul Signac flew, with Saint-Tropez (1901) quadrupling its high estimate.

The Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale achieved $47,431,057, selling 90 per cent by value and 88 per cent by lot. The top lot of the sale was Childe Hassam’s The Flower Seller (1894). Previously exhibited at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, it sold well above estimate, garnering $2,149,000.

Two top lots originated from the esteemed Saltzman collection: Robert Delaunay’s 1906 portrait of the French painter and writer Jean Metzinger, which sold for $2,027,000, and Miró’s La Chanteuse Mélancolique (1955), which achieved $1,905,000.

Picasso Ceramics

On Friday 21 November, a dynamic Picasso Ceramics sale came to close. The online auction totalled $4,833,239, selling 100 per cent by lot and 100 per cent by value.

Picasso’s Tripode (1951) fetched the highest price of the sold-out auction, realising $381,000, more than double its high estimate. The uniquely shaped earthenware draws from the pottery of ancient Cyprus and depicts the face of his longtime muse Françoise Gilot.

Many works in the sale more than quadrupled their estimates, demonstrating enduring enthusiasm for the Spanish artist’s ceramics. The Hibou (1954) pitcher proved a highlight, closing at more than 18 times its high estimate.

Up next in New York

Don’t miss Latin American Art Online (3-17 December) and First Open | Post-War & Contemporary Art (2-16 December).