Christie’s Made a Bid for New Buyers With a Sale of Art Starting at $100. It Paid Off Big Time

Christie’s bet that an online-only sale of lower-priced art
would attract new buyers seems to have paid off big time. The sale,
dubbed Christie’s 100, featured 92 lots by many well-known
contemporary artists, with bids starting at as low as $100. Certain
works even sold for considerably less than the average New Yorker’s
monthly rent, including a Louise Lawler print for $1,000, and a
John Bock work on paper for $750.

In all, 96 percent of the works found buyers and the sale pulled
in $347,375. That might seem like a drop in the bucket for an
auction house whose marquee evening sales routinely feature seven-
and eight-figure trophy lots that draw bids from billionaires
around the world. But it goes a long way towards locking in new and
aspiring buyers—especially those more comfortable making bids
online, without having to raise a paddle in a packed auction
room.

Two nights after the sale went live on January 28 there were
already 160 unique bidders out of 300 registrants, indicating even
more activity to come. Bidding wrapped up today.

“I have wanted to do this ever since I took over First Open a
couple of years ago,” said Christie’s postwar and contemporary
specialist Noah Davis in a phone interview with Artnet News,
referring to the house’s initiative to offer art at more accessible
price points. “As the First Open venue matures, there are more
objects in the $20,000-plus range. That is where we make the most
money. But we didn’t want to lose sight of the opportunity to
correctly market lower-value items too.”

Noting that there are typically hundreds of bidders registered
for First Open sales, Davis says that sales like Christie’s 100 are
a boon to a demographic with a modest collecting budget. “If there
is a percentage that would like to bid, but [they] don’t
necessarily want to bid on a $20,000 object, we want them to know
that this is where they can come,” he explains, “as opposed to
sifting through 300 lots in order to find things in their striking
range. That can be tedious and overwhelming.”

While the vast majority of lots had an estimate below $5,000, a
few objects were in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. 

The top price of the sale was earned by a Vera Lutter
triptych, Frankfurt Airport VII: April 24, 2001
(2001), that opened with a starting bid of $100 and sold for
$37,500 on an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. Other lots that
opened with $100 bids included Roxy Paine’s Amanita
Muscaria #5 (2002), which sold for $8,750; Jean
Tinguely’s Vive la fête des idiots (1989) which sold
for $8,750; Yayoi Kusama’s Yellow Pumpkin & Red
Pumpkin (2015), which went for $3,500; and Matt
Mullican’s Untitled (1991), which realized $8,750.

Also among the five-figure works was  a Jeff Koons
Balloon Dog (Red) (1995) stainless steel sculpture, which
sold for $16,250.

Davis said he saw patterns typical of online sales including
strong bidding presence from New York and Los Angeles as well as
London, and what appears to be a spike in bidding from people
arriving at work early in the morning or bidding from home upon
their evening arrival.

Following the successful experiment, Christie’s will see if the
enthusiasm carries over to the next few First Open sales. “It’s not
about trying to make an extreme or insane amount of money for
Christie’s by nature of the profile,” says Davis.

The post Christie’s Made a Bid for New Buyers With a Sale of
Art Starting at $100. It Paid Off Big Time appeared first on
artnet News.