One after another, down they went. Almost all of the top-priced works at Christie's auction of Impressionist and modern art failed to sell yesterday as collectors failed to respond to what turned out to be aggressively priced works by Degas, Picasso and Giacometti.
The sale, the first of two weeks of critical fall auctions at Christie's and rival Sotheby's, took in $141 million, against a pre-sale estimate of $210 million to $300 million. Less than two-thirds of 82 works on offer found buyers.
After several seasons of the art market defying unstable financial markets, officials were chastened by the sale where the expected highlight, an iconic Degas sculpture of a teenage dancer expected to sell for about $30 million, drew no bids higher than $18.5 million.
A pair of Picasso portraits expected to sell for $12 million to $18 million and two Giacomettis in the $10 million range were all casualties.
"We saw a market at its most selective," said Conor Jordan, Christie's head of Impressionist and modern art in New York.
Thomas Seydoux, Christie's international head of Impressionist and modern art, called the sale "quite patchy" and said the market was "more sensitive and selective than we thought".
Mr Seydoux said the sale would bring "a lot of thinking about estimates going forward".
He said Christie's had convinced sellers to lower reserves - the secret minimum price at which an owner agrees to sell - in recent days but apparently not enough for buyers.
A handful of strong prices mitigated the results, led by Max Ernst's The Stolen Mirror. It soared to $16.3 million including commission, more than three times the estimate and smashing the artist's record of $2.67 million.
A Brancusi sculpture, Le premier cri, fetched $14.87 million, far exceeding the $10 million high estimate. Works by Magritte sold for $10.2 million and $7 million and a Picasso set a world record for any print at auction.
Mr Jordan said the auction was "challenging" but that it was "premature to draw wide implications from one sale".
On a positive note, he pointed to strong non-US bidding, with six of the top 10 lots bought by European or South American collectors.
But even Christie's officials seemed surprised by the failure of top works such as the Degas, saying it there was great pre-sale interest and they expected active bidding. But it turned out to be another case of overly aggressive estimates.
The auctions continue today with Sotheby's sale of Impressionist and modern art.
Reuters