This was a less than perfect couple of weeks for the major auction houses in London.
At Sotheby’s in London, the New York Times reported,, an auction which kicked off two weeks of summer sales totaled $165.2 million but had been estimated to fetch $148.4 million to $217.5 million. Also sixteen of the 51 works did not sell.
At Christie’s the night after, the Times reported, more ambitious than Sotheby’s session the day before, the auction fetched $228 million but 16 works did not sell.
The Times also reported that “[m]ore significant, Christie’s failed to squeeze extravagant prices out of its star lots, as some had hoped would be the case. “