May in New York smells like money. Or oil paint. Or both.
As the hammer-fall rituals begin in Midtown’s polished sanctums, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips have once again unleashed a parade of name-brands on canvas—Basquiat, Dumas, Stella, Rauschenberg—each jostling for attention, prestige, and liquidity in equal measure.
These auctions aren’t sales. They’re barometers. Each bid is a stethoscope pressed against the heart of the market, and this week, the patient is restless but alive.
Basquiat Returns to the Ring—Twice
Let’s start with the heavyweight. Jean-Michel Basquiat steps into the ring not once, but twice.
At Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale, Baby Boom (1982) arrives with an estimate of $20–$30 million. Once bought for a mere million by publishing mogul Peter Brant, this towering canvas—wood-structured, family-themed, and riotously alive—has history crackling through its strokes.
Its sibling work, Untitled (1981), resurfaces at Sotheby’s after 36 years in private hands, tagged between $10–$15 million. No artist in recent memory has balanced rawness and myth like Basquiat. His work isn’t nostalgic—it’s volatile, seductive, and unrelentingly current.
Every Basquiat on the block is a test: of appetite, of reverence, of market stamina.
Marlene Dumas and the Price of Seeing
Step aside, gents. Marlene Dumas is here to rewrite the auction script.
Her 1997 painting Miss January—a brooding, molten vision of femininity—is expected to sell for $12–$18 million, possibly crowning Dumas as the most expensive living woman artist at auction.
Magnum opus.
– Says Christie’s Sara Friedlander.
The Rubells, who’ve held it for two decades, are letting go just as the world is catching up to Dumas’ quiet, body-bound rebellion. In Miss January, flesh becomes atmosphere, gaze becomes thesis, and tradition gets gently torched.
If Dumas breaks the record held by Jenny Saville, she’ll do more than top a leaderboard—she’ll crack the scaffolding beneath it.
Barbara Gladstone’s Echo and the Dealers Who Build Legacies
The late Barbara Gladstone left behind more than a gallery. She left a weather pattern.
This week, Sotheby’s Now and Contemporary Evening Sale taps into her legacy with works by Warhol, Richard Prince, Mike Kelley, and Sigmar Polke. These aren’t just artworks—they’re relics from a dealer who shaped taste with a whisper.
Collectors aren’t just bidding on canvas. They’re bidding on provenance, story, alignment. Buying from Gladstone’s orbit is like stepping into a lineage.