Christie’s launched its Spring Marquee Week with a historic evening in New York, achieving a combined total of $1.12 billion across two major sales, marking only the second time a single night of auctions has crossed the billion-dollar threshold.
The evening brought together Masterpieces: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse and the 20th Century Evening Sale, which together sold 97 percent by lot, reflecting strong global participation and sustained confidence in the high-end art market.
The standout moment of the night was the sale of Jackson Pollock’s Number 7A, 1948, which fetched $181.2 million after seven minutes of competitive bidding in the room, setting a new auction record for the artist. The work led the S.I. Newhouse collection, which alone realized $631 million.
Another major highlight was Constantin Brancusi’s Danaïde, which achieved $107.6 million, becoming the second-highest price ever paid for a sculpture at auction. Together, the Pollock and Brancusi results underscored continued demand for museum-quality works with strong provenance.
The Newhouse collection, offered across multiple sales since 2018, has now surpassed $1 billion in cumulative total, becoming only the second collection in history to reach this milestone after the Paul Allen collection.
The momentum continued with the 20th Century Evening Sale, which totaled $490.3 million and sold 99 percent by value. A 1964 Mark Rothko painting from the collection of Agnes Gund achieved $98.4 million, setting a new benchmark for the artist. Gund’s collection realized a total of $150.8 million.
Further records were set across artists and mediums, including Joan Miró, Alice Neel, and Remedios Varo, whose work on paper Energía cósmica (Inspiración) reached $4.5 million. Henri Matisse and Aleksandr Rodchenko also established new highs in the works-on-paper category.
Additional highlights included Roy Lichtenstein’s Anxious Girl at $46.1 million, Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s La femme aux lilas at $28.2 million, and Claude Monet’s Pommiers, Vétheuil, which doubled its high estimate to sell for $19.6 million.
The sales followed a record-breaking exhibition preview at Christie’s Rockefeller Center, which drew nearly 20,000 visitors, signaling strong institutional and public interest ahead of the auctions.
With competitive bidding across regions and multiple artist records, the opening night of Christie’s Marquee Week signals a resilient and highly active global art market, driven by trophy works, blue-chip names, and prestigious collections.
Cover image: JACKSON POLLOCK | Number 7A | 1948
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