Modigliani’s ‘Paulette Jourdain’ sells for $38 million

Mr. Taubman had a long career in the auction business (indeed, he is credited with shaping Sotheby’s into what it is today; though he was also convicted of colluding to fix prices with Christie’s) and he amassed works, sources said, by picking up what didn’t sell or that his house had already guaranteed. There are three additional stand-alone sales of the collection.

“With more than 400 works still to be sold over the next several months, we are on track to cover most of the total guarantee”, he added. Of the 77 lots on offer last night, 55 had been bought at Sotheby’s auctions, 39 of which made records for the artists at the time.

If Wednesday’s results call into question the wisdom of Sotheby’s large guarantee and perhaps overly aggressive estimates, the auction also suggests that the art market remains skeptical of Taubman’s vision as a collector.

Modigliani’s Paulette Jourdain, which sold for $42.8 million, had an estimate of $25 million. The watercolor of children on the shore brought $2.6 million, within its $2 million – $3 million estimate. The eight 16th- and 17th-Century European paintings that had been on a long-term loan to the Detroit Institute of Arts and hanging in the galleries until earlier this fall will go up for auction at Sotheby’s on January 27, 2016, as part of sale of art by Old Masters owned by Taubman. Bloomberg notes that pieces were sent to London and Hong Kong to promote the event and there was a full red carpet. Woody Allen was even there. Champagne and blinis with black caviar were served to guests while staffers were decked out in tuxedos and cocktail dresses. “It’s very important to remember, art markets are about both supply and demand”, said David Schick, a managing director at Stifel Financial, a brokerage and investment banking firm, who follows Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s fought hard to win the consignment-guaranteeing the estate for a little over $500 million-and it heavily marketed the sale, the first of four to feature his holdings, as a memorial to Mr. Taubman’s artistic taste. “In order to do it, they had to shoot for the moon”.

A few things went for over the high estimate (like a Schiele watercolor), while others went for well below the low estimate (like a Lichtenstein).

“It seems like getting this sale was about ego, and I understand that”, the dealer Lucy Mitchell-Innes said after the sale. “It was a nice collection but it’s not legendary”. He was a prominent philanthropist, as well as businessman, who built up a staggering art collection. He spent nine months in prison. Read about upcoming auction highlights in the New York Times. It could fetch over $60 million. Two Rothko abstractions sold for hammer prices of $18 million and $15.5 million, below their $20 million low estimates.

Pablo Picasso’s “Woman Seated on a Chair” sold for more than $20 million and Frank Stella’s “Delaware Crossing” set a record with a almost $13.7 million sale.

“The Nightclub Singer” was purchased Thursday night at Sotheby’s sale of impressionist and modern artworks. “We are already getting offers. I suspect we sell at least one significant work tonight”, he said, declining to specify.