Pop Art works break auction sale records
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Roy Lichtenstein's Happy Tears, a comic-book portrait in red and yellow, fetched $7.1m (£4.5m), a record for the artist's work, at auction in New York.
Records were set for works by five other artists – Barnett Newman, David Hockney, Morris Louis, Dan Flavin and Laura Owens – at the Christie's sale of postwar and contemporary art. The previous best for a Lichtenstein was $6m paid for his Kiss ii in 1990.
The auction on Wednesday evening raised a total of $66.9m; of the 75 works, only 13 failed to sell. Christie's attributed the prices to "fierce competition ... for important works". The highest price of the evening – but not a record – was for a Jasper Johns painting, which led a group of nine works from the collection of the Israel Phoenix Assurance Co, assembled in the early 1980s. 0 Through 9 sold for $9.9m to a telephone bidder.
The 1961 painting shows the numerals superimposed in a range of grays.
Newman's White Fire I, which this year had been shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Tate Modern in London, set a record when it sold for $3.8m to an anonymous telephone bidder.
Portrait of Nick Wilder, composed in 1966 by Hockney, which is a swimming pool scene typical of his work at the time, fetched a record $2.8m (£1.8m). A 1967 work by Andy Warhol, Big Electric Chair, went for $4.9m, but a 1986 Warhol, Camouflage Last Supper, went unsold.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments