Lehman art sold for $12.3m
New Yok, Sept. 26: Fine art once owned by Lehman Brothers, the investment bank whose collapse kick-started the US economic recession, fetched over $12 million on Saturday at a Sotheby’s auction.
The proceeds will go toward repaying the more than $600 billion owed to creditors of Lehman Brothers, which declared bankruptcy in 2008, helping to trigger collapse across global financial markets.
Some 83 per cent of the 142 lots were sold for a total of $12.28 million, exceeding estimates.
The sale set 17 records for artists, including Ethiopian Julie Mehretu, whose iconic painting Untitled 1 sold for $1,022,500, a new record for the artist and well over the high estimate of $600,000-$800,000.
Mark Grotjahn’s Untitled fetched $782,500 and three works by Gerhard Richter also sold at higher than expected prices, including Abstraktes Bild, which fetched $506,500. Yet a piece by Britain’s Damien Hirst that had been expected to rake in about a million dollars failed to sell.
The collection was acquired by Lehman Brothers in 2003 and includes works by other famous contemporary artists like Anish Kapoor, Olafur Eliasson, Richard Prince and Yoshitomo Nara.
Buyers at the auction included institutions such as the Museum Art Center Buenos Aires and several successful online purchasers.
“While the Lehman name certainly attracted a great deal of attention, the people who bid participated because they knew it was good art,” Sotheby’s worldwide head of contemporary art Tobias Meyer said in a statement.
Much of the artwork that went under the hammer had been purchased by asset manager Neuberger Berm-an. Another sale will be held in London on Wednesday at Christie’s, featuring works by Lucian Freud and Gary Hume.
Pic Caption:
A woman stands in front of Neo Rauch’s Einbruch as it, and other art from Lehman Brothers' collection, is auctioned off at Sotheby's on Saturday in New York City. The sales from the Sotheby's auction and upcoming auctions at Christie's in London and Freeman's in Philadelphia would be used to repay creditors.
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