Christie’s Auction Rakes in $1.1 Billion as Pollock Sells For Triple Record Price
5May 20, 2026
Blue-chip auction houseChristie’spulled in $1.1 billion in back-to-back sales held the evening of May 18, thanks to record-setting prices commanded by numerous works on offer. Chief among these was an eleven-foot-wide 1948Jackson Pollockdrip painting,Number 7A, which entered the sale with a $100 million guarantee and hammered for $181.2 million with fees following a gasp-inducing round of bidding that saw as many as six would-be buyers vie for the prize, raising their offers in $1 million increments. The previous auction record for the artist was $61.2 million (or, per theNew York Times, $73 million, adjusted for inflation), set in 2021 for a roughly five-foot-square canvas.
The Pollock was part of a group of works belonging to renowned collectorS. I. Newhouse, who died in 2017. The sale of the Newhouse trove led the evening and achieved record-breaking prices for several artists, includingConstantin Brancusi, whose ca. 1913Danaïde, a bronze-and-gold-leaf sculpture of a woman’s head, sold for $107.6 million with fees, surpassing a $71.2 million (roughly $94 million accounting for inflation) auction record set for the Romanian sculptor’s work in 2018.
“The sale was all killer with not much filler,” Stephanie Armstrong, managing partner of the art advisory Beaumont Nathan, told the Times.
The second half of the evening, a sale of twentieth-century work, was dominated by record sales for Mark Rothko, whose No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe), 1964, brought in $98.4 million with fees, and Alice Neel, whose 1967 Mother and Child (Nancy and Olivia) hammered for $5.7 million with fees. Both belonged to noted collector and philanthropist Agnes Gund, who died last year.
“Tonight reinforced everything we believe about the enduring power of iconic, museum-quality works at the top of the market,” art adviser Philip Hoffman, CEO of the Fine Art Group, told Artnet News. “When the right work comes to auction with the right conditions, the depth of demand is extraordinary and it was!”