The Olympic Games are still three months away. But the big international auction houses are already shrieking about new world records this week, with all the frenzied excitement of top-class athletes. An evening contemporary art sale at Sotheby’s in New York generated a new top price – $45m – for a Roy Lichtenstein oil painting. Twenty-four hours earlier, arch-rival Christie’s secured an even juicier $87m for Mark Rothko’s Orange, Red, Yellow. Proceeds of $388m from the latter’s evening auction were trumpeted as the best-ever result for a sale of postwar and contemporary art. Following the $120m paid for Edvard Munch’s 1895 version of The Scream, demand for modern artworks appears to be in rude health.
距離倫敦奧運會仍有3個月時間。但國際各大拍賣行上週卻已像激動的頂級運動員們一樣，瘋狂高喊著最新創下的世界紀錄。在紐約蘇富比(Sotheby’s)拍賣行舉行的當代藝術品拍賣晚會上，賣出了羅伊•李奇登斯坦(Roy Lichtenstein)油畫作品的最新高價——4500萬美元。在那之前24小時，勁敵佳士得拍賣行(Christie’s)也爲羅斯科(Mark Rothko)的作品《橙、紅、黃》(Orange Red Yellow)拍得8700萬美元這一更讓人豔羨的高價。後一場拍賣會當晚拍得3.88億美元，創下戰後及當代藝術品拍賣會的最好成績。其中蒙克(Edvard Munch)1895年版的《吶喊》(The Scream)拍得1.2億美元，市場對當代藝術品的需求看來十分強健。