New York’s May auction calendar is taking shape as one of the most closely watched in recent years, with Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, Bonhams, and Fair Warning all lining up major sales and headline lots.
Sotheby’s says its six marquee sales, held during its second season at the Breuer, are estimated to bring in between $690.4 million and $942.5 million. The low estimate is roughly 70 percent higher than the total hammer price the house achieved in May 2025, a sign of how aggressively the season has been assembled. The top lot is Mark Rothko’s Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957), from dealer Robert Mnuchin’s collection. The painting carries a $70 million to $100 million estimate and will be offered on May 14.
Christie’s is projecting an even larger week. Across 769 lots in nine marquee sales beginning May 18, the house expects to generate between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. Nearly half of that figure is tied to the S.I. Newhouse collection, whose 16-lot single-owner sale is expected to bring $462 million. The centerpiece is a 1948 Jackson Pollock drip painting estimated at around $100 million.
Phillips will follow with its Modern and contemporary evening sale on May 19, led by Claude Monet’s La Route de Vétheuil, effet de neige (1879), estimated at $7 million to $10 million and backed by a guarantee. Bonhams will stage its 20th & 21st Century art evening sale on May 20 at its new U.S. flagship at 111 West 57th Street, with Yoshitomo Nara’s Words Mean Nothing at All (2012) as the top lot, estimated at $4 million to $6 million. Fair Warning, meanwhile, will present Banksy’s Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape (2012) in a rare live sale at Tiffany & Co.’s flagship store in New York the same day. The work, consigned by a private collector and never previously exhibited publicly, carries a $13 million to $18 million estimate.
The season is not only about auction totals. David Zwirner now represents the Robert Therrien estate after nearly 30 years of the artist’s association with Gagosian, while Jill Magid has joined Olney Gleason and Hirschl & Adler Modern has added Tula Telfair. Together, the sales and representation changes suggest a market still willing to concentrate on blue-chip names, even as galleries and auction houses recalibrate for a crowded spring.
