Christie’s New York Sales Reach $162.7 Million as Reina Sofía Faces Audit Deadline
Christie’s New York closed three postwar and contemporary art auctions at $162.7 million on Wednesday, a total that landed close to expectations but did not exceed them. The evening was anchored by Gerhard Richter’s *Kerze (Candle)*, which sold for $35.1 million from the late Marian Goodman estate, and by a market that appeared steadier than feverish.
The house had projected the 42-lot sale would bring between $129 million and $191 million. Before fees, the hammer total came to $133.6 million. The Marian Goodman collection, separately estimated at about $65 million, brought in $66 million before fees and $78.8 million with fees. Several works finished at the lower end of their estimates, reinforcing the sense of a cautious room rather than a speculative one.
That reading was echoed by New York dealer Evan Beard, who said there was not much speculative capital in the room and called that “a sign of a healthy, rational art market.” The results were stronger than last year’s comparable sales, but still short of the kind of momentum that often defines the top end of the May auction season.
Elsewhere in the roundup, Spain’s parliament escalated its scrutiny of the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, ordering a “total and absolute” audit of the museum’s collections by December 31, 2026. Lawmakers also threatened to remove director Manuel Segade if the institution fails to comply. The museum says it is already working through inventory, valuation, and tracking problems with a computerized system called Artis, while arguing that many of the anomalies predate the current museum’s 1990 formation.
The same digest also noted the destruction of Reikado Hall in Japan, a Buddhist temple associated with an eternal flame said to have burned for more than 1,200 years. Taken together, the day’s headlines pointed to a familiar art-world tension: market discipline on one side, and institutional accountability on the other.
