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Hi ,
In our Q1 letter, The Turn, we argued the four-year correction was ending. We named three catalysts to watch: quality consignments returning to auction, Chinese buyers reappearing, and a flattening in our PWC Art Index.
The May New York auctions delivered on all three.
We saw $2.5 billion across the marquee sales, more than double last May, the strongest season since the November 2022 peak, and the second season ever to feature a 10-figure sale. New auction records for Pollock ($181.2mm), Brancusi ($107.6mm), Rothko ($98.4mm), Alice Neel, and Joan Miró, including five records broken in a single night at Christie's, including fees.
The season was powered by the Newhouse, Gund, Mnuchin, Goodman, and McNeil estates. Newhouse alone hit $630.8 million in forty minutes.
Andy Warhol's Four Colored Marilyns (Reversal Series) sold with fees at Phillips for $5.63mm, a new auction record for the entire Reversal Series.
The very first artwork featured on our platform was a Marilyn Reversal, with an offering size of $1.9mm. It’s a larger version, but that's a nearly 3x lift on a same-artist, same-series.
Jean-Michel Basquiat's Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) sold for $52.7 million at Sotheby's, more than triple its 2013 price at auction and the sixth-most expensive Basquiat ever sold publicly. A smaller Basquiat at Christie's added $6.54 million.
Alice Neel set a new auction record at $5.7 million, an 87% jump over her previous high in 2021, driven by a six-minute bidding war at Christie's.
Joan Mitchell's Loom II sold for $7.8 million at Sotheby's, nearly eight times its 2013 auction price.
Banksy's Girl With Balloon on Found Landscape closed out the week at $18 million at Fair Warning's Tiffany's auction, the artist's third-highest price ever, and the first major sale since Reuters confirmed his identity in March.
What it means for investors:
Public auction results are the benchmarks our appraisals team uses to value works in the Masterworks portfolio, and a week like this one gives us plenty of data to work with. New records for Rothko and Neel, strong results for Basquiat, Mitchell, and Banksy, and a total that doubled last year's equivalent turnover all impact how we think about valuations in the coming months.
More broadly, the week confirmed what many market watchers have been waiting to see: serious buyers are back in force, and blue-chip postwar and contemporary continues to command the room, precisely the segment where Masterworks concentrates capital.
As one Sotheby's specialist put it: "Collectors are out on the prowl."
As we said in Q1: the repricing of the art market has only just begun.
To see if investing in art is a fit for your portfolio and become a member, schedule a call.
Regards,
The Masterworks Team
View offering circular for Masterworks 517 here. View offering circular for Masterworks 476 here. Investing involves risk. Past results are not indicative of future outcomes.
Masterworks is providing this communication as an agent for its issuer entities, not Masterworks Advisers. Content does not contain legal, tax, investment advice, or a personalized recommendation. Masterworks is not a licensed broker-dealer by the SEC or FINRA.
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