15/11/2001

Phillips contemporary on the 12th of November sold 81% of 44 lots for a total of $ 8,300,000 (€ 9,438,622). Top lot was Untitled (Angel),a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Dating from 1982 it sold for $ 710,000 (€ 807,393) to a telephone buyer, well under the $ 900,000-1,200,000 (€ 1,023,457-1,364,609) presale estimate. Maurizio Cattelan's 1999 Love Lasts Forever sold to a phone bidder for $ 442,500 (€ 503,199), also below the presale low estimate of $ 500,000 (€ 568,609). Jeff Koons' New Hoover Convertibles (1984), a pair of vacuum cleaners lit by fluorescent lights in a large plastic case, sold to dealer Larry Gagosian for $ 376,500 (€ 428,163) against an estimate of $ 300,000-400,000 (€ 341,165-454,867). Julian Schnabel's 1982 plate painting, Some Bullfighters Get Closer to the Horns II, surpassed expectations fetching $ 290,000 (€ 329,791) against an estimate of $ 80,000-120,000 (€ 90,977-136,465). Damien Hirst's spin painting, Beautiful, lets go to la-la land and make out with all the top bollocks yum yums... from 1997, sold mid estimate for $ 255,500 (€ 290,554). An auction record was set for Andreas Gursky's Prada III (1998) which sold for $ 310,500 (€ 53,104) (estimate $ 200,000-250,000 (€ 227,439-284,299)). Other records were set for Paul McCarthy ($ 222,500, € 252,995), Ugo Rondinone ($ 79,500, € 90,396), Pierre & Gilles ($ 70,700, € 80,389), Fred Tomaselli ($ 55,200, € 62,765) and Ghada Amer ($ 40,250, € 45,766). (James Goulder)