A painting of a blue-eyed nurse by Richard Prince and an aluminum couch by Marc Newson were among the artworks sold by Halsey Minor that helped the CNET Networks Inc. founder raise $21.1 million to pay his creditors. His collection accounted for just 22 of the 74 lots offered at a contemporary art-and-design auction last night held by Phillips de Pury & Co. in New York, yet they took in more than half of the $37.9 million total, and were the highlight of the evening. Prince’s 69-inch-tall “Nurse in Hollywood #4,” the 2004 canvas depicting a Grace Kelly look-alike, fetched $6.5 million, against a presale high estimate of $7 million. Another highlight from Minor’s collection was the prototype 1988 “Lockheed Lounge” by Newson which fetched $2.1 million, up from the high estimate of $1.5 million. In 2006, the curvy, white-footed recliner sold for $968,000 at Sotheby’s New York. Minor’s paintings by Ed Ruscha also did well. The artist’s depiction of a red-and-yellow feathered bird, “Angry Because It’s Plaster, Not Milk” (1965) fetched $3.2 million, up from high estimate of $3 million.
The auction houses charges buyers 25 percent of the hammer price up to $50,000, plus 20 percent from $50,000 to $1 million, plus 12 percent above $1 million. Estimates don’t include fees.
The two weeks of impressionist, modern postwar-art and contemporary-art sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s tallied $1.1 billion, up from $415.4 million in the same period last year.
