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Cy Twombly fetches $70.5M at Sotheby’s NY auction

An abstract canvas by Cy Twombly that once belonged to Los Angeles attorney and collector Sydney Irmas and his wife, Audrey, fetched $70.5 million at a Sotheby’s auction in NY on Wednesday.

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The 1968 work is part of Twombly’s series of white looping lines against a dark surface. 1968, was the highpoint of the Contemporary evening sale at Sotheby’s, which also saw records smashed for artists such as Mike Kelley. The auction made a total $294.9m (est $254m-$313.7m) with 44 of the 54 lots on offer finding buyers, an 80% sell-through rate made more impressive by the fact that just three of the lots carried guarantees and irrevocable bids.

Twombly was born in Virginia but based himself primarily in Italy from 1957 until his death in 2011 aged 83 in Rome.

Warhol’s 1972 “Mao”, a large-scale work depicting Chinese leader Mao Zedong reportedly being sold by hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, beat its $40m estimate, fetching $47.5m including commission to nab the evening’s second-highest price. Another Warhol painting under performed realising $26 million, and falling short of its estimate.

Ten items failed to sell, but there was frenetic bidding for numerous lots, particularly those at the lower end of the market and several went for prices way over their pre-sale estimates.

L.A. typically doesn’t get to see much of the auction season, but this month, Sotheby’s is taking the unusual step of bringing 25 works valued at more than $50 million to its gallery location on Sunset Boulevard ahead of their sale. Amedeo Modigliani’s Nu Couché (Reclining Nude), 1917-18, became the second-priciest lot in auction history at $170.4 million.

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At Christie’s, Fontana’s “Concetto Spaziale, La fine di Dio” – a yellow egg slashed in the canvas – sold for US$29.17 million.

Cy Twombly could fetch $60M at Sotheby's auction