Moving Merchandise

"Under the Influence," the Phillips de Pury sale of contemporary art, failed to cast a spell on buyers yesterday. Of the 354 lots offered for sale, roughly 65% — 229 paintings — found buyers. Buyers still lingering in town after the Armory Show this weekend spent a total of $5.25 million at this sale, but the $4.25 million in hammer prices (the premium price includes the auction house commission which is not factored into estimates) did not measure up against a pre-sale estimate of between $6.2 million and $8.8 million. These numbers, however, mask some heated bidding for artists such as Anselm Reyle, Christopher Schmidberger, James Brown, Mike Bidlo, Massimo Vitali, Juan Matos, and Chris Ofili, among others. All of them saw works go above their estimates. True, many of the estimates were in the low- to mid-five figures, but these price points also make an art market. A surprise hit was the sale of two signature velvet paintings by Julian Schnabel. One sold for $37,000 and the other for $21,250 — the latter had been estimated at between $5,000 and $7,000. Damien Hirst's "Beautiful Guests Must Dress In Pastel Only for the Pictures Painting," estimated at between $500,000 and $700,000, passed.