In the May 2026 auctions held over the past two weeks, 12 lots sold for over $40 million each (two more than in the Nov. 2025 sales) for a cumulative total of $851,022,500 (including buyer's premium). All of these $40M+ works were created in the twentieth century, and all were sold either at Christie's or Sotheby's with third-party guarantees (or "irrevocable bids" in Sotheby's terminology), so a strong high end was a foregone conclusion heading into the sales. Among this group, auction records were set for set for Jackson Pollock (who led the season), Constantin Brancusi, Mark Rothko, and Joan Miró.
In my calculations, 87.6% of the totals for $40M+ lots were from estate property, including the three highest lots, an even more pronounced pattern than what we saw in the November 2025 auctions (74%), further demonstrating that fluctuations in overall season-to-season results often depend more on circumstance-driven changes in supply at the high end than on changes in market confidence. However, to hedge against that comment a bit, there can be an element of discretion in when to sell estate property, as for Newhouse, in which works have been released to market periodically over time; clearly, they felt emboldened to sell key works now, and did so to remarkable results.
The top 12 in descending order of price realized:
1. Jackson Pollock, Number 7A (1948): $181,185,000 at Christie's (*auction record)
2. Constantin Brancusi, Danaïde (ca. 1913): $107,585,000 at Christie's (*auction record)
3. Mark Rothko, No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe) (1964): $98,385,000 at Christie's (*auction record)
4. Mark Rothko, Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957): $85,780,000 at Sotheby's
5. Joan Miró, Portrait de Madame K. (1924): $53,535,000 at Christie's (*auction record)
6. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) (1983): $52,717,500 at Sotheby's
7. Henri Matisse, La Chaise lorraine (ca. 1919): $48,405,000 at Sotheby's
8. Pablo Picasso, Tête de femme (Fernande) (1909): $48,480,000 at Christie's
9. Roy Lichtenstein, Anxious Girl (1964): $46,060,000 at Christie's
10. Cy Twombly, Untitled (1961): $45,485,000 at Christie's
11. Pablo Picasso, Arlequin (Buste) (1909): $42,640,000 at Sotheby's
12. Pablo Picasso, Homme à la guitare (1913): $40,885,000 at Christie's