Christie’s wrapped New York’s compressed spring marquee week last night with the biggest 21st-century evening total the house has posted in the category since 2021. The combined Marian’s Richters & 21st Century Evening Sale at Rockefeller Plaza closed Wednesday May 20 at $162.7 million, anchored by seven Gerhard Richter paintings from the late Marian Goodman’s personal collection ($78.8M, nearly half the night’s haul) and twelve lots of Donald Judd / Dan Flavin / Carl Andre / Sol LeWitt minimalism from the Henry S. McNeil, Jr. estate ($25.9M). The Goodman cycle had been on the calendar since the gallerist’s death in January at 97 — last night was the first of three dedicated sales the house has built around her estate.
The lead lot — Richter’s Kerze, 1982
The headline lot was the 1982 Gerhard Richter photorealist candle painting Kerze, carrying a pre-sale estimate of $35-50 million — the highest single estimate Christie’s had assigned in the Goodman cycle and the picture that anchored the marketing around the May 20 sale for the better part of three weeks. The work hammered at $30 million after a measured floor and phone exchange that never quite reached the low estimate; with buyer’s premium and fees, the final price stamped at $35.1 million. Below estimate at the hammer, modestly above the $35M low with fees — a result that says the candle paintings remain top-of-market for Richter’s photorealism work, but that the $50M ceiling on this picture was a stretch that the room didn’t reach for. Eight bidders engaged through opening; the field thinned to two by the $25M mark.
The Goodman cycle — seven Richters, $78.8 million
The six Richters that followed Kerze all sold, ranging across the gallerist’s four-decade relationship with the artist — abstract photo-paintings from the 1980s, a Squeegee abstraction from the mid-1990s, and a smaller-format candle picture that hammered well above its estimate as the second-best result of the Goodman set. Cumulative total for the seven Richters: $78.8 million, against an aggregate low estimate the house had positioned in the $80M range. The cycle landed exactly on top of the marketing target — within a single low-estimate-equivalent gap — and represents the first major divestment from Goodman’s $65M+ private holdings. Two more dedicated sales remain in the Goodman cycle through Christie’s autumn calendar.
The McNeil collection — Minimalism’s biggest single-owner moment in years
Christie’s had positioned the Henry S. McNeil, Jr. collection as the deepest private holding of Minimalism currently on the market — twelve lots, $30M+ aggregate estimate, anchored by a copper-and-red-fluorescent-Plexiglas Donald Judd stack with a pre-sale range of $10-15 million that the house openly suggested could break Judd’s $14.1M auction record set in 2013.
The Judd hammered at $10.6 million ($12.8M with fees) after what the room described as a prolonged exchange between bidders that ran longer than any other lot of the night. Below the record, but the highest Judd result in three years and a clean mid-estimate landing. Dan Flavin’s the diagonal of May 25, 1963 (to Constantin Brancusi), a golden fluorescent lamp set at a 45-degree angle, sold for $1.65 million against a $1.5M low estimate. Carl Andre and Sol LeWitt works rounded out the McNeil set. Cumulative McNeil total: $25.9 million, slightly above the low aggregate estimate — the kind of clean result single-owner Minimalism collections of this caliber haven’t logged in nearly a decade.
What the $162.7M tells the New York market
Three reads worth carrying forward for collectors on the Upper East Side and surrounding zip codes:
- The market clears at estimate, not above. Both anchor lots — the Richter candle and the Judd stack — landed at or modestly below their low-to-mid estimate ranges with fees. That’s a measured market that’s still buying at marquee prices but not stretching. Last week’s Sotheby’s Modern Evening recap (covered May 19) read the same way. Marquee week 2026’s signal is: deep buyers, calibrated bids, clean clears at estimate.
- Single-owner provenance still drives premiums. The Goodman cycle pulled $78.8M against an $80M aggregate low — exactly on target. The McNeil cycle pulled $25.9M and modestly cleared its low. Sotheby’s Mnuchin May 14 (the $85.8M Rothko) read identically. The pattern across the full marquee fortnight is that single-owner provenance — Goodman, McNeil, Mnuchin, de Gunzburg — is doing the heavy lifting. Mixed-consignment evening sales are clearing thinner.
- Minimalism’s window is open. The McNeil result repositions Judd / Flavin / Andre / LeWitt as actively-priced collateral inventory in a way the segment hadn’t been since the early 2010s. For New York collectors carrying Minimalism in their primary holdings, last night was a real price-discovery event.
The calendar that follows
Marquee week is now closed. The June auction calendar in New York is comparatively thin until Sotheby’s Important Watches and Christie’s Jewels in mid-June. Frieze NY closed Sunday May 17 at The Shed; TEFAF NY closed Sunday May 19 at the Park Avenue Armory. The next major institutional moment on the city’s calendar is the Met’s Costume Art exhibit, which opened to the public May 10 in the wake of the May 4 Gala and will run through January 10, 2027 — and the run-up to the September fair season.
For collectors looking at marquee-week results and reassessing valuations on contemporary and modern holdings in their primary inventory — Richters, Judds, Rothkos, blue-chip post-war work — last night’s clean clears across both the Goodman and McNeil cycles are a real price-discovery moment. New York Loan Company has been the discreet collateral resource on Madison Avenue for collectors with blue-chip post-war and contemporary holdings for over four decades. Confidential appraisals available; the marquee-week comp data is fresh as of last night.
Sale summary
- Sale: Christie’s New York — Marian’s Richters & 21st Century Evening Sale
- Date: Wednesday May 20, 2026, 7 PM ET
- Venue: Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza
- Total realized: $162.7 million
- Goodman cycle (7 Richters): $78.8M
- McNeil cycle (12 Minimalism lots): $25.9M
- Top lot: Richter, Kerze (1982) — $35.1M with fees, hammered $30M (est. $35-50M)
- Notable second: Judd stack (copper / red Plexiglas) — $12.8M with fees, hammered $10.6M (est. $10-15M)
- Sell-through: All seven Richters + all twelve McNeil lots cleared
For collateral conversations on contemporary and modern art inventory — Richters, Judds, Rothkos, post-war work — in the wake of marquee week 2026’s clean clears, New York Loan Company is the discreet Madison Avenue resource. Forty-plus years of lending against blue-chip collateral on the Upper East Side. Confidential appraisals available.
