When Spiders Outshine Billionaires and Burning Houses Break the Bank in New York
A ten-foot spider quietly spun a new record at Sotheby’s this May, as Louise Bourgeois’s bronze arachnid became the most expensive sculpture by a woman artist ever sold at auction—fetching $32.8 million. While the overall art market cooled, these sales revealed a different story: artists long overlooked or underestimated are now commanding the spotlight.
Blinky Palermo’s abstract fabric painting leapt past $6 million, a testament to the rising value of German postwar art once ignored outside Europe. Simone Leigh’s Las Meninas II, blending terracotta and raffia, set a new high for the artist, reflecting a growing recognition of Black female subjectivity in contemporary sculpture. Meanwhile, Lois Dodd, at 96, saw her Burning House with Clapboards ignite a bidding frenzy, selling for over 20 times her previous record.
Even as economic uncertainty casts shadows, these auctions prove that fresh perspectives and hidden histories can still set the art world ablaze.
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