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"There has always been sexual suggestiveness in my work. Sometimes I am totally concerned with female shapes...but often I merge the imagery... male and female, active and passive."
— Louise BourgeoisA psychologically charged and intimate work, Femme embodies Louise Bourgeois’ preoccupation with the female body and the self. As the title of this work suggests, the form is a representation of womanhood. Isolating a part of the body, as seen here, is very common throughout Louise Bourgeois' practice. By stripping an object down to its simplest form, the artist invites the viewer to explore what the body part symbolizes, often suggesting desire, sexuality, and gender. Sculpted in black marble in 2005, Femme revisits an idea Bourgeois constantly explored during her life - the investigation of the female experience as an act of self-discovery, in both her physical and emotional being.
Louise Bourgeois in her studio, 1982, Image: © Jack Mitchell/Getty Images
Hidden EmotionsThe recurrent subject of femininity harkens back to Bourgeois’ traumatic childhood, specifically the role that sexuality and vulnerability played in her early family life. While her mother was extremely ill with influenza, her father had different mistresses, including her English tutor. As a young woman, Bourgeois was deeply impacted by the double standard this represented, remembering how her father told her mother he loved her, while being unfaithful to her. The anger and jealousy she felt for her father’s infidelity, and the painful memories of her mother’s suffering, are some of the traumas that shaped her, causing her to question the notions of motherhood and domesticity throughout her entire life. Her emotions surrounding gender and sexuality became the fuel to her creative process, revealed in many of her works. As the artist approached the end of her life in 2010, she revisited these childhood memories more and more. Femme, sculpted just five years before her death, illustrates how these repressed emotions from her childhood appeared in her work. As she once said, “My piece of sculpture (usually figures) do not represent only study forms – they represent emotional states usually painful kind.”i Perhaps, the emotional state present in this work, carved in black marble—a medium that is heavy and almost unmovable—is a reference to her mother’s resistance to her husband’s infidelities.
"I have fun carving marble. I can't destroy it. I'm not going to be destroyed either, by the way"
—Louise Bourgeois
In the 1960s, Bourgeois started experimenting with a variety of sculptural materials, such as rubber, latex, plaster, bronze and marble. The flexibility of these organic, often natural, materials she began to work with during this time inspired her to explore biomorphic and bodily forms, like her famous landscape sculptures that depict clustered breasts. After traveling to Pietrasanta, Italy in 1967 to work with marble and learn more about it, it became one of the most recurrent materials in her practice.ii The use of marble enabled the artist to create forms that resembled the softness of skin, a smoothness that is present in Femme. The way Bourgeois chose her materials oftentimes related to the theme she was exploring. For example, she chose marble for the creation of many of her bodily forms, as she considered there to be a sensuous aspect to it."I enjoy a material I can wrestle with...the marble you cannot hurt: whatever you take away, whatever you chop away, whatever you sand away...you change that piece, but you do not destroy it. This is the kind of relation I enjoy with people. I enjoy people who can give me good resistance and take care of my attacking impulses... There are many kinds of aggression, all kinds of emotion. And what you have to say...it cannot be emotional. It has to be defined. It is a form of articulation, marble (is) much more sensuous... I have fun carving marble. I can't destroy it. I'm not going to be destroyed either, by the way." —Louise Bourgeoisiii
i Lucy Askew and Anthony D'Offray, Luis Bourgeois: A woman without secrets, New York, 2014.
ii Louise Bourgeois, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2006, online
iii "Louise Bourgeois: interview with Barbara Flug Colin", Frigate: The Transverse Review of Books, 2000.Provenance
Cheim & Read, New York
Acquired from the above by the present ownerArtist Biography
Louise Bourgeois
French-American • 1911 - 2010
Known for her idiosyncratic style, Louise Bourgeois was a pioneering and iconic figure of twentieth and early twenty-first century art. Untied to an art historical movement, Bourgeois was a singular voice, both commanding and quiet.
Bourgeois was a prolific printmaker, draftsman, sculptor and painter. She employed diverse materials including metal, fabric, wood, plaster, paper and paint in a range of scale — both monumental and intimate. She used recurring themes and subjects (animals, insects, architecture, the figure, text and abstraction) as form and metaphor to explore the fragility of relationships and the human body. Her artworks are meditations of emotional states: loneliness, jealousy, pride, anger, fear, love and longing.
Property from an Important Miami Collection
162
Femme
incised with the artist's initials "LB" on the underside
black marble
4 3/4 x 15 x 7 in. (12.1 x 38.1 x 17.8 cm)
Executed in 2005.
Estimate
$150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $352,800
Annie Dolan
Specialist, Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
+1 212 940 1288
adolan@phillips.com
20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session
New York Auction 19 May 2022
101
Gerhard Richter
4.10.85 (3)
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $73,080
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102
Gerhard Richter
22.5.86 (2)
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $60,480
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103
Gerhard Richter
7.12.85
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $252,000
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104
Gerhard Richter
12.12.85
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $239,400
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105
Gerhard Richter
8.3.85
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $151,200
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106
Gerhard Richter
Nach 'Fallschirm' (After 'Parachute')
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $163,800
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107
Gerhard Richter
8.1.84 (1)
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $22,680
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108
Gerhard Richter
8.1.84 (2)
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $18,900
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109
Theodoros Stamos
Jewel of Memory
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $81,900
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110
Adolph Gottlieb
Two Figures
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $55,440
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111
Sam Francis
Untitled (SF88-399)
Estimate $150,000 - 250,000
Sold for $302,400
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112
John Chamberlain
The Vagabond's Prayer
Estimate $400,000 - 600,000
Sold for $378,000
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113
Sam Gilliam
With Blue and...
Estimate $200,000 - 300,000
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114
Vivian Springford
Untitled
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $144,900
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115
Mary Heilmann
Yellow, Red + Blue Drawing
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $126,000
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116
Mary Heilmann
Le Mans
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $189,000
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117
David Smith
Main Pribilof
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $277,200
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118
Norman Lewis
Eye of the Storm
Estimate $500,000 - 700,000
Sold for $604,800
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119
This lot is no longer available.
120
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $877,000
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121
George Condo
Untitled
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
Sold for $504,000
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122
Dondi White
Reign Man Cometh
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $44,100
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123
Jean Dubuffet
Mire G 67 (Boléro)
Estimate $180,000 - 250,000
Sold for $214,200
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124
Kenny Scharf
PRIMARYBLOBZ
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $214,200
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125
Kenny Scharf
DR. PURPLE
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $302,400
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126
Robert Indiana
LOVE (Violet Faces Red Sides)
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $724,500
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127
Robert Indiana
Picasso
Estimate $600,000 - 800,000
Sold for $1,058,500
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128
Jim Dine
The King of Patches
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $113,400
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129
James Rosenquist
The Serenade for the Doll after Claude Debussy, Gift Wrapped Doll #22
Estimate $120,000 - 200,000
Sold for $138,600
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130
Alex Katz
Untitled
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $403,200
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131
Andy Warhol
Portrait of Hans Preben Smith
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $201,600
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132
Richard Pettibone
Roy Lichtenstein, 'Seductive Girl', 1964 Purple-Yellow
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $69,300
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133
Richard Pettibone
Andy Warhol, 'Mao'
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $20,160
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134
Richard Pettibone
Andy Warhol, ‘Two Jackies', 1964
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $37,800
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135
Richard Pettibone
Andy Warhol, 'Scotch Broth Soup', 1962
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $32,760
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136
Richard Pettibone
Andy Warhol, 'Campbell’s Soup Can', 1962
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $37,800
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137
Jim Dine
Two Hearts (Due Cuori)
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $69,300
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138
Tom Wesselmann
Final Study for Kate Nude
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $115,920
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139
Peter Saul
Bush Over Baghdad
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $163,800
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140
Malcolm Morley
Aegean Crime
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $327,600
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141
Ed Paschke
Dumattica
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $16,380
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142
Robert Colescott
Crocodile in the Sewer
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $52,920
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143
Philip Guston
Untitled (Drawing from the Phlebitis Series)
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $88,200
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144
Larry Rivers
Last Civil War Veteran
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $47,880
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145
Andy Warhol
Gun
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $126,000
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146
Ed Ruscha
Statistical Significance
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $189,000
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147
David Hockney
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 17 April
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $277,200
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148
Jennifer Bartlett
In the Garden #108
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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149
John Baldessari
Woman Looking at Plant (With Two Carrots)
Estimate $350,000 - 450,000
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150
Charles Ray
All my Clothes
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $170,100
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151
Vito Acconci
Modular Fluorescent Sofa
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
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152
John McCracken
IOS
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $151,200
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153
Brice Marden
Untitled
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $75,600
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154
Sol LeWitt
Wall Drawing #1023: Isometric form
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $151,200
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155
Sam Gilliam
Reef II
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $371,700
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156
Sam Gilliam
Shimmering Pisces
Estimate $250,000 - 350,000
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157
Louise Nevelson
Rain Forest Column XXI
Estimate $100,000 - 150,000
Sold for $630,000
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158
Louise Nevelson
The Wedding Present
Estimate $300,000 - 400,000
Sold for $352,800
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159
Thierry De Cordier
Je Suis le Monde!
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $107,100
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160
John Chamberlain
Maquette
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $126,000
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161
Louise Nevelson
Cityscape
Estimate $35,000 - 50,000
Sold for $52,920
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162
Louise Bourgeois
Femme
Estimate $150,000 - 200,000
Sold for $352,800
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163
Louise Bourgeois
Untitled
Estimate $60,000 - 80,000
Sold for $100,800
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164
Alice Rahon
Main Street
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $44,100
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165
Alice Rahon
Dans la nuit du commencement
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $69,300
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166
Joseph Cornell
J. Eagels Autumnal - Spring
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $47,880
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167
Joseph Cornell
Isle of Children
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $63,000
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168
Joseph Cornell
Dovecote
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $63,000
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169
Joseph Cornell
Untitled
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
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170
Joseph Cornell
The Garden Party
Estimate $7,000 - 10,000
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171
Alexander Calder
18 works: (i-xviii) Untitled
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $56,700
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172
Jamie Wyeth
Duck, Fence, and Stump
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $44,100
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173
Giorgio Morandi
Natura morta
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $25,200
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174
Fernand Léger
Femme à l'écharpe (Mrs. Chester Dale)
Estimate $35,000 - 45,000
Sold for $50,400
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175
Pablo Picasso
Two works: (i-ii) Maternité
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $107,100
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176
Francisco Zúñiga
Desnudo de anciana
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $59,850
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177
Fernando Botero
Woman with Serpent
Estimate $120,000 - 180,000
Sold for $176,400
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178
Salvador Dalí
Head of Dante
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $100,800
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179
Édouard Vuillard
La pipe
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $35,280
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180
Armand Guillaumin
Vue de la pointe d’Ivry
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
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181
This lot is no longer available.
182
Fernand Léger
Untitled
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $44,100
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183
Georges Valmier
Untitled
Estimate $7,000 - 10,000
Sold for $11,970
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184
Georges Valmier
Untitled
Estimate $7,000 - 10,000
Sold for $6,930
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185
José Mijares
Lo concreto en rojo
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $50,400
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186
George Rickey
Inverted Column
Estimate $18,000 - 25,000
Sold for $40,320
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187
Larry Bell
9/11
Estimate $12,000 - 18,000
Sold for $11,970
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188
Suzan Frecon
Light & Earth
Estimate $70,000 - 100,000
Sold for $75,600
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189
Sam Gilliam
Untitled
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $88,200
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190
Louise Fishman
Door to the Studio
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000
Sold for $13,860
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191
Louise Fishman
Moment of Change
Estimate $12,000 - 18,000
Sold for $57,960
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192
Hermann Nitsch
Untitled
Estimate $15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $52,920
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193
Jules Olitski
Empress Love - 2
Estimate $10,000 - 15,000
Sold for $52,920
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194
Larry Poons
Untitled
Estimate $50,000 - 70,000
Sold for $157,500
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195
Ross Bleckner
Untitled
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $81,900
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196
Francesco Clemente
Ativiam
Estimate $12,000 - 18,000
Sold for $30,240
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197
George Condo
Etruscan Study
Estimate $80,000 - 120,000
Sold for $151,200
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198
John Wesley
Bonnets
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $37,800
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199
Ed Ruscha
So
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $119,700
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200
Andy Warhol
Two works: (i) Cabbage Patch Doll (Girl); (ii) Cabbage Patch Doll (Boy)
Estimate $30,000 - 40,000
Sold for $27,720
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201
Andy Warhol
Heinz Kosher Dill Pickles Jar with Alarm
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000
Sold for $18,900
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202
Andy Warhol
Three works (i-iii): Self-Portrait
Estimate $40,000 - 60,000
Sold for $50,400
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203
Gerhard Richter
Guildenstern
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $16,380
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204
Franz West
Untitled (Rasenmacher No. 80)
Estimate $25,000 - 35,000
Sold for $47,880
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205
James Lee Byars
Compositie
Estimate $6,000 - 9,000
Sold for $8,190
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206
Richard Artschwager
Untitled
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $37,800
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207
Wolf Kahn
Adams Barn
Estimate $30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $88,200
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