NEW YORK, 17 November 2016 – Part I of The Triumph of Painting: The Steven & Ann Ames Collection opened tonight’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in New York, totaling $120.7 million with more than half of lots selling above their high estimates. Beginning with a flurry of bidding for works by Mark Grotjahn and Jim Hodges, this peerless survey of Contemporary Art was led by great results for masterpieces by Gerhard Richter and Willem de Kooning. With more than 50 lots remaining to be sold in tomorrow’s Contemporary Art Day Auction, tonight’s sale illustrated the enduring international appeal and interest for highly desirable works that are fresh to the market.

The very definition of passionate collectors, Steven & Ann Ames studiously and thoughtfully pursued Contemporary Art. After years at Oppenheimer & Co and the New York Stock Exchange, Steven Ames returned to Columbia University to pursue a Master’s Degree in Art History. Particularly enamored with the work of Gerhard Richter, the Ames’s accumulated paintings from every decade of the artist’s career. Tonight, 6 works by the artist were sold, including 2 abstrakt bilds, totaling $75.6 million. A B, Still, painted at the height of Richter’s artistic achievement utilizing the squeegee, was the top lot. Added to the Ames Collection over twenty-five years ago at Sotheby’s in New York for $264,000, tonight it surpassed its pre-sale estimate of $20/30 million. Chased by three telephone bidders for over seven minutes, the oil on canvas achieved $33,987,500.

Other highlights included Mark Grotjahn’s Untitled (French Grey Fan 10-90% Butterfly with Warm Grey 90% Between), which opened the sale and attracted bidding from four collectors before selling for $1,872,500, double the high estimate and an auction record for a work on paper by the artist. The following lot, Jim Hodges’s Untitled was chased by five bidders on the telephones and in the room, going on to fetch $1,332,500.