Art Basel, in official recap messaging boasted about David Zwirner’s sale of Joan Mitchell’s Sunflowers (1990-91) (illustrated above) for $20 million as “close to the artist’s auction record of USD 29 million.” The sale was used to illustrate their point that “the upper echelons of the market remain firmly intact.”

Needless to say, 20 is not actually close to 29, but it’s also not an apples-to-apples comparison.

Mitchell’s auction record was set less than a year ago, in November 2023, with the sale of a ca. 1959 painting (illustrated below) for just over $29 million at Christie’s, New York against an estimate of $25 - 35 million. By contrast, the Mitchell painting sold by Zwirner at Basel in June 2024 is from 1990-91, over 30 years later.

A much more apt comparison to the Zwirner sale would be to the auction sale of another 1990-91 Mitchell Sunflowers diptych (illustrated below) for $27.9 million, also in November 2023, at Sotheby's New York; it carried an estimate at $20-30 million.

The Sotheby’s painting, which is the same size, is much more complex and therefore unquestionably superior to the Zwirner painting. But just how much better is it than the one that sold at Sotheby’s? Does the price difference of 40% accurately reflect the difference in quality?

$20 million is indeed a sizable sum in absolute terms, and consequently at one level, the sale might be seen as a confirmation of the function of the high end of the retail market. This price is also appreciably higher than any auction price realized for a Mitchell painting prior November 2023.

One is nonetheless left to consider how this painting compares with the Sotheby’s comparable, and whether the respective prices realized appear to be consistent with the relative strengths of the two paintings.