Alighiero Boetti's Mappa Sells for $8.8M at Sotheby's, Setting New Record

At Sotheby's New York Contemporary Evening Auction on November 16, 2022, Alighiero Boetti's 'Mappa' (1989-1991) from the Fondazione Carraro collection sold for $8.8 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and surpassing the previous record set just a month earlier at Christie's Paris. The auction, which generated $269.1 million overall, was led by Andy Warhol's 'White Disaster (White Car Crash 19 Times)' (1963), which sold for $85.4 million. The Warhol work, the largest single panel from his Death and Disaster series, was the first to return to auction since 2013 when 'Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)' sold for $105.4 million at Sotheby's. The evening also included the The Now segment, dedicated to emerging artists, achieving $45.8 million across 23 lots, all sold. New records were set for Barbara Kruger ($1.25 million), Betye Saar ($378,000), Louis Fratino, Salman Toor, Elizabeth Peyton, Jacqueline Humphries, and Carol Bove. Strong Asian demand was noted for ultra-contemporary works.