Duchamp Readymade Market: From $1.2M to $20M in Two Decades

Collector Adam Lindemann recounts the 2002 Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg auction of 14 Marcel Duchamp readymades editioned by Arturo Schwartz in 1964. The set, the last complete set in private hands, sold poorly: Fountain made $1.2 million (now estimated at $20 million), Bicycle Wheel $1.7 million, and several works failed to sell or barely cleared reserves. The rumored $10 million guarantee resulted in a $5 million loss for the auction house. Lindemann later acquired the unsold shovel and bottle rack. He contrasts this with today's market, noting Joseph Kosuth's shovel fetched $2.5 million at Christie's in 2024. The article also discusses concurrent Duchamp exhibitions at MoMA (encyclopedic, exhaustive) and Gagosian (full set of readymades), and a rumor that a Middle Eastern museum bought a set for nine figures. Lindemann reflects on living with the readymades, Duchamp's legacy, and the irony of his anti-retinal objects becoming sacred relics valued in the millions.