MOCA boasts million-dollar auction
LOS ANGELES — The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) here recently raised $1.3 million net at its 25th Anniversary Art Auction on June 5.
“This auction was a tremendous success and the best sale in MOCKs history,” says Beth Swofford, MOCA trustee and chair of this year’s event. “We are grateful for the collective generosity of both artists and donors who demonstrated the incredible foundation of MOCKs remarkable 25 years of support.”
More than 250 people attended the event at Christie’s Los Angeles. Forty-eight works by major contemporary artists were sold during a live auction conducted by Andrea Fiuczynski, president of Christie’s Los Angeles.
Three works that sold during the event set new records. Mike Kelley’s “Empathy Displacement: Humanoid Morphology, Number 10” (1990), which was donated by Beatrice and Philip Gersh, sold for a record $205,000, the highest bid of the auction. Michael Borremans’ painting “The Stick” (2003), sold for $130,000, a record for the Belgian artist. And acclaimed Southern California-based Raymond Pettibon’s “No Title (From the shore’s)” (2004), a pen-and-ink work on paper created specially by the artist for the auction, sold for a record $66,000.
Thomas Struth’s “Paradise 12 (Xishuang Banna), Yunnan, Province, China” (1999) photograph, courtesy of the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, sold for $100,000. Jim Hodges’ white-brass-chain sculpture in the shape of a spider web, sold for $48,000. Juan Munoz’s “Conversation Piece” (1992), a work on paper, sold for $45,000.
MOCA attracts more than 250,000 visitors annually to its three Los Angeles buildings–MOCA at California Plaza (250 South Grand Avenue in downtown L.A.), MOCA at The Geffen Contemporary (152 North Central Avenue in Little Tokyo), and MOCA at the Pacific Design Center (8687 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood).
The MOCA 25th Anniversary Art Auction was held in conjunction with a yearlong celebration of MOCA’s 25th anniversary.
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