In a rare, post-auction analysis of a casualty strewn auction of ten Andy Warhol paintings held at Sotheby’s New York in May 1993, soon to be mega-dealer Larry Gagosian weighs in on the foibles of a weak art market.

This rear-view mirror view of a starkly different time in the art world shows the cyclical nature of the art market and how even championship art can be spurned when the economic chips are down.
Only two of the ten paintings offered from the collection of Frederick W. Hughes, Warhol’s longtime business partner and supreme promoter, sold that evening at Sotheby’s, including the hand-painted Pop. pre-silk screen canvas, “Old Telephone” from 1961 that sold for $552,500.