From Cattelan’s Scandalous Banana to a Duo of Lalanne Camels: 10 Highlights of the November Art Auctions

The air may be thick with market jitters and whispers of a slowdown—especially in the secondary market—but there is still an impressive lineup of high-quality consignments leading November’s evening sales. The goal? To lift spirits, hit those ambitious pre-sale estimates and maybe prove that the sky isn’t quite falling yet. Still, all three major auction houses are playing it predictably safe this season with works by established blue-chip names already etched into the canon of modern and contemporary art. Meanwhile, fresh-faced talent and the latest ultra-contemporary sensations are largely left to the day auctions, leaving little room for discoveries (or bubbles). As New York’s marquee auctions loom, Observer took a closer look at some star lots—the final major market litmus test before Art Basel Miami Beach.

The infamous Cattelan banana

Speaking of Basel, get ready because Sotheby’s is offering the now-legendary Maurizio Cattelan banana, Comedian. This piece, which touched off a social media frenzy and an ocean of debate, made its splashy debut at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2019. The work—a real banana duct-taped to a wall precisely 160 centimeters from the floor—offered a modern twist on the age-old question: what, exactly, makes art valuable? In what might be seen as a cheeky homage to Duchamp, Cattelan’s Comedian is sold as an ephemeral installation, where value resides in the right to recreate it, provided you own the all-important certificate and instructions. Though the work went viral for the spontaneous hilarity it incited, Cattelan’s piece diverges significantly from, say, a Sol LeWitt wall drawing or a Tino Sehgal piece, which come equipped with a well-established legal framework that underpins their value.

“To me, Comedian was not a joke; it was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value,” Cattelan told the Art Newspaper. “At art fairs, speed and business reign, so I saw it like this: if I had to be at a fair, I could sell a banana like others sell their paintings. I could play within the system but with my rules.”

Ultimately, Comedian serves as the climax of a hundred-year-long interrogation of contemporary art’s conceptual limits paired with the provocative Italian flair for performance that Cattelan has honed over his career. Sotheby’s will offer number two from an edition of three, plus two artist’s proofs, in the Now and Contemporary Evening Auction on November 20, with a high estimate of $1.5 million. In Miami, Perrotin had it listed for just $120,000—a brilliant investment for the savvy buyers who took the plunge back then.

Femme qui marche (II) by Alberto Giacometti

Leading Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale on November 19, this rare Alberto Giacometti sculpture is hailed as one of the finest examples of his signature slender, striding women—a surrealist-inspired vision that captures the human condition after the trauma of two world wars. Kept within the same distinguished family collection for 40 years at Giacometti’s request, the sculpture was cast during his lifetime and is a crucial early study of the standing female form, laying the groundwork for his first full-size female figure—a work that stands among the pinnacles of his career. Imogen Kerr, co-head of the 20th Century Evening Sale, highlighted the importance of this work in a press release: “Femme qui marche (II) represents a significant development in the artist’s practice from his surrealist investigations towards the monumental and iconic singular figure that would become the defining motif of his mature oeuvre. This breakthrough marks the point at which Giacometti’s sculptural language becomes refined and distilled, assuming the gravitas, elegance and solemnity that would later characterize his unique and profound contribution to 20th-century art.” At once monumental, solemn and ethereal, this iconic piece arrives with a high estimate of $30 million and a third-party guarantee, setting the stage for what promises to be a memorable night in the art market.

Iconic Keith Haring subway drawings

Sotheby’s is offering thirty-one rare Keith Haring subway drawings from Larry Warsh’s collection as the star attraction in their Contemporary Day Sale on November 21. The drawings, now on display at Sotheby’s headquarters in New York, are being shown in an immersive installation that evokes the gritty atmosphere of the 1980s city subway, the original canvas for Haring’s spontaneous creations. This sale represents a rare opportunity for Haring collectors, as these drawings are among the few surviving works that the artist made directly on subway advertisement placards—many of which were quickly erased or destroyed. Due to their scarcity and cultural significance, most of these pieces have been featured in major exhibitions, including the Brooklyn Museum’s 2012 survey, Keith Haring: 1978-1982. “I basically hunted them down and tried to accumulate them as a body of work,” Larry Warsh, who meticulously gathered and cared for these works, told Observer. “It was not about commerciality. It’s about historical importance. My feeling was that these were historically important.” Now, Warsh is releasing them with the hope of seeing these iconic drawings reach a wider public. “It’s time for institutions to have a chance to add these drawings to their collections because they are the most important works by this artist, I believe,” he added. The collection will be offered with a combined high estimate of $9 million, with individual drawings expected to fetch between $35,000 and $450,000, making the November 21 sale a must-watch for Haring devotees and institutional collectors alike.

Ed Ruscha’s Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half

Another top lot in Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale is this extraordinary Ed Ruscha piece—his last remaining large-scale 1960s masterpiece still in private hands—which has an estimate of over $50,000,000. Max Carter, Christie’s vice chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art, calls it “the synthesis and peak of Ruscha’s masterpieces of the early 1960s” and “an icon of Ed Ruscha’s art, paradox and the post-war era.” The work recently starred in the artist’s 2023-24 retrospective at MoMA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, sparking renewed interest in Ruscha’s oeuvre. In capturing the seriality of gas stations, Ruscha immortalized a piece of American road culture, highlighting the bold, utilitarian design of these stations against the endless sprawl of the American landscape. Originally unveiled in a 1964 exhibition at Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, the work was quickly acquired by Mr. and Mrs. Donald Factor, and it has since remained in private hands while being frequently lent to major exhibitions. In addition to its recent showing in New York and L.A., the piece has appeared in landmark exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth, underscoring its stature as one of Ruscha’s most significant achievements.

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s untitled portrait

Leading Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale, this monumental Jean-Michel Basquiat portrait from 1982 captures the artist’s explosive energy at the apex of his career. With bold, gestural lines and untamed brushstrokes, Basquiat rendered a fierce mid-bust portrait of a man—a powerful image likely inspired by his 1982 trip to Italy and encounters with classical heroism in art. This piece is among the most accomplished examples of Basquiat’s practice, so iconic that it was chosen by the New York Times to accompany their report of his death in 1988. Featured in the landmark 2019 Basquiat retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the painting has remained in the same private collection since the early ’90s. Now coming to auction with a high estimate of $30,000,000, the piece reflects Basquiat’s enduring market appeal—especially as demand surges in Asia, where interest in his work is remarkably strong.

The New York ’80s encapsulated in Keith Haring’s Untitled

Keith Haring is also taking center stage at Phillips, which is offering one of his standout pieces as a highlight of their Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale on November 19. Described in the catalog as “capturing the electric energy of New York City’s early 1980s art scene,” Untitled features Haring’s iconic stylized human figure in yellow, intersected by red-dotted dogs—a striking visual metaphor addressing themes of vulnerability, otherness and social marginalization. Created in 1982, as the AIDS epidemic was beginning to spread in New York, Untitled captures the viral collective anxiety surrounding what was then known as “gay-related immunodeficiency disease”—a name that contributed to the stigmatization of an entire community largely abandoned to face the crisis without adequate support. The piece holds particular historical importance, having debuted in Haring’s first solo exhibition at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 1982—a show that marked the beginning of his meteoric rise in the art world and cemented his reputation as a singular, powerful voice in contemporary art. One of the rare iconic Haring works to come to market in recent years, Untitled has been featured in major retrospectives at top institutions, including the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Tate Liverpool, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne and, most recently, in “Art Is for Everybody” at The Broad in Los Angeles. That exhibition then moved to Toronto before concluding at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis this fall. Phillips offers this celebrated work with a high estimate of $2 million, underscoring Haring’s lasting impact and relevance.

Monet’s iconic Nymphéas from the Sydell Miller Collection

Arguably one of the most iconic works in Impressionism and the entire history of modern art, Claude Monet’s Nymphéas continues to captivate audiences and collectors worldwide. A crowning highlight of the season, this masterpiece leads Sotheby’s single-owner sale, A Legacy of Beauty: The Collection of Sydell Miller Evening Auction, on November 18—a tribute to the extraordinary collection of beauty tycoon Sydell Miller. Painted in Monet’s later years, Nymphéas exemplifies his poetic mastery in capturing the subtle shifts of light and atmosphere throughout the day, immersing viewers in the tranquility of his famed water lily pond in Giverny, France. In his final decades, Monet devoted himself entirely to this subject, evolving an experimental style that pushed the boundaries of figuration and abstraction. This painting reveals the artist’s ability to blur these lines with gestural, vibrant brushstrokes that prefigure the energy and expression of Abstract Expressionism that would emerge in New York three decades later. Sotheby’s offers this masterpiece with an estimate by request—notably, it is not covered by a third-party guarantee, adding an extra layer of intrigue to one of the most anticipated sales of the season.

René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières

The captivating mystery of René Magritte’s surrealist vision will take center stage in a single-owner sale at Christie’s, which will put the prestigious collection of designer, philanthropist and collector Mica Ertegun on the block on November 19 following the 20th Century Evening Sale. This iconic Magritte masterpiece, L’empire des lumières, is among the highlights of the auction. Between 1949 and 1964, Magritte created seventeen oil versions of this subject, along with numerous gouaches, each subtly unique. Through minimal variations, he challenged viewers to detect the minute shifts that disturb our sense of reality, testing our grasp on the familiar. Originally conceived for the Belgian pavilion at the 1954 Venice Biennale, this painting quickly attracted the attention of collectors, including Peggy Guggenheim, who sought to acquire it. However, Magritte had already promised it to three other interested parties. To resolve this dilemma, he produced additional versions of the work, responding to the surging demand by intensifying its enigmatic and unsettling qualities with each iteration. In this interplay of the familiar and the uncanny, Magritte harnessed the surrealist mission to uncover the extraordinary lurking beneath the ordinary. His meticulous precision, paired with a paradoxical use of light that blurs day and night, amplifies the unsettling quality of one of art history’s most enigmatic scenes. This is yet another lot with no public estimate, though it does offer the security of a third-party guarantee, adding more allure to one of the season’s most captivating sales.

Two Lalanne camel sofas

After the single-owner sale of 21c Museum Hotel founders Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson’s collection last month, Christie’s is offering an unusual gem of modern design as a highlight of the 20th Century Evening Sale: a playful yet sophisticated pair of camel-inspired sofas by François-Xavier Lalanne. Exemplifying Lalanne’s genius for blending sculpture with functional design, these animal-themed sofas feature intricate technical craftsmanship balanced with a sense of whimsy and playfulness and are covered in a cozy wool finish that emphasizes comfort. Exhibited in “Les Lalanne,” the artist’s 2010 retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, these camels have been off the market for two decades. Brown and Wilson first acquired them in 2003 at Christie’s for $80,000, where they were sold as part of the esteemed Joel and Sherry Mallin collection. Now, following a dramatic price surge in the French duo’s work over the past three years, Christie’s is reoffering this beloved pair with a striking high estimate of $6 million.

The Rockefeller Joan Mitchell

Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale will also feature two standout Joan Mitchell works: City Landscape (high estimate: $20 million) and Untitled (high estimate: $12 million), which both come from the esteemed collection of The Rockefeller University, a pioneering biomedical research institution in New York that has been acquiring art since the 1970s to support research initiatives. City Landscape, a piece that shares its title and a similar composition with a piece in the Art Institute of Chicago, was painted during a pivotal phase in Mitchell’s career and showcases her signature palette—cobalt blue, scarlet red, teal, turquoise and black—enhanced by ethereal passages of pearlescent white. Inspired by the urban energy of Chicago, the painting features rhythmic lines in the lower register, evoking watery reflections or perhaps a distant cityscape shimmering on the horizon. While Untitled adopts a more horizontal, landscape-like composition, it exudes the same vibrant energy and bold use of color, channeling the influences Mitchell absorbed while engaging with New York’s dynamic community of artists, musicians and creatives. Acquired directly from Stable Gallery in 1958 by David Rockefeller, who recognized its groundbreaking style, the piece perfectly captures the spirit of fearless innovation and creative freedom that aligns with the university’s ethos. Proceeds from the sale of the two works will directly fund biomedical research aimed at advancing new treatments for various diseases.