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RIVETING. Marc Newson’s 1988 prototype “Lockheed Lounge”

Remember a few years ago, when you could pick up a Lockheed Lounge for under a million? The 1988 prototype for Marc Newson‘s swooping wonder of riveted sheet aluminum went on the block yesterday evening at Phillips de Pury & Company and sold for a whopping $2,098,500 (all prices include fees paid to Phillips), zooming past its estimate of $1.0 million to $1.5 million. The work is one of 15 Lockheed Lounges handcrafted by Newson, who followed this prototype with four artist’s proofs and an edition of ten. The prototype is distinguished by its white exposed fiberglass-reinforced resin feet, while the others have feet coated in black rubber. The lot was among the stars of Phillips’s court-ordered sale of the collection of Halsey Minor, the embattled founder of CNet who recently topped the state of California’s list of delinquent taxpayers. A huge Newson fan, Minor also acquired prototype versions of the designer’s 1987 “Pod of Drawers” and an artist’s proof of his 1993 “Orgone Stretch Lounge,” both of which failed to sell last night. However, a 1993 proof of Newson’s stunning polished aluminum “Event Horizon Table” found a buyer at $242,500, just under its low estimate, bringing Minor that much closer to settling up a $22 million delinquent loan. The sale’s top lots were a 2004 Richard Prince nurse painting, which went for $6.4 million, and Ed Ruscha‘s “Angry Because It’s Plaster, Not Milk.” The 1965 canvas, which sold for $3.2 million, depicts a bird frustrated at having been duped by a glass of white liquid.

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