JUNE 24, 2020

By Ungyu Yeo

Jeff Koons, Balloon Venus Lespugue (Red), 2013–19. © Jeff Koons. Courtesy David Zwirner. 

David Zwirner sold a Jeff Koons sculpture for $8 million through the gallery’s online showroom. Jeff Koons is notably the world's most expensive living artist following the $91 million sale of "Rabbit" in May 2019.

About five hours into the fair’s VIP opening, David Zwirner gallery said it found a buyer for a new $8 million sculpture by Jeff Koons, entitled "Balloon Venus Lespugue (Red)," in the newly-launched online exhibition "Studio: Jeff Koons" hosted in David Zwirner's Online Viewing Room.

Jeff Koons, Balloon Venus Lespugue (Red), 2013–19. © Jeff Koons. Courtesy David Zwirner. 

This phenomena may well be a record for any online viewing room sale to date. It have also fetched a record price for any online viewing room sale to date. But rival mega-gallery Gagosian has reported multiple six- and seven-figure sales through its own digital portals—including a $6-million Albert Oehlen painting last year, and a $5.5-million Cecily Brown painting last month.

In the meantime, 10 out of the 15 works have already sold through the Zwirner platform. Highlights include Albers’s City (1928/1936), priced at $1 million; Kerry James Marshall’s Untitled (Blot) (2015), sold for $3 million to an American museum; Joan Mitchell’s Pastel (1991), sold for more than $1 million; and Wolfgang Tillmans’s paper drop (passage) I–V (2019), which sold for $500,000.