Sterling Ruby’s New Paintings Sold for $550,000 Each at Frieze New York. Are They Worth That?

Sterling Ruby’s New Paintings Sold for $550,000 Each at Frieze New York. Are They Worth That?

Let me point out something: If you spent $550,000 on a brand new painting by Ruby last week, you paid more than anyone else did for a Ruby at auction in the past two years, according to the Artnet Price Database. Since 2018, only one person paid more than that at auction: the buyer of a massive, pink-hued spray painting, SP15 (2007), spending about $615,000 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2021.

Sterling Ruby paintings at Gagosian’s Frieze New York booth. Photo by Elvin Tavarez.

I’ve written a lot lately about the disconnect between primary and secondary prices, where artworks cost more when they are new than when they are resold. Investment-grade art seems a lot less liquid than it used to be. Yet collectors still pay wild primary prices.