About This Auction

The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction in May 2026 will feature artworks which capture the paradigmatic artistic shifts of the latter half of the 20th century through to the present. Led by one of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s most significant paintings—Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) from 1983—as well as a tranche of American and European masterworks by Mark Rothko, Lucio Fontana, Alexander Calder and more from the Collection of Jean & Terry de Gunzburg, The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction this spring features examples of extraordinary creative achievement from the last 80 years. Beginning with Postwar abstraction through to Minimalism, Pop, and into the critical postmodern inquiries from the 1980s to today, this radical new mode of art-making radically altered the course of art history. Spotlighting these developments within a unified platform, the masterworks of The Now and Contemporary Art Evening Sale call into focus the plurality of visions, identities and artistic innovations that reshaped the trajectory of art history as we know it. These works and more will be viewable at Sotheby’s New York this May.