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.

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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.

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........

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