55% of Artworks Fail to Sell at Sotheby’s : Auction: Art market gets first taste of weak economy. Sale is in marked contrast to the last five boom years.

The art market got its first real taste of a weak economy Tuesday night when 55% of the contemporary artworks offered at Sotheby’s auction house failed to sell.

Works by Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Jean Dubuffet and Mark Rothko were among those unsold as 43 of 77 lots offered were “bought-in,” the auction house’s term for failure to sell.

Tuesday night’s sale was in marked contrast to the last five boom years, when art prices shot up more than 100% each year.

But Sotheby’s art expert David Nash said the high buy-in rate was expected. “Given the headlines we have been seeing of the collapse of the market, I think we did extremely well.”

Robert Rauschenberg’s “Third Time Painting” sold for a disappointing $3.1 million to a private European buyer, far less than its $4-million to $5-million presale estimate.

A self-portrait by Andy Warhol, expected to fetch in the million-dollar range, couldn’t muster a bid of more than $600,000 and was bought-in.

Predictions of an art market slide have proliferated since the June auctions in London when roughly 50% of the works offered went unsold.

One dealer criticized the works offered for sale, blaming them for the poor showing.

“They were really weak pieces,” said Larry Gagosian, a New York contemporary art dealer. “If they can’t put a proper sale together, they should not do one at all.”

Lucy Mitchell-Innes, head of the contemporary art department at Sotheby’s, said she was surprised by the large number of American buyers. Auction house officials at Sotheby’s and competitor Christie’s expected a huge decline in American buying because of the nation’s looming recession.

She also said nearly 70% of the works were bought by private collectors rather than dealers.

“We had not expected that,” Mitchell-Innis said.

“There were lots of Americans, and they were nearly all private (buyers). They will take these paintings home and hang them on their walls.”

The sale, which had been estimated to bring between $39 million and $52 million, fetched a mere $19.8 million.

The contemporary sales will continue tonight at Christie’s, where art market insiders say the works offered are more substantial.