First time at Sotheby’s yesterday. They have their global HQ on York Avenue at 72nd Street, so not far from where we are in the Upper East Side. They had a public preview of over 400 lots for their contemporary and impressionist art auction that started last night. I’m still amazed you can just walk into these places for free and check out all this amazing art that’s for sale. They produce lavish catalogues and let you have them for free too.

The best work on sale is Jeff Koons’s Popeye statue. It is made of mirror polished stainless steel with transparent colour coating. Made between 2009 and 2011, it is one of an edition of three. The colours are incredible, it’s so shiny and bright you can’t help but smile at the look of sheer delight in Popeye’s face as he opens his tin of spinach. It’s been beautifully staged and the shadows thrown between a row of six Andy Warhol pictures just look great. This will be auctioned on 14 May.

Koons’s orange balloon dog sold at Christie’s in November 2013 for $58 million. It’s way bigger, but gives you an idea of how much money his work commands. The Whitney is doing a Jeff Koons retrospective which starts on 27 June, so I’ll definitely be going to that.