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https://www.barrons.com/articles/london-sales-suggest-unabated-strength-in-the-art-market-01665785695
Bidders were in hot pursuit of art during back-to-back auctions at Phillips and Sotheby’s in London on Friday against a backdrop of currency volatility and economic uncertainty that didn’t appear to suppress bidding.
Several new records were set, largely for ultra-contemporary artists, including Robert Nava, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, and Doron Langberg at Phillips, and Julien Nguyen, Louise Giovanelli, and Charline von Heyl, at Sotheby’s. Paintings by Caroline Walker set two artist records in one day, first at Phillips and then at Sotheby’s.
Walker’s Night Scenes, 2017, achieved £516,600 (US$577,042) at the Phillips sale, and then just hours later at Sotheby’s “The Now” sale, 13 bidders drove the price of her Indoor Outdoor, 2015, to £529,200.
Sotheby’s also saw an auction record for Frank Auerbach’s Head of J.Y.M., 1984-85, during its contemporary sale. The painting sold above estimates for £5.6 million, with fees.
In all, Phillips 20th century and contemporary sale realized £18.7 million, shy of a £21 million high estimate, while Sotheby’s “The Now” sale of works created since 1980—none of which had been offered at an auction before—realized £11.4 million. Sotheby’s contemporary sale realized £85.7 million.
The presale estimate range for The Now was between £8 million and £10.75 million, while the contemporary sale was expected to achieve between £72.7 million and £93.7 million.
Most lots offered at all three sales found bidders as Phillips auction of 33 lots was 94% sold, Sotheby’s The Now auction of 18 lots was 100% sold, and the contemporary sale of 33 lots was 97% sold.
The results show collectors are looking for high quality art “across genres, and from artists of all ages,” says James Sevier, head of contemporary art, Europe, at Sotheby’s, noting there was deep bidding for classic names in addition to artists of today’s generation.
“This week it felt like the global artworld was properly back together for the first time in London, with collectors flying in from all continents, and translating into a unforgettable energy in our rooms this week,” Sevier says.
At a press conference after the Phillips sale, the auction house’s CEO Stephen Brooks similarly credited the results to Frieze Week, which brings global art lovers to London for two Frieze fairs, museum shows, and other events.
“It’s clear the enthusiasm from that percolated through to our saleroom here tonight,” Brooks said. He added that the auction demonstrated there “is clearly strength in the middle market.”
The results followed an evening of generally strong auctions at Christie’s on Thursday in London.
Sotheby’s big ticket sales for the evening included Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, 1963, which was offered by the collection of William S. Paley, the former head of CBS, and achieved £24.3 million, below a £30 million estimate.
The work, which carried an irrevocable bid and a guarantee, was among several from Paley’s collection on extensive loan at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Proceeds from the sale, and more than two dozen other works to appear at future Sotheby’s auctions, will support The Paley Museum, the Greenpark Foundation, and a new endowment at MoMA for digital media and technology and for new acquisitions.
The other notable sale, of Gerhard Richter’s 192 Farben, 1966, a more than six-foot-tall oil painting from the Elisabeth and Gerhard Soht Collection in Hamburg, Germany, generated strong bidding, selling in line with a high estimate at £18.3 million. The work had been on loan to the Hamburger Kunsthalle museum in Germany in the 1990s.
Sotheby’s contemporary sale also saw spirited bidding for Bridget Riley’s Summer Shades, 1994, which sold above estimates for £1.1 million, and Lucien Freud’s And the Bridegroom (1st Version), which was pushed by seven bidders to nearly double its high estimate at £1.9 million.
Cecily Brown’s Beautiful Not Realistic, 2008, also heavily pursued, sold for £1.5 million, nearly double a high estimate.
Among records achieved at Phillips was Nava’s Before Minotaur, 2019, which achieved a world record for the artist at auction of £639,600, more than double the work’s high estimate.
The Now sale also achieved a record price for Nguyen’s Semper Solus, 2017, which sold for £453,600, multiples of a £60,000 high estimate, and for Giovanelli’s Peeping Tom, which sold for £81,900, double its high estimate.
There were also strong results for Flora Yukhnovich, whose Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner, sold for £1.6 million, above estimates, and Jadé Fadojutimi’s The Misguided Thrill of Frills, sold for £554,400, also above estimates.
Bidders were in hot pursuit of art during back-to-back auctions at Phillips and Sotheby’s in London on Friday against a backdrop of currency volatility and economic uncertainty that didn’t appear to suppress bidding.
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