Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction in London realized £46 million ($61 million) on October 15th, led by Willem de Kooning's Untitled (1977), which sold for £9.8 million ($12.9 million) against an estimate of £8 million–£12 million ($10.69 million–$16.03 million)—the highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction in Europe. The sale brought Sotheby’s combined Modern and Contemporary art total in London this year to £598 million ($793 million), the strongest year-to-date figure since 2015 and more than double the equivalent total at this point last year.
The evening‘s sale saw strong demand for American abstraction alongside German painting. A monumental Abstraktes Bild (1992) by Gerhard Richter brought £6.7 million ($8.9 million), while a late Untitled (1969) work on paper by Mark Rothko, made during the same period as his celebrated Rothko Chapel paintings, sold for £3.8 million ($5 million). David Hockney’s Henry Reading fetched £2.8 million ($3.7 million). His iPad drawing 10th–22nd June 2021, Water Lilies in the Pond with Pots of Flowers (2021) sold for nearly three times its high estimate at £1.9 million ($2.5 million), setting a new auction record for any iPad work by the artist.
Elsewhere, Andy Warhol’s Four Marilyns (Reversal Series) (ca. 1979-86) made £2.7 million ($3.6 million), and Georg Baselitz’s P.D. Idol (1964) and Die Geißelung (1983) sold for £2.4 million ($3.2 million) and £2.2 million ($2.9 million), respectively. Albert Oehlen's Schwindel (1996) made £1.7 million ($2.2 million).
“This evening's results, which bring our running total for the year in London to over $1 billion, are a testament of our belief in the city all year round,” said Alex Branczik, Sotheby's chairman of modern and contemporary art, Europe and Asia. “Our commitment to the London market extends far beyond a single week: we continue to champion the city as a cornerstone of the global art market throughout the year.”
Beyond De Kooning, the evening also set a new benchmark for British artist Michael Andrews, whose work sold for £704,000 ($940,000). Sotheby’s reported 7,850 visitors to its Frieze Week exhibition over seven days, and said London’s year-to-date auction total across all categories has now passed $1 billion, its highest since 2018. Sotheby’s London sales continue this today with both a Contemporary Day auction and a dedicated David Hockney sale.
from Artsy News https://ift.tt/mDbVnq7
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