Prices for Postwar Art on the Rise

Willem de Kooning Mark Rothko Francis Bacon Usual Boys and Girls Sell High at Sotheby’s John Chamberlain Contemporary Market Bruised but Resilient After London Sales Christie’s London Bests Own Contemporary Record London Contemporary Week Lurches Into Action at Phillips

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Bacon’s 1962 picture of a pope is slated to go under the hammer at Sotheby’s in May, estimated at more than $30 million, and a 1950 Rothko is expected to bring in more than $40 million in the same sale.

The current auction record for postwar art is $27.1 million for a Willem de Kooning painting that sold at Christie’s in November.

While it was once unheard of to pay more than $20 million for most works from the past half-century, “increasing numbers of buyers who have been collecting classic moderns are now looking at the postwar field,” said Christopher Eykyn, a private dealer based in New York. “It’s becoming increasingly hard to find the really great impressionist and modern pictures.”

As the auction houses gear up for their May sales, Sotheby's specialist Oliver Barker said museum and gallery shows—such as a recent exhibition of Bacon triptychs at Gagosian in London—also are kindling interest in postwar art.

Bloomberg: Rothko, Bacon May Replace Picasso as Kings of Auction Market