Postwar & Contemporary Art

Christie’s
54 lots offered
£72,930,500 ($143.1 million) sold total
12 percent unsold by value
31 percent unsold by lot

Sotheby’s
70 lots offered
£95,030,000 ($189.4 million) sold total
6.2 percent unsold by value
20 percent unsold by lot

Phillips de Pury & Company
111 lots offered
£21,909,200 ($43 million) sold total
18.3 percent unsold by value
19.8 percent unsold by lot

Gerhard Richter Francis Bacon Lucio Fontana Fang Lijun Richard Prince Rudolf Stingel Yue Minjun Medium Voltage

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The top lot in Christie’s sale on February 6—three weeks before those of rivals Sotheby’s and Phillips de Pury & Company—was Francis Bacon’s haunting and rare Triptych 1974–77 (est. on request). The set narrowly missed the artist’s best of $52.7 million—achieved at Sotheby’s New York in May 2007 for the 1962 Study From Innocent X—selling for £26,340,500 ($51.7 million) to Andy Cohen, a former Christie’s jewelry specialist now living in Switzerland. He stood in the doorway of Christie’s packed King Street salesroom and vanished immediately after besting underbidder Samir Traboulsi, a Lebanese financier.

The triad, the sixth Bacon to fetch in excess of $25 million at auction in the past year, ranks as the most expensive work of the London season, including the Impressionist and modern sales. Ironically, it took almost two decades for the paintings to find a buyer in the primary market: They did not sell until 1993, reportedly to a Marlborough Gallery client for about $2.5 million.

Among the other standout performers were Gerhard Richter’s Zwei Liebespaare (“Two Pairs of Lovers”), from 1966 (est. on request), which brought a record £7,300,500 ($14.3 million), and Lucio Fontana’s red canvas with a single vertical slash, Concetto Spaziale, Attesa, from 1965 (est. £3.5–5.5 million; $7.1– 11 million), which soared to a record £6,740,500 ($13.2 million).

The excitement dulled when more-pedestrian works, like Richard Prince’s numbingly familiar Settlement Nurse, from 2003 (est. £2–3 million; $4.1–6 million), came on the block. It sold after a single bottom-feeding bid by Larry Gagosian for £2,148,500 ($4.2 million). Also falling victim to unreasonable expectations was Rudolf Stingel. Three of his works, all guaranteed and all from the same New York–based consignor, failed to sell at bloated estimates from £80,000 to £700,000 ($170,000–1.4 million), contributing to the highest buy-in rate for a contemporary evening sale at Christie’s London since February 2003.

Sotheby’s February 27 evening session enjoyed a different fate: The final tally was its largest for a contemporary auction in Europe, coming in just below the record £116.7 million ($230.5 million) earned by its Impressionist and modern auction three weeks before. The later sale date gave specialists time to talk jittery consignors down from overreaching reserves.

As at Christie’s, top-notch works by Richter and Fontana rocketed to new heights. Richter’s hypnotic still life Kerze (Candle), from 1983 (est. £1.8–2.5 million; $3.6–5 million), sold to a phone bidder for £7,972,500 ($15.9 million). Fontana’s gold, egg-shaped Concetto Spaziale/La Fine di Dio, from 1965 (est. in excess of £4 million; $7.8 million), was bought by New York private dealer Philippe Ségalot for £10,324,500 ($20.6 million).

“We are entering a period,” says Ségalot, “where the A+ picture will remain very strong and the more average works will suffer.” That rang true when three consecutive lots by the hot Chinese artists Yue Minjun, Liu Ye and Fang Lijun went unsold.

Unsurprisingly, the top seller was another Bacon, a 1969 portrait of his friend Henrietta Moraes, Study of Nude with Figure in a Mirror (est. in excess of £18 million; $35.3 million), which sold for £19,956,500 ($39.8 million) after a single phone bid. Sources in the trade indicate that Sotheby’s made a guarantee to the consignor, Hong Kong attorney Sir Po-Shing Woo, and lost money on the deal.

The proceeds of Phillips de Pury’s 3.5-hour marathon on February 28 fell solidly within expectations. Gagosian Gallery’s Stefan Ratibor paid £2,148,500 ($4.2 million) for Prince’s unremarkable Surfing Nurse, from 2002 (est. £1.5–2 million; $2.9–3.9 million), consigned by Norwegian explorer Erling Kagge, and Ségalot won Damien Hirst’s 1998 dot painting, 3-(5-Chloro-2-Hydroxyphenylazo)-4,5-Dihydroxy-2, 7-Naphthalenedisulfonic Acid (est. £1.5–2.5 million; $2.9–3.9 million) for £1,756,500 ($3.5 million).