Contemporary Market Bruised but Resilient After London Sales

Courtesy Sotheby's

Marlene Dumas’s "The Visitor" (1995) sold for £3,177,250 ($6,336,072; est. £800,000–1.2 million), making it the most expensive work by a living woman artist to sell at auction.

Courtesy Christie's

Jeff Koons’s 9 1/2-ton "Balloon Flower (Magenta)" (1995–2000) set a record, selling for £12,921,250,00 ($25,752,051; est. on request, in the region of £12 million).

Albert Oehlen Damien Hirst Paul McCarthy Bridget Riley Andy Warhol Willem de Kooning Lucian Freud Gerhard Richter

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The week got off to a bumpy start at Phillips de Pury and Company with a rash of pricey buy-ins that deflated expectations. Many of those lots carried financial guarantees, and as a whole, the line-up was poorly choreographed with many entries burdened by high estimates and unremarkable quality. In total, 31 of the 91 lots offered failed to find buyers for a buy-in rate, by lot, of 34 percent and 31 percent by value. The house tallied ₤24,483,000 ($48,770,260), below the pre-sale estimated range of ₤29,250,000–41,630,000.

Though Phillips is known for presenting cutting-edge younger artists, the evening’s top lot was Willem de Kooning’s late and mostly minimal abstraction Untitled from 1984 (est. ₤1.5–2.5 million), which sold to London private dealer Ivor Braka for ₤3,513,250. Braka also nabbed Albert Oehlen’s Bereits Katzen warden an die Spitze getrieben, a large-scale abstract oil from 1999, for ₤157,250 (est. ₤70–90,000).

Other front-runners included Andy Warhol’s Nine Multi-colored Marilyns (Reversal Series) from 1979–86, which sold to a telephone bidder for ₤2,505,250 (est. ₤2.2–2.8 million). The work’s date range has to do with the fact that the assembled panels come from different periods.

Though works from several of his fellow Chinese artists, including Yan Pei Ming and Zhang Xiaogang, were bought in due to over-reaching estimates and their being over-shopped in the private market before heading to Phillips, Zeng Fanzhi’s rare, early, and powerful composition Chairman Mao II (1993), depicting the storied leader smoking in an armchair and surrounded by Red Book–toting partisans, squeaked past its low estimate of ₤2 million, selling for ₤2,169,250.

A huge Damien Hirst, resembling a stained glass window but comprised of butterflies and household gloss paint, The Importance of Elsewhere — The Kingdom of Heaven from 2006, sold to another telephone bidder for ₤1,609,250 (est. ₤1.5–2.5 million).

Another guaranteed work, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s fierce and early untitled painting from 1982 (est. ₤1–1.5 million) sold to New York, uber-art trader Jose Mugrabi for ₤1,385,250.

No other works broke the £1 million mark, though a number of fresh artist records were set, including for Banks Violette’s striking image of two horses in negative, Burnout (Fade Away) Vol. 1 from 2003, which sold for a sizzling ₤205,250 (est. ₤50–70,000).

Despite these successes, a rash of buy-ins for major lots, including works by Franz Gertsh, Paul McCarthy, Hirst, and Warhol, dampened the festive atmosphere.

"My expectations were much higher," said Michael McGinnis, head of contemporary art for Phillips, speaking moments after the sale in the firm's stunning new quarters on Howick Place, "and I have no reason to give you. It was a total curveball."

Christie's
It seemed like another world the next day at Christie’s evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary art, where a trio of works by Francis Bacon, Jeff Koons, and Lucian Freud made ₤42 million, boosting the overall tally to £86,241,600 ($171,879,508).

All but ten of the 58 works offered sold, delivering a 17 percent buy-in rate by lot and 16 percent buy-in rate by value. The evening’s total fell midway between the £80–115 million pre-sale estimate, yet it stands as the highest figure for any Christie’s Post-war sale held in Europe. Eighteen works hurdled the £1 million mark, and 30 of the 48 that sold made over $1 million.

Nine records were set, including for Jeff Koons’s 9-½-ton Balloon Flower (Magenta) from 1995–2000 (est. on request; in the region of ₤12 million), though this sale could still count as a disappointment for the house. Despite a good deal of pre-sale hoopla — Christie’s had guaranteed the work for a secret sum believed to be close to the estimate and spent a small fortune transporting the gleaming behemoth from Dallas, where it was installed at collector/philanthropist Howard Rachofsky’s home, to a temporary site in St. James Square, a stone’s throw from the auction house — the pristine, stainless steel trophy didn’t ignite the expected bidding war, selling to a lone telephone bidder for ₤12,921,250. It’s unclear if the house made any money on the deal.