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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A chunk of Sotheby’s success came from a trove of guaranteed property from the Helga and Walther Lauffs’ collection, which earned ₤18,983,000, double its high estimate of ₤8.9 million.

Of those 12 standout lots, Yves Klein’s sensational abstraction ANT 131 from 1961 led the pack, selling to a telephone bidder for ₤4,185,250 (est. ₤700–900,000).

"Many bidders exceeded their own limitations," said an exhausted Tobias Meyer after the sale. "This is a market driven by art lovers."