february 11, 2016 - Sotheby

Sotheby’s London evening sale of contemporary art

Tonight, Sotheby’s #london Evening Auction of Contemporary Art realised £69,461,000 / $100,447,552 / €89,827,274.
The sale was led by Lucian Freud’s modern-day Venus, “Pregnant Girl” from 1960-1 that sold for £16.1 million / $23.2 million, setting a new record for an early painting by the artist.
 The fourth-highest price for the artist at auction (in £)
 More than £9 million above the pre-sale low estimate (£7-10 million).
 Pursued by no fewer than six bidders, the work is one of the artist’s most tender paintings - a portrait of his lover, the 17-year-old Bernadine Coverley, pregnant with their daughter, the internationally-renowned fashion designer Bella Freud.
 Had been in the same collection for 30+ years.
A new record was set for Alberto Burri this evening when “Sacco e Rosso” (c. 1959) sold for £9.1 million / $13.2 million.
 Nearly doubling the previous auction record for the artist (£4.7m set in February 2014). Five years ago, Burri’s record was just £1.9m.
 This work last sold at auction in 2007 for £1.9m / $3.8m.
 A highlight of the 2015 Guggenheim retrospective.
 The result now places the market for Burri alongside other post-war Italian contemporary masters: Piero Manzoni’s (rec. £12.6m) and Lucio Fontana (rec. £19.3m).
 Pre-sale estimate £9-12 million.
A new record was set for Adrian Ghenie when the colossal van-Gogh inspired “Sunflowers in 1937” (2014) soared over estimate to £3.1 million / $4.5 million.
 More than double the previous auction record for the artist (£1.4m set at Sotheby’s, June 2014).
 Sotheby’s now holds the top three prices for the artist at auction.
 Pre-sale estimate £400,000-600,000.
Depth of bidding across broad range of artists and schools:
 Nine bidders (inc. Asian) for Adrain Ghenie’s “Sunflowers in 1937” (see above).
 Six bidders (inc. Asian and Russian) for Lucian Freud’s “Pregnant Girl” (see above).
 Five bidders for Mike Kelley’s self-portrait work on paper, Visceral Egg (1994). Sold for £245,000 / $354,294 (est. £80,000-120,000).
 Five bidders for Günther Förg’s untitled work from 1989. Sold for £389,000 / $562,533 (est. £180,000-220,000). These works have been in exhibitions both at White Cube, #london, and Skarstedt Gallery, New York, in 2015.
 Four bidders for Gebirge, the first Gerhard Richter mountain scape to come up at auction since 2008. Sold for £1.5 million / $2.2 million (est. £800,000- £1.2 million).
 Six bidders for Ai Wei Wei’s iconoclastic photograph “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn”. Sold for £755,000 / $1.1 million (est. £150,000-200,000). Another version of the same photograph featured in the Royal Academy show in 2015. The last time a work from the same edition appeared at auction in 2008, it sold for just under £50,000 – a fifteenth of today’s price.
3
Artists offered for the first time in #london tonight:
 Cheyney Thompson: “Chronochrome XIII” from 2009 (the first work by the artist to appear at auction in Europe), sold for an above estimate £197,000 / $284,882 (est. £70,000-90,000) [lot 1]
 Richard Diebenkorn: an untitled work on paper from 1976 (the first work by the artist to appear at auction in Europe) sold for an above estimate £269,000 / $389,001 (est. £120,000-180,000) [lot 24]
 Chung Sang-Hwa: “Untitled 81-5” from 1981-5 (the artist’s first work offered at auction outside Asia) also sold for an above estimate £269,000 / $389,001 (est. £200,000-300,000) [lot 47]
Sale Overview
 Pre-sale estimate: £60.2-86.1 million / $87.1-124.5 million
 75% of the works offered tonight had never been offered at auction before
 Participation from 38 countries (similar to February 2015 sale)
 Sell through rate: 78%
Contemporary Art Day Sale follows tomorrow: est. £13.7-19.6m (227 lots)

- Photogallery (11)

FREUD_55

2048x3072, 840KB

Lot 10 - Manzoni

4538x3754, 3MB

Lot 12 - Alberto Burri, Sacco E Rosso (1959). Estimate £9-12 million, $13.6-18.1 million

1500x1731, 655KB

Lot 15 - Basquiat, head of a madman HQ

1701x2417, 498KB

Lot 17 - Lucian Freud, Pregnant Girl (1960-1). Estimate £7-10 million, US$ 10.5 – 15.1 million

3642x4649, 3MB

Lot 18 Auerbach, Primrose Hill, High Res

2737x2062, 1MB

Lot 27 Richter

3846x4318, 6MB

Lot 30 - Andy Warhol, Large Campbell’s Soup Can (1964). Estimate £4.5-6.5 million, US$ 6.8 – 9.8 million

3345x5040, 3MB

Lot 44 - Richard Prince

5342x4556, 7MB

Lot 48 - Shiraga

4276x2953, 6MB

Lot 7 -Ghenie, The Sunflowers in 1937

2370x2362, 6MB

- Documents (2)

Press release

514KB

L16020 Top 10 (Contemporary Art Evening Auction, Feb 2016)

88KB

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