Press Release
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Sale results
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february 12, 2015 - Sotheby
Highest ever total for a Sotheby's sale of contemporary art in Europe: Gerhard Richter and Francis Bacon
RECORD PRICE FOR EUROPE’S TOP LIVING ARTIST GERHARD RICHTER
The evening was led by Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild which established a new record for the artist, selling for £30.4m / $46.3 / €41m (est. £14-20m), a new benchmark for any European living artist
- Created in 1986, and marking a radical departure for Richter, this exceptional work is one of the artist’s largest abstract paintings and one of his favourite works
- When the same work was offered by Sotheby’s in 1999, it made $607,500 – then a record for an abstract piece by the artist. Subsequent to that, the work hung for many years in the Ludwig Museum in Cologne
- One of a number of strong prices for German artists, who together contributed over £40 million towards tonight’s total. Among them was Georg Baselitz whose Hirte sold for £485,000 / $738,994 / €653,636 (est. £250,000-350,000), establishing a new record for a work on paper by the artist.
WORKS FROM THE HOGLUND COLLECTION SURPASS EXPECTATIONS
Lucio Fontana’s most famous but never-before-seen work, Concetto Spaziale, Attese (1965) from the Hoglund collection, soared beyond estimate (£5-7m) to set a new sterling record for a Concetto Spaziale, Attesa / Attese (slash painting) by the artist at £8.4m / $12.8m / €11.3m.
The Hoglund Collection
The Fontana was one of nine works sold tonight from ‘An Important Swedish Private Collection’ acquired by Anna-Stina Malmborg-Hoglund and Gunnar Hoglund MDs over fifty years. Comprising works by key figures from some of the most influential post-war movements in Europe and the US, the collection sold for a combined total of £10.7m / $16.4m/ €14.5m, against a pre-sale estimate of £6.6-9.7m for all the works offered.
- None of these works had ever been seen on the open market before
- Including three rare and fascinating works by Jean Tinguely, including Meta-Malevich ‘Formes Mouvementées’, a prime early example of the monochromatic kinetic sculptures which the artist created between 1955 and 1960, which sold for £485,000 / $738,994 / €653,636 (est. £200,000-300,000)
- A further stand-out work from the collection was James Rosenquist’s Beach Call (1979), a classic example of the artist’s punchy Pop style, from the peak of Rosenquist’s career that soared over estimate to sell for £641,000 / $976,692 / €863,878 (est. £100,000-150,000)
POWERFUL SELF-PORTRAIT DIPTYCH BY FRANCIS BACON SELLS FOR £14.7M
Francis Bacon’s 1977 Two Studies for Self-Portrait (est. £13-18m) made £14.7m / $22.4m / €19.8m, more than 41 times the price it achieved the last time it appeared at auction (£353,500 at Sotheby’s London in December 1993)
- The work is an extremely rare example of a series of profoundly introspective self-portraits Bacon conducted following the suicide of his lover George Dyer in 1971.
Strong prices achieved tonight for British Art
- This was one of a series of strong prices for British artists tonight including £2.2m / $3.3m / €2.9m for David Hockney’s Green Tide (1989) which sold to a private Latin American collector (est. £1.2-1.8m). Bought by today’s consignor in 1990, the work had not been seen in public until now and made its auction debut this evening.
- Fusing Pop and Op Art, Richard Hamilton’s Epiphany realised £557,000 / $848,701 / €750,671, an auction record for the artist.
RISING STAR: JONAS WOOD
- A new record was set this evening for rising star Jonas Wood when his Studio Hallway (2010), the most important work by the artist ever to appear at auction sold for a final price of £365,000 / $556,150 / €491,912 (est. £70,000-90,000)
- Currently the subject of sold-out show at Gagosian in Hong Kong, Wood is now held by major institutions such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
AUCTION RECORDS SET TONIGHT
ARTIST RECORDS
For Jonas Wood (Lot 1) - £365,000 / $556,150 / €491,912
For Gerhard Richter (lot 37) - £30.4m / $46.3 / €41m
For Richard Hamilton (lot 46) - £557,000 / $848,701 / €750,671
For Manolo Millares (Lot 76) - £485,000 / $738,994 / €653,636
RECORDS BY MEDIUM
For a single work on paper by Cy Twombly (Lot 4) - £3.9m / $5.9m / €5.2m
A sterling record for a Concetto Spaziale, Attesa / Attese (slash painting)
by Fontana (lot 8) - £8.4m / $12.8m/€11.3m
For a work on paper by Georg Baselitz (Lot 38) - £485,000 / $738,994 / €653,636
FACTS AND FIGURES
- 86% sold by lot - making this the 9th consecutive Evening Sale for Sotheby’s Contemporary Art worldwide with a sell-through rate over 80%. (Over the last decade, the average sell-through rates in our Contemporary evening sales has been a remarkable 86.5%)
- Participants from 42 countries
- Double the number of participants from Latin America compared to the same sale last year
UPCOMING AUCTIONS OF CONTEMPORARY ART AT SOTHEBY’S LONDON
- 11th February 2015 - Contemporary Art Day Auction (est. £13.9 – 19m)
- 12th February 2015 - A major fundraising auction for ‘1 in 11’, a worldwide campaign launched by FC Barcelona Foundation, Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) and UNICEF to extend educational opportunities to the most marginalised and vulnerable children in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal.
- 10t, 11th, 12th March 2015 – Soon to be announced, a single-owner sale featuring major works contemporary art (low est. £25 million).
London | Mitzi Mina | mitzi.mina@Sothebys.com | +44 (0) 207 293 6000
Rosie Chester | Rosamund.chester@sothebys.com | Toby Skeggs: Toby.Skeggs@sothebys.com
New York | Dan Abernethy| dan.abernethy@sothebys.com | +1 212 606 7176
Richter sells for 30.4m
618x323, 69KB
Lot 37 - Richter - Abstrakes Bild, 1986 (est. 14-20m)
1760x2126, 754KB
David Hockney, Green Tide
3012x1015, 645KB
Francis Bacon, Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (2)
1514x1009, 257KB
Francis Bacon, Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (3)
1536x1024, 291KB
Francis Bacon, Two Studies for a Self-Portrait (iv)
1024x1536, 228KB
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