Christie’s London evening auctions of post-war classics & Italian sales raises 54,586,900 euros

KOLKATA: On October 18, Christie’s London evening auctions of Post-War & Contemporary Art and The Italian Sale realised a combined total of euros 54,586,900 ($88,157,844/€64,412,542). Together with yesterday’s auction of Thinking Big: Major Contemporary Sculpture and Installation sold to Benefit the Saatchi Gallery’s Foundation, the auctions of Contemporary art this week at Christie’s have realized a running total of £57,673,250 ($93,092,918/ €68,048,262). The top price this evening was paid for Sacco by Alberto Burri, which realised £2,994,500 ($4,836,118/€3,533,510). In total, 17 lots sold for over £1 million and 26 for over $1 million. In total, this week’s evening sales have established 31 artist records: 8 at this evening’s sales, and 23 at yesterday’s auction of Thinking Big.

Post-War & Contemporary Art The Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction realised a total of £27,788,900 ($44,879,074/€32,790,902), selling 91% by lot against a pre-sale estimate of £20.3 million to £29.2 million. The top price was paid for Glenn Brown’s Böcklin’s Tomb (copied from ‘Floating Cities’, 1981, by Chris Foss), 1998, which sold for £2,322,500 ($3,750,838/ €2,740,550). 9 lots sold for over £1 million/12 for over $1 million.

With buyers from 19 countries across 4 continents, record prices at auction were established for 4 artists (Josephine Meckseper, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Sarah Lucas and Ryan Trecartin), as well as a record price for a photograph by Martin Kippenberger.

Francis Outred, international director and head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe, said: "This week has seen extraordinary success in our three evening sales. Including our ‘Thinking Big’ auction of sculpture from the Saatchi Gallery, we’ve achieved 31 artist records with only 8 unsold lots out of 162. We saw spectacular success with our Italian sale, which outstripped the previous record for 20th-century Italian art, showing strong global interest in this area and setting 4 new world records. We saw high prices both for established artists such as Kippenberger, Basquiat and Doig, as well as records for young artists like Josephine Meckseper, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and Ryan Trecartin. The strong visitor figures at our ‘Thinking Big’ and ‘When Britain Went Pop’ exhibitions, which welcomed over 10,000 visitors between them, show the depth of interest for contemporary art in London. The strength of our sales can be linked to this growing audience for contemporary art."