Sotheby's auction house's
cross-category evening sale in London held on July 28, 2020 realized £149.7
million ($192.7 million) with three records set.
The sale's total fell within the
presale estimate of £108.2 million to £155.5 million ($139.3 million to $ 200.1
million), but only after six lots were withdrawn at the last minute, including
a Francis Bacon, which had carried the second-highest estimate of the night,
and a work by 19th-century German painter Gustav Bauernfeind which was quickly
left unsold.
Twelve works in the auction
carried a guarantee, 10 of which also had irrevocable bids placed ahead of the
sale. Five lots went over the £10 million mark with fees, but three works
failed to sell, making for a 95 percent sell-through rate
Titled“Rembrandt to Richter,” the
sale included works spanning 500 years of art, a new trend launched in 2017
when Christie's included Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator
Mundi in a contemporary art sale.
A Joan Miró dream painting that
once hung in Alexander Calder's bedroom appeared at auction for the first time
since 1966 fetched 22.3 million GBP, however well below its high estimate of 30
million. This work came from the collection of billionaire Ronald Perelman, as
did Henri Matisse's Danseuse Dans Un Intérieur, Carrelage Vert et
Noir, whichsold for t £5.5 million, well below its £8 million low
estimate.
But the sale of the pictures
(both originally acquired in the late 1980s from Swiss dealer Thomas Ammann)
was a fait accompli: they
were each guaranteed with irrevocable bids ahead of the sale.
An Italian Renaissance
picture by Paolo Uccello was secured for a buyer for £2.4 million,
against a high estimate of £800,000. While
a triptych by Banks intended to raise money in favour of children's
rehabilitation equipment for the Bethlehem Arab Society for
Rehabilitation, made £2.2 million ($2.9 million), the artist's second-highest
price at auction.
Protected by an irrevocable bid, Rembrandt's
diminutive self-portrait hammered within estimate at £12.6 million without fees
while a Richter cloud painting went over £10 million with fees while Other a maquette
by Barbara Hepworth drew bids from five collectors before selling for more than
four times its high estimate
Meanwhile a statue relief by
Henri Laurens, smashed its upper estimate nearly six times over and set an
auction record for the artist.
In addition, a self-portrait by
rising-star Ghanian painter Amoako Boafo soared past its upper estimate to
hammer at £190,000 with a specialist bidding from the Asia desk.
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