Christie's
auction of Post-War & Contemporay Art held in London on February 13, 2014
totalled 124,192,000 pounds, the 2nd highest total for a European auction in
this field.
The sale recorded 83% of lots sold with 95% in
value with the top price of the evening achieved by Francis Bacon's portrait of
his companion George Dyer, which culminated at 42,194,500 pounds (€ 51,308,
512), a record price at auction for a single panel by the artist. This painting
was last seen at auction at Christie's in 2000 in New York when it sold for 6,6
million USD, a record price for the artiste at the time.
This result folloed the record-breaking sale of
Francis Bacon's triptych of Lucian Freud which sold for 142 million dollars at
Christie's New York in November 2013.
Other record prices were set during tonight's
auction including for several British artists such as Jenny Saville, Gary Hume,
Bridget Riley and Gerald Laing.
Together with the February 12 auction of Eyes
Wide Open; an Italian Collection, which realised £38,427,400/ $63,020,936/
€46,074,453 and set 14 artist records, this week's auctions of Post-War and
Contemporary Art at Christie's have totalled 162,619,400 pounds ( €197,091,925) - a
record total for a week of Post-War & Contemporary auctions in Europe
Meanwhile, Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild
(1989) sold for 19,570,500 pounds and Jeff Koon's Cracked Egg (Magenta)
(1994-2007) fetched 14,082,500 pounds. Damien Hirst's Mickey sold for 902,500
pounds and Domenico Gnoli's "Black Hair" (1969) -one of his best
works- fetched a surprising bid of 7,026,500 pounds against a high estimate of
1,8 million.
Bridget Riley's "Chant 2" sold for
2,882,500 pounds, setting a new record price for the artist at auction while
Jenny Saville's "Plan" went for a record-breaking bid of 2,098,500 pounds
against a high estimate of 1,2 million.
Sotheby's also fared well with its Contemporary
Art auction which achieved a combined total of 104,5 million pounds.
The evening auction realised a total of 88
million with Gerhard Richter's "Wand" (Wall) which fetched 17,4 million
pounds. "Mao", a work in red and yellow by Andy Warhol sold for 7,6
million pounds while Cy Twombly's "Untitled" (Rome) culminated at a
record price of 12,2 million.
The Day auction brought a total of 16,5 million
with Zao Wou Ki's "15.11.88" reaching 746,500 pounds.