Richter, Monet highlight London auctions, February 2015

Gerhard Richter‘s ‘Abstraktes Bild’ set a new record for the artist, selling for £30.4m / $46.3 / €41m (est. £14 – 20m) at Sotheby’s, a new benchmark for any European living artist

The top price at Christie’s auction was paid for Cy Twombly’s “Untitled (New York City)”, which sold for £19,682,500 / $29,976,448/ €26,472,963

Richter, Monet highlight London auctions, February 2015 Strong results for Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions in London, February 2015. Gerhard Richter’s ‘Abstraktes Bild’ fetched 30.4 million, a new record for any European living artist.]]>

February 13, 2015. Source: Christie’s and Sotheby’s

Contemporary art auctions, February 11-12

Over the course of the past two days, Sotheby’s recorded its highest ever total for sales of contemporary art in Europe. The two sales totalled £140.4m / $214m / €189.3m, led by Gerhard Richter’s monumental “Abstraktes Bild”, which sold for £30.4 million, a new record for a work of art by any living European artist. This was the top price achieved across all London auction houses this week.

Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art evening auction realised a total of £117,142,500 / $178,408,028 / € 157,556,663 selling 95% by value with outstanding sell-through rates. The top price of the evening was paid for Cy Twombly’s “Untitled (New York City)”, which sold for £19,682,500 / $29,976,448/ €26,472,963. This result follows the record-breaking sale of one of Cy Twombly’s blackboards which sold for $69.6 million at Christie’s New York in November 2014. 3 record prices were set during the auction including for Paolo Scheggi, Howard Hodgkin and Theaster Gates.

Impressionist and modern art auctions, February 3-4

Sotheby’s series of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Art sales realised a combined total of £ 212,032,875 million. A stunning offering of five works by Claude Monet were sold, together totalling £55.74 m / $83.76 m / €73.92m (overall est. £42.7 – 60.8 m ) “Le Grand Canal” from Monet’s celebrated Venice series of 1908 led the auctions, achieving £23.67 m / $35.57 m / €31. 39 m (est. £ 20 – 30 m ) Matisse’s exquisite portrait “Odalisque au fauteuil noir” sold for £15.83 m / $23.79 m/ €20.99m surpassing its high estimate of £12 million.

Christie’s auctions of Impressionist Modern & Surrealist Art in London between 4 and 6 February realised £170,861,551 / $258,980,196 / €225,916,067. The sales drew global participation from new and established buyers at every price level and across all styles, periods and media, highlighting the continued growth in demand, appreciation and accessibility of this established area of the market. The top price of the week was paid for Joan Miró’s “Painting (Women, Moon, Birds)”, which sold for £15,538,500/ $23,540,828/ €20,510,820, setting a record price at auction for a Post-War work by the artist (estimate: £4-7 million). In total, 36 works of art sold for over £1 million (47 for over $1 million). This week builds on the strength of Christie’s 2014 results which saw a 14% increase for the department to £732.5 million ($1.2 billion up 19%).

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