Francis Bacon
Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer
Sold for £26,682,500 ($45,400,274) at Sotheby’s
Peter Doig
Gasthof
Sold for £9,938,500 ($16,925,265) at Christie’s
Bacon, Doig lead contemporary art auctions in London Francis Bacon never fails. His ‘Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer’ sold for £26,7 million at Sotheby’s London Sale of Contemporary Art on June 30, 2014. On the following day, Christie’s auction was lead by Bacon’s ‘Study for the Head of Lucien Freud’, which sold for £11,5 million.]]>
July 2, 2014, source: Sotheby’s / Christie’s
Sotheby’s sale – June 30, 2014
The top lot of this evening’s sale was Francis Bacon’s ‘Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer’ which sold after an extended battle between four bidders, including Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, Patti Wong, for £26,682,500 ($45,400,274), surpassing the high estimate (£15/20 million, $25.2/33.6 million). That price established a new benchmark for a small-scale triptych by the artist. Additional works by Bacon also brought strong prices: ‘Study for Portrait of P.L, No 1’ (1957) sold for £4,450,500 ($7,572,526) and ‘Seated Man’, executed 1957-58, sold for £2,098,500 ($3,570,598).
A new auction record was established for Peter Doig when his ‘Country-rock (wing-mirror)’ sold for £8,482,500 ($14,432,974). The painting has been in the same private collection since 1999, the year it was painted. However, the record was broken on the following day.
It was a good night for Andy Warhol with all five works by the artist finding buyers, led by ‘Nine Multicoloured Marilyns (Reversal Series)’, sold for £4,562,500 ($7,763,094), and ‘Dollar Sign (Yellow)’, from 1951, sold for £4,002,500 ($6,810,254).
Christie’s sale – July 01, 2014
Once again, the top lot was a painting by Francis Bacon. His small ‘Study for Head of Lucian Freud’ -once owned by Roald Dahl- was sold for £11,506,500 ($19,595,568). According to Christie’s, this work “is one of only two single portrait heads that Francis Bacon executed of his friend and sometime rival“. Eight months ago, the large and now famous ‘Three Studies of Lucian Freud’ realized $142,405,000, becoming the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction.
Remember the record-breaking Peter Doig at Sotheby’s? The record lasted only 24 hours, before ‘Gasthof’, a large oil on canvas painted in 2002-2004, sold at this auctio for £9,938,500 ($16,925,265). The work carried a pre-sale estimate of £3,000,000 – £5,000,000.
Three other works sold for over £6 million. A self-portrait by Andy Warhol realized £6,354,500 ($10,821,713), Christopher Wool‘s ‘Untitled’ fetched £6,242,500 ($10,630,977), and a ‘Concetto spaziale, Attese’ by Lucio Fontana was sold for £6,018,500 ($10,249,505).
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Francis Bacon’s ‘Portrait of George Dyer Talking’ (1966) sold for £42,2 million at Christie’s London, February 2014
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