THE CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING SALE - LONDON, 7 OCTOBER 2016

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Hannibal” became the most valuable work sold at auction in London this week, when seven bidders drove the canvas to £10.6m / $13.1m / €11.7m, double the pre-sale estimate (est. £3.5-4.5m). The painting dates from 1982, the artist’s breakthrough year. Two further works by Basquiat, from the collection of David Bowie, will be offered in Sotheby’s London “Bowie/Collector” sale on 10 November.

Gerhard Richter’s “Garten” also sold for over £10m. The 1982 abstract painting sold for £10.2m / $12.7m / €11.3m (est. £3-4m), almost tripling its estimate. The work had been held in the same collection since 1987.

Two other works by the artist from the same collection also soared over estimate: a small early “Abstraktes Bild” realised £2.8m / $3.5m / €3.1m, doubling the pre-sale estimate of £1-1.5m; and “Säulen”, from 1968, totalled £3m / $3.7m / €3.3m (est. £1.8-2.5m). Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening sale in New York in November will include two major works by the artist, both estimated at $20-30m, from the collection of Stephen and Anne Ames.

In a night that saw strong results for German artists, the Contemporary sale opened with a new record for Michael Krebber, when his “Untitled” painting from 1997 soared to £191,000 / $237,318 / €211,398 (est. £70,000-90,000). Previously a studio assistant to Georg Baselitz and Martin Kippenberger, Krebber’s auction record had stood for a decade until it was broken this evening.

Last sold at auction in 2011 for £894,130, Peter Doig’s “Grasshopper” doubled its estimate to make £5.9m / $7.3m / €6.5m (est. £2.8-3.5m). The work was executed in 1990, during Doig’s one-year Master’s degree at Chelsea School of Art, a period in which he created some of his most career-defining paintings.

·         Sale Total: £47,953,000 / $59,581,603 / €53,074,178 
·         Pre-sale estimate: £23.5-31.9m / $29.2-39.7m / €26-35.3m (34 lots offered)
·         91.2% sold by lot - the highest sell-through rate for any Contemporary Sale at Sotheby’s London since 2011. Only three works unsold.
·         Participants from 44 countries, a 20% increase on last year

THE ITALIAN SALE - LONDON, 7 OCTOBER 2016

A new auction record was set for the American Italian artist Salvatore Scarpitta. “Forager for Plankton” was first exhibited in the artist’s breakthrough show the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York in 1959, the year it was painted. This evening, the painting sold for £2.2m / $2.7m / €2.4m (est. £1-1.5m), more than double the previous record for the artist (£856,550 / $1,445,000).

Alberto Burri’s blood-red “Rosso Plastica 5”, one of the finest examples from the artist’s Plastiche series was acquired by collector Dimitri Mavrommatis for £4.7m / $5.8m / €5.2m (est. £4-6m). This follows the £9.1m record for the artist set at Sotheby’s earlier this year by Sacco e Rosso, 1959.

Other auction records were set for: Franco Angeli when four bidders drove “Tunisia” to £100,000 / $185,132 / €110,680 (est. £40,000-60,000); for Nuvolo when his “Untitled” work sold for £56,250 / $69,891 / €62,257 (est. £35,000-45,000); and for Fabio Mauri when his 1972 canvas realised £125,000 / $155,312 / €138,349 (est. £80,000-120,000).

·         Sale Total: £23,298,500 / 28,948,386 / €25,786,681
·         Pre-sale estimate: £19.7-27.9m / $24.4-34.7m / €21.8-30.9m (46 lots offered)
·         84.8 % sold by lot

NOTES TO EDITORS: New records in sterling were established for: a painting by Marino Marini when “Grande Teatro” sold for £989,000 / $1.2m / €1.1m (est. £600,000-800,000), and for Gunther Förg a work from his Lead Paintings series realised £629,000 / $781,532 / €696,175 (est. £400,000-600,000).

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