Ben Nicholson
Still Life (Speckled) March 18 – 49
Sold for £639,000 / $802,967

Appearing at auction for the first time, this stellar modernist re-telling of the classic still-life encapsulates Nicholson’s ability to dance elegantly between line and form, colour and texture and representation and abstraction. Inspired by the Synthetic Cubism of Picasso and Braque, Nicholson gives the work a British twist through his palette of greens, blues and pinks.

Barry Flanagan
Acrobats (1981)
Sold for £293,750 / $369,126

Having resided in a private collection for nearly forty years, Flanagan’s mischievous hares – their elaborate balancing act captured permanently in bronze – made their auction debut. This cast was exhibited at the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1982.

RECORDS ACHIEVED ACROSS THE SALE SERIES

Alfred Kubin
Epidemie (circa 1900-01)
Sold for £963,000 / $1.2 million – triple the previous record

Sixteen exceptional drawings by Kubin were offered across the Evening and Day sales, bringing a grand total was £4.2 million, more than eight times over the low estimate of £518,000. Following on from the Evening Sale record, the second and third top prices for the artist were achieved today. Formerly in the illustrious collection of Max Morgenstern, Kubin’s great patron and supporter, they were restituted from the Lenbachhaus museum in Munich to the heirs of Max and Hertha Morgenstern.

Fritz Glarner
Relational Painting, No. 60 (1952)
Sold for £759,000 / $953,759

Making its auction debut, the “relational painting” by the Swiss abstract artist was being offered to benefit the acquisitions fund of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Peter Phillips
The Random Illusion No. 6 (1969)
Sold for £100,000 / $125,660

John Wells
Homage to Naum Gabo (1948)
Sold for £61,250 / $76,967

James Tower
Tidemarks (1985)
Sold for £27,500 / $34,557

Geoffrey Tibble
Tea for Two (1949)
Sold for £10,000 / $13,086