Sotheby's February 5: Fontana leaders and Koons
ARTinvestment.RU   09 февраля 2009

Evening auction of works by modern artists on 5 February at Sotheby's, you can undoubtedly call successful. Results gladdened all market participants the arts - was a signal that the economy on this front, all will be well

the evening of February 5, held in London trading and post-war works of modern art Sotheby's (on the products offered in this auction, read the here and here ). The tender was successful: of the 27 lots remained unsold, only two - the work of Roy Lichtenstein (Roy Lichtenstein), and Zhang Juan (Zhang Huan). The total cost of products sold - 17 879 250 pounds (26 160 911 dollars) when estimeyte 16,55-23,1 million pounds. The three works brought more than a million pounds, while seven - more than a million dollars.

The most expensive lot was the picture of Fountains Lucio (Lucio Fontana) «Spatial Concept», which yielded 4.4 million pounds (6.4 million dollars), with estimeyte 5-7 million. Owner of work is envy - the picture belongs to a very rare cycle Venice artist, provenans her impeccable, and the creativity of researchers Fountains except «masterpiece» it is not called. Maybe in five years, the canvas will be sold for a much more sizeable sum.

In the second place in the list of most expensive products - занятная «pyramid» Jeff Koons (Jeff Koons). It went for 2.8 million pounds (4.16 million dollars). Work bought the director of the New York gallery Gagosyana (Gagosian Gallery) Retibor Stefan (Stefan Ratibor). He bought the famous German photographer imprint Gurskii Andreas (Andreas Gursky), entitled «Monaco», which cost him 517 thousand pounds (757 thousand dollars).

Koons sculpture has a great profit of its previous owner, art collector from Chicago, Richard Cooper (Richard Cooper): in May 1997, even before Koons came into vogue, he bought «pyramid» total for 250 thousand dollars .

Collectors have been less active in the auction, as art dealers, but they did memorable purchase. One German couple, for example, bought two excellent paintings by Gerhard Richter (Gerhard Richter), who entered the top ten most expensive works. Cloth «Troisdorf», spent over 2.1 million pounds (4.16 million dollars), it took the third place, as «abstract painting», sold for 541 thousand pounds (792 thousand dollars), was in the ninth.

Excellent results showed nameless sculptures Anisha Kapoor (Anish Kapoor) - it was sold for the entire 982 thousand pounds (1.4 million dollars) at estimeyte 500-700 thousand.

Rare work of Bridget Riley (Bridget Riley) «Celebration» left over 736 thousand pounds ($ 1 million). According to some sources, in September, Sotheby's has guaranteed the painting for 1 million pounds, so that sales are not profitable for the auction house. Fortunately, the more assured of lots at auction yesterday was not.

«Heart» Demiena Hurst (Damien Hirst), which the artist gave the name «Dark Days», slightly higher than estimeyt - experts evaluated the work of 250-350 thousands of pounds, but it has 361 thousand (528.5 thousand dollars). All proceeds from the sale of paintings will go to assistance program for newborns «Cradle of Hope», organized by Victor Pinchuk Foundation .

Top-10 lots of auction Sotheby's on 5 February 2009

* All prices include the Buyer's Premium.

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova

Sources: sothebys.com , artinfo.com , artinvestment.ru

P.S. The outcome of other auctions, held in late January - early February, you can read the following articles:

«Old master»: sensation at Sotheby's and Christie's
«small chetyrnadtsatiletnyuyu dancer» Degas sold for 13.3 million pounds
The excellent results of the auction Impressionist and Modern Christie ' s