Top lots - works by Hirst, Warhol, Murakami and Marino Marini

large contemporary art auctions timed to London Frieze Art Fair , yielded 94 million pounds (about 151 million dollars). This outcome is within the pre-assessment and exceeds last year's revenue more than doubled.

Top-lot auction, Christie's, details of which can be read here , has a huge (more than 5 meters in length)" painting with butterflies "by Damien Hirst (Damien Hirst ). She earned 2.2 million pounds - less than expected the organizers (the lower estimate was 2.5 million), but given that the market for Hirst is among the most speculative segment affected by the crisis more likely, this result should be considered a victory.

At the same trades were represented by two figures of fantastic creatures made by Takashi Murakami (Takashi Murakami). They were sold for 1.9 million pounds Estimé 400-600 thousand (new owner of the works was the dealer Daniella Luxembourg (Daniella Luxembourg)). The success of the lot can be explained by the fact that exactly the same monsters are guarding the entrance to the Salon Louis XIV at Versailles, where an exhibition of Japanese artist.

As far as Sotheby's , then there is the most" shine "product forever living Andy Warhol (Andy Warhol) - canvas" shoes, covered diamond grit, for which the dealer Alan Hobart (Alan Hobart) gave 1.5 million. Among the top lots included also works by Andreas Gursky (Andreas Gursky), Lusiena Freud (Lucian Freud) and Frank Auerbach (Frank Auerbach).

most significant contribution to the common basket, however, have two small (only 66 lots) sale of Italian art of the XX century. Their revenue amounted to 35.8 million pounds - an average of 542,000 per lot. Compare with auctions of contemporary art, which appeared more than 500 works with an average price of about 100,000.

greatest success of the "Italian" auction was a rare bronze sculpture by Marino Marini (Marino Marini), representing horse and rider. The work that has exposed the Swedish trade union Unionen, was sold for a record 4.5 million pounds, twice the estimate, and became the most expensive lot of the week.

Now, about the failures. No one dared to order your portrait from renowned bullies Jake and Dinos Chapman (Jake & Dinos Champan), and in fact the proceeds through this campaign Christie's, had to go to the needs of the Royal College of Art. Buyers also ignored the painting of Francis Bacon (Francis Bacon) with the image of a dog submitted by the auction of the same auction house. The finder of the picture three years ago, an electrician Mac Robertson (Mac Robertson) sold it at auction for 30,000 pounds (preliminary estimate was only 1,000). Christie's work gave an estimate 120 000, but its provenance in the catalog modestly silent.

At the very fair Frieze sales were good, indicating that the revival of consumer interest in new art. Among the fairs is to provide satellite-Pavilion of Art and Design in Berkeley Square, dedicated to classical modernism - where buyers are laid out vast sums for works of Auerbach, Picasso (Pablo Picasso), Robert Delaunay (Robert Delaunay), Jean Dubuffet (Jean Dubuffet) and etc.

material was prepared by Julia Maksimova, AI

Sources : telegraph.co.uk , artinvestment.ru