Published rating of the ten most successful auction sales in January-June 2012. The top ten were the work of Edvard Munch, Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, Yves Klein and others

site Artprice published a ranking of the ten most successful auction sales of the first half of 2012. In the period from January to June 2012 up to 44 lots crossed the bar at $ 10 million. The new World record auction market has become «Scream" by Edvard Munch : work in the May auction at Sotheby's was bought for $ 107 million deafening * (120 million with Buyers Premium). This is the most expensive work of art sold at public auction. But not the most expensive at all - according to some reports, royal family of Qatar, in 2011, in a private transaction acquired painting by Paul Cezanne "Players in the cards" for $ 250 million .

addition to "Scream" by Edvard Munch in the top ten lots of January-June 2012 also included the work of Mark Rothko, Lee Kezhanya, Joan Miró, Francis Bacon, Yves Klein, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Nine out of ten works included in the ranking, were sold in May and June 2012. On alone New York Sotheby's auction May 9 of all three works, painted by Andy Warhol Roy Lichtenstein and Francis Bacon, brought a total of $ 113 million.

Top-10 lots of the first half of 2012

Six of the rating update their personal bests in the first half of 2012. Besides the already mentioned by Edvard Munch, a new record in the coin box added Mark Rothko . His painting color fields still enjoys certain demand: a work" Orange, Red, Yellow "to pay 77.5 million dollars against the estimate of 35-45 million. This sale did Rothko's most successful post-war author at auction - it surpassed even the Francis Bacon with his" triptych », who left in 2008 for $ 77 million. Rothko previous personal record of 2007 was $ 65 million.

This time rating Artprice his way, only one Chinese writer - a master of traditional Chinese painting Guohua Li Kezhan (1907 - 1989). He is one of the ten best-selling in the world's auction of Chinese artists. Kezhanya Operation "Red Mountain" was sold at auction Beijing Poly International for 40.34 million dollars.

Upgrade your auction record and Roy Lichtenstein: his "Sleeping Girl" was bought for $ 40 million. A "Painting (Blue Star)" by the Spanish surrealist Joan Miro sold for 32.9 million dollars, 10 million higher than the previous record holder, "Pictures -poem "(23.68 million, February 7, 2012, Christie's in London.) And, finally, scored in the first half of the Frenchman Yves Klein - just two of his rare works (" fire picture »Fire Color Purple 1 and bas-relief with sea sponges Le Rose du bleu) sold more 32 million dollars. previous record by Yves Klein was "only" $ 11 million.

Needless to say, the first half of 2012 was rich in records in top sector of the art market. Only two of the rating did not become champions - Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon. Which is forgivable, given that their current best results are 64 and 77 million, respectively.

Prepared Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources : artprice.com , artinvestment.ru

* The prices listed in this article may differ from other materials on the value of AI Buyers Premium