Christie's and Sotheby's have earned over $300 million for postwar and contemporary art in London
ARTinvestment.RU   15 марта 2017

Top-лотом in a series of auctions of postwar and contemporary art was the landscape, "iceberg" by Gerhard Richter sold at Sotheby's for $21.5 million

last week in London there was a series of the auction of postwar and contemporary art from Christie's and Sotheby's. It all started with the evening auction Christie's on 7 March, which managed to earn a total of £96,38 million ($of 117.78 million). High was the percentage of sales — 95% by lots and 98% on the money. Top-лотом the evening auction Christie's was the landscape, Peter Doig "Cobourg 3 1 More": as a result of several bidders in the room and call the price reached £12.7 million ($of 15.53 million) taking into account Buyer's Premium. In the painting Peter Doig portrayed the four people (including myself and my brother) on the shore of a frozen lake in Kabore (Canada), where the childhood of the artist. I.e. literally, the title can be translated as "Cobourg: three plus one". To create this series of landscapes Doig was inspired by winter landscapes by Claude Monet.

in addition, at the evening auction Christie's significant results showed: "No. 1" (1949) by Mark Rothko — £10,69 million ($13 million); "self Portrait" by Jean-Мишеля Basquiat from the collection of bass-гитариста U2 Adam Clayton — £2.2 million ($2.7 million); "Be and seem" Jean Dubuffet — £10 million ($12.2 million). On international women's day on 8 March, the sale of contemporary art was continued at the afternoon auction Christie's. Here, has sold 93 % of the lots for the sum of £16.3 million ($19.9 million). Well sold the works of Julie mehretu, Yayoi Kusama, and Marlene Dumas from one private collection. Finally, on March 10, Christie's held another auction, "Assembled by hand: 100 artists chosen by the Saatchi gallery". However, here we are talking about a very small total revenue — £397 000 ($482 752).

Sotheby's held its evening and day auction of postwar and contemporary art on 8 and 9 March, respectively. At the auction on March 8, top-лотом was the painting of Gerhard Richter "iceberg". The work in 1982 was sold for £17.7 million ($21,57 million) including the fee with the estimate of £8-12 million Just Richter wrote only three pictures of icebergs. The thing tendered, did not leave a single collection since 1983.

some media, there was even a loud statement about the new record — on the landscapes of Gerhard Richter. Although this, of course, debatable. After all, we all know the selling of the painting "Cathedral square, Milan (Domplatz, Mailand)" in 1968 for $37,1 mln — and that it is not a landscape, though the city? Total revenue evening auction at Sotheby's achieved £118 million ($143.7 million), 70 % more than at the same auction a year earlier, if you count in pounds, and 43 %, if you compare the revenue of these auctions in dollars. And that's where the real price record is on the works of Georg Baselitz. His canvas 1965 from the famous series "Heroes", called "Mit Roter Fahne" ("red flag"), went for a record for the artist of £7.5 million ($9.1 million) at valuation (£6,5–8,5 million). The painting "Mit Roter Fahne" participated in key exhibitions of Baselitz, including in a retrospective at the Royal Academy in London in 2007. Another prominent figure of the evening — £2.2 million ($2.7 million) for the painting of Anselm Kiefer with the image of the burning of the Reichstag.

Day auction of postwar and contemporary art Sotheby's March 9, has added to total revenue is still £16,66 million ($of 20.26 million). Here top-лотом was another Basquiat: the work "untitled" (1983) was sold for £2.16 million (us$2,63 million).

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: press-релизы Christie's and Sotheby's