Contemporary art auction raises record €125m
Auction house Sotheby’s said it was the highest total for a contemporary art auction in Europe.
The evening sale in London included masterpieces by Francis Bacon and Andy Warhol.
Study Of Nude With Figure In A Mirror by Bacon, estimated to sell for at least £18, fetched £19,956,500, including buyer’s premium. It was bought by a European private collector.
A small portrait, thought to be the first portrayal of the Dubliner’s last great love, John Edwards, estimated at £1.5m to £2m, sold for £2,036,500, including premium.
Three Self Portraits, by Andy Warhol, a rare trinity of canvases dating from 1986, sold for £11,444,500, including premium, to an anonymous buyer.
The unveiling of the red, white and blue work represented a homecoming for the portraits. They were acquired directly from the artist’s landmark exhibition at the Anthony D’Offay Gallery in a transaction completed the day before Warhol died in February 1987.
Three Self Portraits had been estimated to sell for more than £10m.
Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale, La Fine Di Dio of 1963 smashed the estimate of £4m-plus and the previous record price for Fontana of £2.4m, going for £10,324,500, including premium, to an anonymous buyer. Jeff Koons’s sculpture Kiepenkerl, estimated at £1.5m to £2.5m, fetched £3,156,500, including buyer’s premium.
A Sotheby’s spokesman said the auction totalled £95,030,000, including premiums, the highest totalling sale of contemporary art in Europe.
