The Lauffs Collection May Have Been Sotheby’s Secret Weapon But the Contemporary Sale Created a Sense of Awe in the Market

Sotheby’s 94.7 ($188) million pound sale of Contemporary art surprised the market with its nearly 95% sell-through rate. Only four lots were bought in, though one was a pricey Bacon. And despite the success of the Bacon study of George Dyer and the record price for a Prince Nurse painting–even as the London critiques roundly pan his Serpentine Gallery show–the real success of the sale was the broad base of the selling. The top ten lots only accounted for about 47% of the total sale (at Christie’s the night before it was 70%.) Read the rest of this entry »