Colin Gleadell looks at Christie’s London sale and uncovers some interesting stories:
Two years ago, New York collector Joel Mallin hit the jackpot when Lullaby Spring (2002), a huge, shimmering steel medicine cabinet by Damien Hirst, which he acquired for about £1 million, sold for a record £9.6 million at Sotheby’s to a member of the ruling Al Thani family in Qatar. Now Mallin is offering Night Playground, a magnificent large painting by Peter Doig, for £1.5 million-£2 million. The painting will be sold at Christie’s on June 30 under the direction of Francis Outred, who left Sotheby’s last year and brings years of experience with him.
Outred has adopted a cautious approach in some respects. […] But he also shows he is willing to back a hunch. A rotating sculpture made of plastic cutlery by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos is the first work by her ever offered at auction. Having been impressed by a similar example in the François Pinault collection exhibition at Dasha Zhukova’s Garage space in Moscow, Outred tracked down this larger version in a Portuguese restaurant and has estimated it at £80,000-£120,000.
Art Market: Works from Charles Saatchi’s “New Art from China” Exhibition (Telegraph)
