The principals at Artvest have done a little homework on the Spring Contemporary art sales. You can find their full analysis of the sales and the CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rates) and IRR (Internal Rate of Return) generated for many of the works on their site. Here are the top 5 lots in terms of return and the bottom 5 lots. The entire list is available as a pdf downloadable on the Artvest site:

Top 5 Works

Bottom 5 Works

Artvest offers this disclaimer: The charts above provides data on Post-War and Contemporary spring 2010 evening sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s for works with a verifiable price history.  Approximately 50% of all global art transactions are private, often making sales data unavailable.  This chart captures the largest universe of credible information on repeat sale prices, allowing for useful analysis of Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGR) and Internal Rates of Return (IRR).  CAGR measures the change in total value of a work between the last recorded transaction and most recent sale date (including premium), while IRR measures the differential between the initial cost to the buyer and his final net selling price.  Where the ownership trail is unclear between recorded selling prices, IRR cannot be calculated and is therefore omitted.  Note: only data from the most recent public sales has been used for analysis, and selling commissions are assumed to be zero percent.

Artvest