Scott Reyburn at Bloomberg couldn’t help but notice that Peter Doig failed to elicit bidders:

Some paintings went unsold, such as Peter Doig’s “Bellevarde,” valued at as much as 2 million pounds. “That would have sold a year ago,” the London-based dealer Edmondo di Robilant said. “The mood has changed. Auction houses entice things with high estimates and in the past they’ve been able to sell them. That wasn’t always the case tonight. A number of lots that sold were knocked down against lowered reserves.”

Judd Tully took a few notes before going to Sotheby’s Contemporary sale in London this week. The results show that prices are going in both directions for some of the best names in the art market over the past few years:

Jean-Michel Basquiat‘s punchy 1984 “Spike,” in acrylic and oilstick on canvas, that sold to a telephone bidder for £1,217,250 ($1,915,221), toward the middle of its £1.1-1.6 million estimate. It last sold at Sotheby’s New York in May 2004 day sale for $534,000.

By contrast, Richard Prince‘s untitled 40-by-60-inch joke painting from 2001 sold for £421,250 ($662,795) on an estimate of £350,000-450,000. It last sold at auction at Sotheby’s New York in November 2007, when the art market was zooming along, for $541,000.

Sotheby’s Faces Labor Protest as Freud, Burri Works Top $63 Million Sale (Bloomberg)

A Gilded Kate Moss Helps Sotheby’s Reach $28 Million in a Respectable, If Muted, London Contemporary Sale (ArtInfo)