Skate’s has some numbers on repeat sales from the Frieze auctions:
Abstraktes Bild by Gerhard Richter, analyzed in the October issue of Skate’s Art Investment Review, yielded a positive return of 18.9%—an outstanding result that is in line with the average return for works from that series. Two repeat sales of works by Jean‐Michel Basquiat were sold within their estimate ranges, but only one of them—Pedestrian 2—entered Skate’s ranking, having sold for $2 mln with an annualized effective rate of return (ERR) of 3.75%. The other work—Spike—yielded a much higher ERR of 15.97% upon its sale for $1.9 mln. Interesting results were achieved by Damien Hirst’s works, which were presented at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips. During the first part of October, 24 works by Hirst were sold, generally within or above their estimate ranges. The highest price was achieved by Judas Iscariot (The twelve disciples). The repeat sale result of Midas and the infinite, however, negativity affects the artist’s record, selling for $942,159 and bringing a negative return of ‐19.09%.
During the first half of October, four works by Lucien Freud were sold within their pre‐auction estimate ranges, although none of them generated fierce bidding. The top lot at Sotheby’s was Boy’s Head, which was sold for $4,978,750. Another Freud painting auctioned at Sotheby’s, Plants in Jamaica, also sold at the low point of its estimate range for $757,039. Freud’s paper works performed much better during the day sales at Phillips and Sotheby’s, with two Untitled works selling significantly above their estimates for $51,046 and $813,669.
