Sotheby’s London Evening Sale of Contemporary Art (Press Release)
Totals £93,147,500 / $158,490,471 / €116,127,250
(est. £67.9/89.7 million, $115.5/152.7 million, €84.7/111.9 million)
- 86.4 % sold by lot
- 88.2% of the sold lots achieved prices at or above their estimates
- Asian participation: There was global participation in tonight’s sale, with considerable activity from Asia, including Mainland China and Japan:
- The top lot of this evening’s sale was Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for Portrait of George Dyer which sold after an extended battle between four bidders, including Chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, Patti Wong, for £26,682,500 ($45,400,274), surpassing the high estimate (£15/20 million, $25.2/33.6 million). That price established a new benchmark for a small-scale triptych by the artist.
- A new auction record was established for Peter Doig when his Country-rock (wing-mirror) sold for £8,482,500 ($14,432,974).The painting has been in the same private collection since 1999, the year it was painted.
- Frank Auerbach’s Primrose Hill, Summer sold for a record £2,322,500 ($3,951,734) (est. £1/1.5 million, $1.7-2.5 million). This is many multiples of the £274,050 it sold for at auction in London in 2003.
