LVMH Foundation Moved the Richter Market

Colin Gleadell connects the dots on the Richter abstract market which has been the focus of so much interest during the the Frieze sales and for several years running before that. The Richter Abstract market culminated in October of 2012 with Eric Clapton’s sale of one canvas from a triptych for $34m (another canvas from that group was sold later for a fraction of the price.)

Here, Gleadeall recognizes one of the momentum producing sale results that came before Lily Safra paid $20m for the Richter work she donated to the Israel Museum. Gleadell is looking at a picture of Bernard Arnault, Frank Gehry and Francois Hollande:

In the photograph, Arnault is standing in front of Gudrun, a large Richter abstract, at the opening of his new LVMH Foundation building.

In 2011, Gudrun was bought, anonymously at the time, for $18 million, three times the estimate. The same telephone bidder also paid $14.1 million and $6.2 million, far above estimates, for two other Richter abstracts in the sale.

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