Colin Gleadell was paying attention when Christie’s announced the works for their 250th Anniversary Defining British Art Sale later next week. They’ve found two works by different Contemporary British artists that somewhat, well, defines the field. One is a landscape by Frank Auerbach whose market has been a perennial up-and-comer that has never fully arrived. But a recent retrospective may have given it a goose.

Meanwhile, Auerbach’s work has been the subject of Glenn Brown’s acts of appropriation. Here’s Gleadell to explain:

Brown, who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2000 and has been represented by Gagosian Gallery since 2004, has appropriated a variety of artists, from Rembrandt, Fragonard and van Gogh, to Dali, Baselitz and Auerbach, not to mention science fiction illustrators, Chris Foss and Anthony Roberts.

The clever folks at Christie’s got both works into the Defining British Art sale. And, surely to the chagrin of the Auerbach owner, both works have the same estimate of $400-600k.

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