A fascinating Nineteen Sixties David Hockney portray accounted for greater than a 3rd of the overall of Sotheby’s bijou 23-lot up to date artwork night sale final evening, which realised £37.5m (with charges), in opposition to a presale estimate of between £34m and £47.5m (calculated with out charges).
The figures might not be staggering however, throughout a interval of market correction, the mixture of dependable gross sales and an absence of any last-minute withdrawals buoyed confidence within the room.
The star of the night was Hockney’s L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime (1968) which hammered in at £11.5m (£13.2m with charges) above its £7m to £10m estimate, because of a number of persistent bidders. An Untitled work by William de Kooning attracted the sale’s second highest value, though at a sizeably decrease £2.7m (£3.1m with charges) and solely simply above its £3m to £4m estimate.
A Union Jack flag bullet-proof vest by Banksy introduced somewhat buzz onto the sale ground, promoting at £650,000 (£780,000 with charges) greater than double its presale estimate of £200,000 and £300,000 however there was a definite lack of rising, younger expertise, within the absence of the public sale home’s The Now gross sales, which has run in earlier years. Artists that will have fallen into that class have been built-in into the listings and fared properly, together with Cecily Brown’s Devil’s Waitin’ (2008) which hammered at £640,000 (£768,000 with charges).
“There may be nonetheless Frieze artwork truthful for these looking for out youthful artists,” mentioned Alex Branczik, the chairman, Trendy and up to date artwork, following the sale. “The fact is that when issues get constricted, there’s at all times a sense of security in high quality blue chip.”
Round half the bidders got here from EMEA (earlier years have seen a few third of bidders hailing from the area), with a good turnout of patrons from the US and Asia. Works heading additional afield included Anselm Kiefer’s Der Morgenthau Plan (2014) which went to an Indian purchaser for £850,000 hammer (£1m with prices, est. £600,000 to £800,000).
It was not a robust evening for Hurvin Anderson, whose After a Highway to Rome II (2006) (est. £600,000 to £800,000) didn’t promote and whose Ball Watching IV was withdrawn from Christie’s. Yoshitomo Nara’s Damaged Coronary heart Bench, additionally didn’t discover a purchaser regardless of its assured £2.5m to £3.5m estimate.
With the Sotheby’s choices acquiring a median of £2m per lot (the very best for ten years, the public sale home says), the much less is extra method did, nonetheless, seem to have largely hit the mark.
