NEW RECORD FOR HIGHEST EVER ITALIAN SALE TOTAL €58,533,774
POST WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART AND ITALIAN EVENING AUCTIONS ACHIEVE HIGHEST EVER COMBINED TOTAL FOR A NIGHT IN FRIEZE WEEK €106,756,524
Pioneering partnership with de Pury achieves 95% by value for Lambert Art Collection 14 artist records set at Christie’s Frieze Week auctions
Francis Outred Chairman and Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art EMERI: ‘In the wake of global events over the summer, last week was the first stern test of the art market and Christie’s passed with flying colours. Across more than 720 lots we saw an average sell through rate of 92 percent, which is an astonishing result. With the incredible flowering of the Italian market, it was a particular pleasure to set a new record for an Italian sale of £43,166,500 and to see that 42 countries took part in the bidding for works in that sale. The Evening Auction was led by the fantastic figure achieved for the Peter Doig and the way forward was perhaps most defined by the cross-category auction of the Lambert Art Collection, in partnership with de Pury, which described a new way to collect. Continuing with this sense of innovation, our Muses auction in New York next month promises to break new boundaries, featuring Modigliani and our ground-breaking Freud nude portrait of his daughter Bella.’
Christie’s Frieze Week auctions totalled €161,135,655 across a week of sales that began on Wednesday 14 October with the innovative ‘A Visual Odyssey: Selections from LAC’ and was followed by auctions including the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction and The Italian Sale on 16 October. The combined total for the evening sales was the highest figure realised at auction for a single night during Frieze Week (€106,756,524) and a new record was set for the Italian Sale total at €58,533,774.
POST WAR AND CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING AUCTION: Realised a total of € 48,222,750 with strong sell through-rates of 92% by value. The sale saw registered bidders from 36 countries across four continents. Cabin Essence, one of the largest of Peter Doig’s early works which was part of his 1994 Turner-Prize exhibition, sold for a figure of €13,020,990.
THE ITALIAN SALE: Realised a record-breaking total of €58,533,774 with strong sell through rates of 96% by value. The sale saw registered bidders from 42 countries across five continents.
Alberto Burri’s 1961 Rosso Plastica M1 led the sale, having been in the same collection since 1969 and with the artist currently the subject of a retrospective at the Guggenheim New York, it was sold for €4,668,030.
New records were established for artists Vincenzo Agnetti (£182,500, nearly four times its low estimate), Giorgio Morandi (£2,546,500), Luciano Fabro (£2,714,500, four times its low estimate), Giuseppe Uncini (£278,500, over twice its low estimate) and Gianni Colombo (£314,500). A record for joint work by Lucio Fontana and Osvaldo Borsani was also established with a figure of £62,500.
A VISUAL ODYSSEY: SELECTIONS FROM LAC (LAMBERT ART COLLECTION) ‘A Visual Odyssey: Selections from LAC (Lambert Art Collection)’ achieved € 19,991,791 with sell-through rates of 95% by value. The seven-hour sale saw registered bidders from 42 countries across five continents.
Christopher Wool’s Untitled (1995), which was recently featured the artist’s Guggenheim retrospective in 2014 realised a figure of €6,539,498. The work led a trio of paintings by Wool offered in the auction that together achieved a figure of €11,389,489.
Christie’s in association with de Pury brought a completely new approach to the auction combining an exhibition at Ely House in Dover Street, with a radical online presence featuring specially commissioned content and photography.
POST-WAR AND CONTEMPORARY DAY AUCTION: totalled €15,441, 145 with sell through rates of 91% by value.
Artist records were established for some of the contemporary art world’s most current names including Korakrit Arunanondchai ( €130,312), Charles Avery ( €19,493) and Goshka Macuga (€50,850)
A group of works sold for the benefit of the Schinkel Pavillon in Berlin achieved £563,250 against an estimate of £259,000 – £356,000. Another grouping sold for the benefit of Tricycle Theatre achieved a total of £390,375 against an estimate of £ 185,000 – £295,000.
ASOBI: Japanese and Korean Modern & Contemporary Art
The week of Post War and Contemporary Art sales at Christie’s King Street was complemented by London’s first Japanese and Korean Modern and Contemporary Art auction, which was held at Christie’s South Kensington. Featuring artists Yoshihara Jiro, Shiraga Kazuo and Tanaka Atsuko, the sale achieved a total of £2,285,875 with a sell through rate of 95% by value. A focal point of the sale was Whanki Kim’s 17-VII-70 # 183 (1970, pictured left) which realised a figure of £362,500.
The Frieze week sales concluded with the Post-War and Contemporary Art online sale, which closed for bidding on the evening of 20 October. The next sales of Post War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s include +86 Chinese and Contemporary Art in Shanghai on 24 October and Post War and Contemporary Art in Amsterdam on 3 and 4 November.
