The Art Newspaper

London contemporary sales: notable lots

Peter Doig remains unsold while Koons sets an auction record

By Melanie Gerlis. Web only
Published online: 05 July 2010

Alighiero Boetti, Mappa, 1989, sold for 1.8m pounds (est 900,000-1.2m pounds)

Christie’s, lot 10

Alighiero Boetti, Mappa, 1989, sold for £1.8m (est £900,000-£1.2m)

Art fair favourite Boetti has been bursting into major auctions in recent years, with notable success in London in February when his work sold for over £1m for the first time. This work at Christie’s set the artist’s world record price at auction and was one of two on offer at the evening sales this week (Sotheby’s sold a less vibrant Mappa, 1983-84, with a irrevocable bid, for £881,250). He is one of the artists on Larry Gagosian’s roster and is benefiting from a growing market for Arte Povera in general.

Christie’s, lot 14

Jeff Koons, Loopy, 1999, sold for £3.4m (est £2.5m-£3.5m)

Beneficiaries of the contemporary art market boom crept back into the salerooms in London this June. One work each by previous market-darlings Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami sold at Christie’s, and Sotheby’s sold a Richard Prince nurse painting and two works by Jeff Koons, all within estimate. This work, one of Koons’ sought-after first paintings, had a third-party guarantor but sold instead to Larry Gagosian who bid just once against a commission bid of £2.9m (Christie’s would not say if this initial bid was from the guarantor). The sale marks an auction record for a painting for the artist, but is at a price considerably lower than Koons’ auction record of £12.9m, set in June 2008 (just before the contemporary market’s wobbles), and also at Christie’s in London, for Balloon Flower – Magenta, 1995-2000.

Sotheby’s, lot 39

Peter Doig, White Creep, 1995-96, est £1.4m-£1.8m, unsold

Doig’s record at auction was notoriously set at the height of the contemporary art market boom in February 2007 when his White Canoe, 1991, sold from Charles Saatchi to the Georgian mining magnate Boris Ivanishvilli for £5.7m at Sotheby’s in London. Prior to this a Doig’s record at auction was £820,000 made for Charley’s Space, 1991, at the Whitechapel auction at Sotheby’s in 2006. This record was broken (when converted to UK sterling, but not US dollars) more recently at Christie’s in New York when Reflection (What Does Your Soul Look Like), 1996, a painting for which the Ukrainian billionaire Vickor Pinchuk was rumoured to be the underbidder, sold for $10.2m in November 2009 at a sale at which the artist was watching. His international following was not present this week at Sotheby’s however when neither this, nor a later lot, received any bids. Sotheby’s Oliver Barker said of Peter Doig that it was “not his night” as this work was one of two bought in at their auction. Buyers may also have been put off by the fact that this same work sold at Sotheby’s only two years ago for £1.4m since when there has been considerable market disruption.

Sotheby’s, lot 30

Frank Auerbach, Mornington Crescent – Summer Morning, 1991, sold for £2.3m (est £1.5m-£2m)

Sotheby’s says that Auerbach’s market has an increasingly international following that should be reflected in his prices over the coming years. A recent flurry of exhibitions and publications would appear to support this claim. The vibrant palette applied to one of his favourite scenes attracted bids from the room and over the telephone in an otherwise muted sale although Sotheby’s would not say if this was purchased outside of the UK. The work was the highlight of a collection of eight pieces of British art from a “distinguished private collection” that had been put together over the past 15 years and was one of three Auerbach’s in the sale, all of which sold well. London dealer Ivor Braka says that Auerbach currently has a “strangely erratic market”: in Sotheby’s February sale of the Lenz collection his charcoal work Head of Leon Kossoff, 1956, sold for £1m, more than twice the price of his previous charcoal record set at Christie’s Kitaj collection sale in February 2008 for a 1958 self portrait. This market is certainly rewarding works from single-owner collections and this work sold for a record in UK sterling (but not when converted to US dollars).

Phillips de Pury, lot 3

Anselm Reyle, Untitled, 2006, sold for £99,650 (est £70,000-£90,000)

In the height of the contemporary art market boom, the work of the young German artist Anselm Reyle became associated with speculative buying and punchy guarantees. Many dealers were surprised to see one of his foil-paintings sell for over £300,000 in London in October 2007. The price achieved for this work, together with Reyle’s Untitled, 2005 which sold in Sotheby’s contemporary day sale this season for £56,450, suggests a more realistic level for the artist. A sculpture by the artist, Harmony (Chrome Cold Ice), 2007, sold at Christie’s for £277,250 while a neon work, Untitled, 2004, was bought in at Phillips de Pury (estimate £30,000-£40,000).

Post-war and Contemporary evening sales stats

Sotheby’s, 28 June

Sale total: £41m

Pre-sale estimate: £38.3m-£52.8m

Lots offered: 53

Sold by lot: 83%

Phillips de Pury, 29 June

Sale total: £4m

Pre-sale estimate: £6.1m-£8.6m

Lots offered: 45

Sold by lot: 53%

Christie’s, 30 June

Sale total: £45.6m

Pre-sale estimate: £39.9m-£56.6m

Lots offered: 62

Sold by lot: 84%

Peter Doig, White Creep, 1995-96, est 1.4m-1.8m pounds, unsold