Helped by the record sale of Lucio Fontana’s punched out black egg canvas for £15.9m (est £15m-£20m), Sotheby’s Italian art sale raised £4m more than its contemporary auction yesterday, 15 October. Auctioneer Oliver Barker described facing the jam-packed saleroom as like “looking out over the Italian embassy”.
It is not the first time Modern Italian works have eclipsed contemporary art in the October sales (that has happened six times at Sotheby’s since 2003), but it is a sign of the growing focus on post-war works in a week that is traditionally reserved for contemporary art. “There’s a feeling that the contemporary art market is overheating and people are looking to diversify their collections,” says Nazy Vassegh, the chief executive of Masterpiece art fair. “[Post-war] artists have proved the test of time.”
La Fine di Dio (1963) was the only lot guaranteed in the sale and made a record, not only for Fontana, but also for any post-war Italian artist. Of the 12 works by Fontana offered at Sotheby’s, two failed to sell. Buyers are possibly hedging their bets given the number of his works available in London this week. Tornabuoni Art opened a gallery last week featuring more than 40 paintings by Fontana, including a perforated white egg from the same series.
By comparison, Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale was a slightly more muted affair. It totalled £36.4m (est £32.9m-£46.2m), with 72% sold by lot. The Italian sale raised £40.4m (est £35.2m-£48.6m), with 78% sold by lot. Contemporary female artists piqued interest, including the Latvian-born artist Ella Kruglyanskaya, whose auction debut fetched £81,250 (est £40,000-£60,000), and Isa Genzken, whose vitrine sparked a bidding contest between ten buyers, selling for £677,000 (est £100,000-£150,000)—a record for the artist.
