A trio of strong paintings helped Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale vault over its pre-sale estimate of £24.1m to £32.7m to fetch £41.2m, or £48m with fees on 7 October. The sell through rate was a strong 91%.
An early and unusual Richter painting in two parts, Garten (1982), sparked a telephone bidding contest, eventually selling for £9m, or £10.2m with fees (est £3m-£4m). “Richter’s paintings from the early 1980s have been undervalued for a long time,” Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s head of contemporary art in Europe, said after the sale. “It found the right level tonight."
Basquiat’s bright orange oil stick and acrylic on canvas, created at the height of his fame in 1982, was the most expensive work sold at auction this week. After attracting bids from at least four people in the room, the painting sold to a telephone bidder for £9.3m, £10.6m with fees (est £3.5m-£4.5m). Remarkably, Hannibal was offered at Sotheby's in New York last November for $8m-$12m
The third work to run away on the night was Peter Doig’s Grasshopper (1990). The painting sold on the telephone to Sotheby’s Asia-based specialist Jasmine Chen for £5.1m, £5.9m with fees (£2.8m-£3.5m).
Bidders came from 44 countries, an increase of 20% compared with last year, according to Branczik, who noted that the historically low pound had made lots more attractive to foreign buyers. “They might make savings of between 10% and 20%,” he said.