US taste for Surrealism boosts marathon £130m Christie’s auction

Despite the outside world’s continuing slide into geopolitical chaos, the mood—and the numbers—in the international art market were given a definite lift last night in London as Christie’s turned over £130.3m (with fees) at a marathon double-header auction of 20th and 21st century and Surrealist art.

The total was more than double the £62.5m (with fees) achieved the previous evening at Sotheby’s rival sale of Modern and contemporary works. But with its 72 lots, divided between separate 20/21 and Surrealist sessions, Christie’s was also able to offer almost twice as much material (compared to just 38 lots the night before). The auction took almost three hours. Just four works failed to sell, as had been the case at Sotheby’s.

“There was a more elevated mood. Sometimes, going second can be an advantage. Beyond assessing the number of phone bidders, you can use the previous night to gauge market expectations and adjust the reserves,” says Lock Kresler, a senior director at the Helly Nahmad Gallery in London. “There was significantly more telephone bidding and in-room participation—a reflection of the sale’s quality and freshness.”

The revelation of the night was Christie’s annual Art of the Surreal session. Inaugurated by specialist Olivier Camu back in 2001, this specialist London sale has over the years become an increasingly significant contributor to Christie’s turnover. Last year’s blockbuster survey show at the Centre Pompidou in Paris to celebrate the centenary of the founding of what many critics regard as the most lastingly influential art movement of the 20th century has helped.

Comprising 25 lots, the 24th edition raised £48.1m (with fees), almost doubling the pre-sale low estimate, with only one piece left unsold. For the first time during this week of London Modern and contemporary auctions, consecutive lots were attracting multiple bidders.

​​René Magritte’s archetypically enigmatic 1933 painting, La reconnaissance infinie, showing a tiny human figure perched on a sphere floating above bare mountains, was the only lot of the week that has so far sold for an eight-figure price. Estimated to fetch at least £6m (without fees), this climbed to £10.3m (with fees), where it was knocked down to a telephone bid taken by one of Christie’s New York specialists against at least two underbidders.

“There’s a broader interest in Surrealism in the US. It used to be regarded as just a European art movement. But that’s changed,” says Steven Platzman, a San Francisco-based art adviser, explaining the surge in the prices of Surrealist art. “What we’ve seen is more American collectors become involved, driven by interest in Magritte and women Surrealists. You have more buyers, more depth of demand,” adds Platzman, who was an underbidder on the never-before-auctioned 1953 Max Ernst landscape, Colorado de Méduse, which sold for £3.1m (with fees) against a low estimate of £700,000 (without fees).

The most intensive competition was focussed on three impressive paintings by Paul Delvaux from the estate of an unnamed collector identified by dealers as Bruno Brasselle, a Belgian hotelier. Nervous of security issues, Brasselle had kept these paintings untouched for more than three decades in Christie’s London storage facilities after buying them from prominent named collections at auction. 

All three works inspired protracted bidding wars, generating a total of £12.9m (with fees) against estimates as temptingly low as £500,000 (without fees), and all three were bought on the telephone by a Christie’s staffer based in Hong Kong.

The impressively large painting, La ville endormie (1938), showing, in trademark Delvaux style, sleep-walking women in various states of undress against a backdrop of classical buildings and moonlit mountains, led the group at £6.2m (with fees). Coveted for its early date and the inclusion of a besuited self-portrait of the artist, this attracted at least seven determined bidders.

Thanks to rows of at least 70 staff members assiduously working their telephones, there was consistent bidding in Christie’s main 20/21 Century sale of 47 lots, but not much in the way of surprises or excitement. The session raised £82.2m (with fees) against an estimate of £61.5m to £93m (without fees).

All four of the evening’s famous-name trophies—by Francis Bacon, David Hockney, Amedeo Modigliani and Tamara de Lempicka—had been guaranteed to sell for at least £4m (without fees), but all fell to just one or two bids. Bacon’s small, ferociously expressive 1963 Portrait of a Man with Glasses III and Lempicka’s big, flashily decorative 1928 Portrait du Docteur Boucard led the sale with prices of £6.6m each (with fees), both claimed by telephone bidders.

This Christie’s auction gave further evidence of a continuing tentativeness at the top end of the international art market (unless a dead collector’s Surrealist masterworks have been stuck in a warehouse for 40 years). The £130.3m raised last night was 34% down on the £196.7m Christie’s achieved at its equivalent London double-header sale last March.

Dealers point out that it’s impossible for London to significantly grow its auction market for high-end Modern and contemporary art now that Christie’s and Sotheby’s are having to supply at least two major selling seasons in London, Paris, Hong Kong and New York. Or does post-Brexit London have a specific problem?

“No,” says the New York-based art market commentator and adviser Josh Baer, who is in London for this week’s sales. “There’s a bigger problem.”