SOTHEBY’S LONDON EVENING SALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART
Lucian Freud’s “Pregnant Girl” Sells for £16.1m / $23.2m
A Record for an Early Painting by the Artist
Auction Records for
Alberto Burri & Adrian Ghenie
Sale Total £69.5 million / $100.5 million
Participants from 38 countries
“Tonight we saw a confident art market, punctuated by some real high-points and a depth of bidding. There was much debate about the market ahead of the sale, but in spite of the broader economy, tonight proved that collectors will always compete for works of outstanding quality and rarity.”
-Alex Branczik, Head of Contemporary Art London
TOP TEN IMAGES AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE
London, 10 February 2016 – Tonight, Sotheby’s London Evening Auction of Contemporary Art realised £69,461,000 / $100,447,552 / €89,827,274.
The sale was led by Lucian Freud’s modern-day Venus, “Pregnant Girl” from 1960-1 that sold for £16.1 million / $23.2 million, setting a new record for an early painting by the artist.
· The fourth-highest price for the artist at auction (in £)
· More than £9 million above the pre-sale low estimate (£7-10 million).
· Pursued by no fewer than six bidders, the work is one of the artist’s most tender paintings – a portrait of his lover, the 17-year-old Bernadine Coverley, pregnant with their daughter, the internationally-renowned fashion designer Bella Freud.
· Had been in the same collection for 30+ years.
A new record was set for Alberto Burri this evening when “Sacco e Rosso” (c. 1959) sold for £9.1 million / $13.2 million.
· Nearly doubling the previous auction record for the artist (£4.7m set in February 2014). Five years ago, Burri’s record was just £1.9m.
· This work last sold at auction in 2007 for £1.9m / $3.8m.
· A highlight of the 2015 Guggenheim retrospective.
· The result now places the market for Burri alongside other post-war Italian contemporary masters: Piero Manzoni’s (rec. £12.6m) and Lucio Fontana (rec. £19.3m).
· Pre-sale estimate £9-12 million.
A new record was set for Adrian Ghenie when the colossal van-Gogh inspired “Sunflowers in 1937”(2014) soared over estimate to £3.1 million / $4.5 million.
· More than double the previous auction record for the artist (£1.4m set at Sotheby’s, June 2014).
· Sotheby’s now holds the top three prices for the artist at auction.
· Pre-sale estimate £400,000-600,000.
Depth of bidding across broad range of artists and schools:
· Nine bidders (inc. Asian) for Adrain Ghenie’s “Sunflowers in 1937” (see above).
· Six bidders (inc. Asian and Russian) for Lucian Freud’s “Pregnant Girl” (see above).
· Five bidders for Mike Kelley’s self-portrait work on paper, Visceral Egg (1994). Sold for £245,000 / $354,294 (est. £80,000-120,000).
· Five bidders for Günther Förg’s untitled work from 1989. Sold for £389,000 / $562,533 (est. £180,000-220,000). These works have been in exhibitions both at White Cube, London, and Skarstedt Gallery, New York, in 2015.
· Four bidders for Gebirge, the first Gerhard Richter mountain scape to come up at auction since 2008. Sold for £1.5 million / $2.2 million (est. £800,000- £1.2 million).
· Six bidders for Ai Wei Wei’s iconoclastic photograph “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn”. Sold for £755,000 / $1.1 million (est. £150,000-200,000). Another version of the same photograph featured in the Royal Academy show in 2015. The last time a work from the same edition appeared at auction in 2008, it sold for just under £50,000 – a fifteenth of today’s price.
Artists offered for the first time in London tonight:
· Cheyney Thompson: “Chronochrome XIII” from 2009 (the first work by the artist to appear at auction in Europe), sold for an above estimate £197,000 / $284,882 (est. £70,000-90,000) Richard Diebenkorn: an untitled work on paper from 1976 (the first work by the artist to appear at auction in Europe) sold for an above estimate £269,000 / $389,001 (est. £120,000-180,000)
· Chung Sang-Hwa: “Untitled 81-5” from 1981-5 (the artist’s first work offered at auction outside Asia) also sold for an above estimate £269,000 / $389,001 (est. £200,000-300,000)
Sale Overview
· Pre-sale estimate: £60.2-86.1 million / $87.1-124.5 million
· 75% of the works offered tonight had never been offered at auction before
· Participation from 38 countries (similar to February 2015 sale)
· Sell through rate: 78%
Contemporary Art Day Sale follows tomorrow: est. £13.7-19.6m (227 lots)
Rosie Chester
Sotheby’s Press Office
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA