Last Thursday’s Christie’s 20th and 21st century and “The Art of The Surreal” sales brought in £196.7m ($250.4m), £166m and £233m (£213.1m and £299.2 million dollars) within the estimate. . In total, there was an increase of 17% from the equivalent sales made by the auction house last year. (All prices include taxes.)
The sales set four new auction records, led by Jadé Fadojutimi The Woven Warped Ponder garden (2021), which sold for £1.6 million ($2 million). The sale marks the third time in the past five months that the British artist has set a new auction benchmark Surprise my attitude (2021) sold for $1.9 million at Phillips in New York last November.
The most notable works to significantly exceed their estimates were those of Lucian Freud Plant part (ca. 1977), more than triple its low estimate to sell for £982,800 ($1.3 million); by Günther Uecker Untitled (Baum) (Tree) (1985), sold for more than triple its low estimate at £630,000 ($809,000); and Hannah Höch’s Dada photomontage Beautiful girl (ca. 1920) sold for £453,600 ($582,393), more than double its high estimate.
The top five lots of the evening’s combined sales were:
- by René Magritte L’ami intime (Intimate friend) (1958) sold for £33.7 million ($43.3 million).
- of Francis Bacon Landscape around Malabata, Tangier (1963) sold for £19.6 million ($25.2 million).
- by David Hockney California (1965) sold for £18.7 million ($24 million).
- by Claude Monet In the morning in the Seine, clear weather (1897) sold for £14.4 million ($18.5 million). of money Flower meadow of Giverny (1890) sold for £6.3 million ($8 million).
Other than Fadojutimi, the artists who set new auction records were:
- For Michael Andrews School III: Butterfly Fish and Lady Fish (1978), which sold for £3.1 million ($4 million).
- By Allison Katz Snowball (2018), which sold for £277,200 ($355,907).
- Meret Oppenheim, for Table with bird feet (1939), which sold for £529,200 ($679,458).
