News

Sotheby's Makes a Big Splash in London

June 30, 2011

 Last night, 29 June, Sotheby's held their spring Contemporary Art Evening Sale. With a pre-sale estimate of 74-105 million pounds, the results were astounding! The grand total of 108,803,550 pounds ($174,129,201/€120,923,897), this sale made the record books for the highest total any contemporary art sale has achieved in London. 

Some amazing highlights include, Francis Bacon's Couching Nude achieving £8.3 million falling right within the estimated price of £7-9 million. The second highest price was achieved by a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting reaching an impressive price tag of £5.4 million. 

There were also many new artists records set last night as well. Some include Blinky Palermo, Sigmar Polke, and Georg Baselitz. Even the jewel of the auction world lately, Andy Warhol saw impressive prices for his silk screen print of singer Debbie Harry. The painting achieved £3.7 million from an estimate of £3.5-5.5 million. 

Posted by, Lauren Guzniczak. 

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