It’s a sure sign of a more cautious art market when auction houses pull back from buzzed-about younger artists and instead embrace tried-and-true blue-chip names. Such was the case at Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale during Frieze in London last week. Its total was down roughly 20 percent compared with the same sale last year and notably did not kick off with an ultra-contemporary component, known as “The Now,” as it has in the past. Read on the for stats.
David Hockney’s L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime (1968), which sold for $17.2 million at Sotheby’s in London on Wednesday. Photos courtesy Sotheby’s.
Total Sales After Fees: £37,582,816 / $49,173,356
Total Sales of Equivalent Sale Last Year: £45.7 million ($55.5 million)
Hammer Total: £32 million ($41.8 milllion)
Top Seller: David Hockney, L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime (1968), which sold for £13.2 million ($17.2 million)
Lots on Offer: 23
Lots Withdrawn: 0
Lots Sold: 18
Lots Bought In: 5
Sell-through Rate: 78 percent
Sell-through Rate After Withdrawals: 78 percent
Presale Low Estimate: £34 million ($44.4 million)
Presale Low Estimate After Withdrawals: £34 million ($44.4 million)
Hammer Total vs. Presale Low Estimate: -£2 million (-$2.6 million)
Lots Guaranteed: 10
Lots With House Guarantees: 0
Lots With Third-Party Guarantees: 10
Total Low Estimate of Withdrawn Lots: N/A
Total Low Estimate of Third-Party Guaranteed Lots: £20.3 million ($26.5 million), 60 percent of total presale low estimate
Lasting Memory: Instead of opening with a young rising star, its typical practice, Sotheby’s went with a member of the older generation, Austrian painter Martha Jungwirth, who is being reassessed in her mid-80s. Her abstract Big Chinese (2020), had her highest estimate yet, at £150,000-£200,000 ($196,000-$261,000) and sold for £240,000 ($313,000), just short of her record.
Parting shot: Artnet writer Colin Gleadell pointed out that one of the breakout results was the double-estimate £780,000 ($1.02 million) paid for Banksy’s Vest (2019), a stab-proof top that the artist made for the rapper Stormzy with a Union Jack emblazoned on it—”perhaps a token signifying the resilience of the British market,” Gleadell wrote.