New World Record for Lucio Fontana

A new world record has been set for a work from Lucio Fontana’s “Baroque” period at Vienna’s Dorotheum, the house reported on Friday. The painting, Concetto Spaziale (1957) sold for €1.08 million ($1.48 million) at Wednesday evening’s sale of contemporary art. It carried a presale estimate of €700,000–1,000,000.

The current auction record for any Fontana was achieved at Christie’s New York last November. There, the artist’s Concetto Spaziale, La Fine de Dio (1963) fetched $20,885,000. Last fall, the Dorotheum achieved a  €1,071,389 ($1,453,322) result for one of the artist’s typically more popular slash paintings, Concetto spaziale, Attesa (68 T 77) (1968).

The Dorotheum also landed a new world record for fellow Italian, Paolo Scheggi. Titled Zone Riflesse (1965) the work far outpaced its €90,000–120,000 presale estimate for a €573,300 ($784,000) result. The two-part auction reached a new all time high result in the contemporary art sector for the house.