Christie’s three evening auctions in London on March 5 generated a combined £197.4 million with fees according to the auction house which described the result as a 52 percent increase from the equivalent sales the previous year. The sessions comprising the 20th and 21st Century Evening Sale the Art of the Surreal and the Modern Visionaries collection from Roger and Josette Vanthournout achieved a 96 percent sell-through rate by lot and 98 percent by value during a nearly four-hour event. Bidding remained competitive throughout with fresh-to-market works drawing particular interest as Christie’s vice chairman of 20th and 21st century sales Katharine Arnold noted afterward.
Henry Moore’s King and Queen a 1952-53 bronze sculpture conceived as the final cast remaining in private hands sold for £26.3 million according to Christie’s which identified the work as the highest selling lot of the London season so far. The piece which resides alongside other casts in institutional collections such as Tate surpassed its high estimate of £15 million after nearly eight minutes of bidding involving six participants in the room. The result established a new auction record for the British sculptor eclipsing his prior high of £24.7 million set in 2016 as tracked by multiple auction reports.
The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale achieved a perfect 100 percent sell-through rate by lot and value for a total of £43 million Christie’s reported. Dorothea Tanning’s Children’s Games from 1942 an oil on canvas measuring under 10 inches across realised £4.7 million setting a new auction record for the artist after competitive bidding that exceeded its high estimate by more than double. The Czech surrealist Toyen also set a record when her 1946 painting Le devenir de la liberté fetched £3.7 million according to the house’s post-sale summary.
The 20th and 21st Century Evening Sale alone contributed £114 million with additional strong results including Wassily Kandinsky’s Le rond rouge from 1939 at £12.5 million and Pablo Picasso’s Le peintre et son modèle from 1964 at £8.5 million as detailed by Christie’s. Two works by Gerhard Richter performed notably with Schober from 1984 selling for £8.4 million and Abstraktes Bild from 1991 realising £7.6 million following the artist’s recent retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. The Modern Visionaries collection sale added a further £40.3 million to the evening’s aggregate according to the auction house breakdown.
Katharine Arnold told The Art Newspaper that the standout performers were works fresh to market as collectors pursued quality amid robust demand. In a joint statement Keith Gill deputy chairman for 20th and 21st century art at Christie’s highlighted the energy in the auction room and the momentum observed in the second half of the prior year. The executives noted that the Henry Moore result in particular helped set the pace for the global season ahead.
The outcome reinforced London’s position in the 20th and 21st century art market as Christie’s maintained its leadership in the category according to the house’s assessment. Sotheby’s equivalent sales the previous evening totalled £131 million by comparison as reported across multiple outlets covering the week’s marquee auctions. The Vanthournout collection proved instrumental in driving the year-on-year increase Christie’s said in its release.
