Record $175m contemporary art auction in London

The contemporary art auctions in London this week have demonstrated a strong market confidence with high-level works bringing top prices. The 88-lot Sotheby’s evening auction on June 29 totaled a robust 108.8 million pounds ($175 million), the highest total ever for a contemporary art auction in London. The sale was boosted by the 60.4 million pounds spent on 34 works from the Duerckheim Collection of 1960s German artists.

Five artist records were surpassed, including Georg Baselitz and Sigmar Polke whose 8-foot 1967 oil of a sunset, “Dschungel” (Jungle), went to a telephone bidder for 5.8 million pounds, well over an upper estimate of 4 million pounds.

According to Bloomberg, Gerhard Richter’s 1974 color chart “1024 Farben” sold to the New York-based dealer Christophe van de Weghe, bidding for a client, for 4.3 million pounds, more than double the upper estimate.

Eurythmics musician Dave Stewart sold a 1994 Damien Hirst spot painting “Dantrolene (Being God for Dave)," for 1.1 million pounds, against a high estimate of 800,000 pounds.

A dark and moody Francis Bacon oil titled  “Study for a Portrait,” fetched £18 million ($28.8 million) at a Christie's London sale earlier in the week. The Bacon, plus works by Peter Doig and Lucian Freud, helped bring the 65-lot sale total to 78.8 million pounds ($126 million).

A purpley portrait of Chairman Mao by Andy Warhol netted £7 million, within the estimate.

The week started with a well-performing Jean-Michel Basquiat, dating from 1985 and featuring a half-length self-portrait next to a wooden panel covered in bottle tops, which fetched 2.1 million pounds ($3.4 million) at Phillips de Pury & Co.’s first contemporary sale at Claridge’s in Mayfair.

The week of contemporary-art auctions had been estimated to top 200 million pounds ($320 million).