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Contemporary Art Evening Auction

RESULTS

Our Contemporary Art Evening Auction totalled £36,351,250 / $56,271,735, and was 72% sold by lot. Nearly 70% of the sale had never been offered at auction before. The artists featured hailed from fourteen different countries whilst participants came from six continents.

Rising Stars are redefining the market. Latvian-born artist Ella Kruglyanskaya, never previously offered at auction, opened the sale with Swordfish Picnic fetching £81,250 – a new benchmark for the artist. Following the record price established for Michaël Borremans at Sotheby’s in October 2014, his record was broken again tonight when Girl With Duck sold for a record £2 million in his first appearance at a Sotheby’s Evening Sale. Hotly contested artists – all children of the 1970s & 1980s - sold over estimate tonight including Jonas Wood (b. 1977), Cory Arcangel (b. 1978), Oscar Murillo (b. 1986) and Brent Wadden (b. 1979).

Auerbach’s E.O.W On Her Blue Eiderdown IV from 1963, a portrait of the artist’s lover of twenty-five years, Estella Olive West, soared over double the estimate to realise £1.3 million. The artist is currently the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain. No fewer than ten bidders drove Isa Genzken’s Fenster to £677,000  (est. £100,000-150,000). The five works from the eclectic collection of the Italian shoe designer and collector Ernesto Esposito all sold over estimate. The collection was led by Warhol’s imposing Vesuvius which realised £1.4 million.

AUCTION DETAILS

This October, London hosts Frieze and Frieze Masters – the world’s most vibrant contemporary and modern art fair. In the spirit of Frieze Week this Evening auction focuses on outstanding young artists such as Ella Kruglanskaya, Cory Arcangel, Mark Grotjahn and Christopher Wool. Leading the sale is Jean-Michel Basquiat’s iconic Untitled (The Black Athlete), a powerful example of the artist’s celebrated sports figures. A dynamic collection from the renowned shoe designer and pioneering collector Ernesto Esposito punctuates the sale and includes works by his long-standing friend Andy Warhol, as well as Anselm Kiefer and Sean Scully amongst others. Also included are stellar works by Agnes Martin, Richard Prince and Gerhard Richter.

Admission to the sale is by ticket only. Please call +44 (0)20 7293 5891 or email contemporary.tickets@sothebys.com for further information.