Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict (1982) sold for £16 million ($20 million) in Sotheby’s modern and contemporary evening auction in London last night. The auction totaled £84 million ($106 million), surpassing its pre-sale estimate of £69.6 million–£98.9 million ($88 million–$125.1 million).
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict was last intended to go to auction at a Christie’s sale in New York in May 2022. However, it was withdrawn at the last minute, after the auction house reportedly gave the work an unpublished estimate of $30 million (£23.6 million).
This total sales figure from this auction marks a notable drop compared to last year’s equivalent summer sale at Sotheby’s, which achieved a sum of £190.3 million ($241.9 million). Notably, that 2023 auction was largely driven by Gustav Klimt’s Dame mit Fächer (1917–18), which sold for £85.3 million ($108 million), smashing the artist’s record. This year’s summer auction did not set any artist records.
Despite the overall lower total this year, the auction still commanded seven- and eight-figure prices for key works. For instance, Pablo Picasso’s Guitare sur un tapis rouge (1922), which had not hit the auction block for 20 years, sold for £10.7 million ($13.5 million). Meanwhile, Picasso’s Nu assis (1960) sold for £5.7 million ($7.3 million) after being held in a private collection for over 50 years. Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Bouquet de lilas (1878) incited a 10-minute bidding war before eventually selling for £6.8 million ($8.7 million).
Meanwhile, there were notable contemporary sales, too. Seven bidders vied for Lucy Bull’s 10:00 (2021), which sold for £900,000 ($1.13 million), blowing past its presale estimate of £350,000–£550,000 ($442,000–$695,000). This sale signifies continued enthusiasm for Bull’s work, following the record-setting $1.81 million sale of 16:10 (2020) at Sotheby’s in New York this May.
Three lots from three notable women artists—Loie Hollowell, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Tamara de Lempicka—were all withdrawn.
