Sotheby’s contemporary evening sale in London tonight totaled £37.58 million ($49.17 million), just above the lower end of its estimate of £34.05 million–£47.5 million ($44.55 million–$62.15 million). This is a slight improvement from the same sale last year, which achieved £30.2 million ($37 million), below its £39.9 million–£57.9 million ($52.1 million–$75.6 million) presale estimate.
The top lot of the night was David Hockney’s L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime (1968), which sold for £13.15 million ($17.19 million), beating its estimate of £7 million–£10 million ($9 million–$13 million). The painting, depicting the Hotel L’Arbois near Saint-Maxime in the south of France, last sold for £1.3 million ($2.1 million) at Sotheby’s in 2011.
“This week is the most exciting for London’s art world, and this year, we have felt that buzz as much as ever—with collectors descending on the once-in-a-generation museum shows, the galleries, and, of course, the fair that started it all,” said Michael Macaulay, head of contemporary art at Sotheby’s in Europe. “We are thrilled that our Hockney is the headline lot of the week across the auction houses, a feat that anyone who saw it in person would agree was well-deserved.”
Alongside the Hockney painting, the evening sale saw several works secure significantly higher sales on their return to auction. One standout was Bridget Riley’s Gaillard 2 (1989), which sold for £1.9 million ($2.4 million)—55 times the price it made at auction in New York in May 1999 when it sold for $46,000.
Two of the projected top lots were passed over, including Andy Warhol’s Self Portrait (1963–64), estimated at £3 million–£4 million ($3.9 million–$5.2million), and Yoshitomo Nara’s Broken Heart Bench (2006–07), estimated at £2.5 million–£3.5 million ($3.2 million–$4.8 million). Meanwhile, the first-ever large-scale work from the series “Eggs” by Warhol failed to reach its low estimate of £2.2 million, fetching £1.8 million ($2.35 million).
One surprise lot was Banky’s Vest (2019)—the first from the series to be offered on the secondary market, which more than tripled its high estimate, fetching £780,000 ($1.02 million).
The top results following the Hockney sale include:
- Willem de Kooning’s Untitled (1987) sold for £3.16 million ($4.12 million).
- Christopher Wool’s Untitled (2009) sold for £2.88 million ($3.76 million).
- Alexander Calder’s Quinze Feuilles Noires (1961) sold for £2.7 million ($3.53 million).
Lucian Freud’s Child with a Toy Dog (1956)sold for £1.98 million ($2.59 million).
