Tonight kicked off the June auction action in London and prices were pretty strong. Top lot was the Kandinsky at £13.5M ($21.2M – est. £12-£16M … it last sold in 2008 for $15M). With just 44 works offered, it was a small sale; 7 works failed to find buyers which left it with a sell-through rate of 84% (not bad) and the total take as just over £64M (about $100M). Last year’s corresponding sale saw 70 works offered, 56 sold (80%) and the total take was £92.6M ($145.5M). Fairly similar results when you calculate the price per lot sold – $2.7M this year vs. $2.6M last year.
Wassily Kandinsky – Studie zu Improvisation 3