Tonight Sotheby’s presented their Contemporary sale in London and the results were even stronger than the competitions. Top lot tonight was Francis Bacon’s Portrait of George Dyer Talking at £42.2M ($70M – about twice what they expected). Second place was taken by Richter at £19.5M ($32.5M) and Koons takes the third position at £14.1M ($23.4M).
In fact, the top 5 works from tonight’s sale brought almost as much Christie’s sale the night before – £86.5M vs. £87.9M. Just when people begin to think the market may have hit its high, it moves even further.
Francis Bacon
“Portrait of George Dyer Talking”