Lady with a Fan by Gustav Klimt
On Tuesday, June 27th, Sotheby’s London hosted its Modern and Contemporary evening sale. News outlets had reported on this particular sale months prior, mainly because of a single lot: Gustav Klimt’s portrait Lady with a Fan. The portrait is one of Klimt’s last masterworks, with it being discovered on his easel at the time of his death in 1918. It last sold at Sotheby’s New York in 1994 for $10.6M hammer, setting Klimt’s auction record. This time, the Klimt exceeded its £65M estimate, achieving £74M / $94.36M (or £85.3M / $108.78M w/p). This set Klimt’s new auction record, beating out the painting Birch Forest, which sold for $91M hammer (or $104.59M w/p) at Christie’s New York as part of the Paul Allen collection last November. The portrait also set the record for most valuable artwork sold at auction in Europe, pushing out Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture L’homme qui marche II, which sold at Sotheby’s London in 2010 for £65M w/p. Lady with a Fan eventually made up about 46% of the entire sale’s total.
Night Interior by Lucian Freud
The other top lots were just as Sotheby’s specialists predicted. Next up after the Klimt was Lucian Freud’s painting Night Interior, showing the inside of Freud’s apartment and one of his models, Penny Cuthbertson, resting nude in a chair. This is one of seven works featuring Cuthbertson that Freud produced from 1966 to 1970. Tuesday’s sale marked Night Interior’s auction debut, valued at between £8M and £12M by Sotheby’s. It just barely snuck over the minimum, with the hammer coming down at £8.1M / $10.33M (or £9.6M / $12.2M w/p). Coming up right behind the Freud was an untitled work by Cy Twombly. It is a typical Twombly work, consisting of crayon scribbles overtop a layer of oil-based house paint on 61 by 74.75-inch canvas. Having the same estimate range as the Freud, the Twombly fell off the other side of the minimum estimate, falling short at £7.9M / $10M (or £8.9M / $11.4M w/p). The sale had few surprises, with the only one of note being the very last lot. It was an untitled work made of carbonized terracotta by the Kenyan-born British potter Dame Magdalene Odundo. Created in 1999, the piece resembles a vase with a long neck adorned with small loops and is exemplary of her larger oeuvre influenced by pottery from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Estimated to sell for between £100K and £150K, the vase eventually sold for £420K / $535.5K (or £533.4K / $680.15K w/p), or almost three times its high estimate.
Untitled by Cy Twombly
Overall, the sale brought in £160.21M / $204.3M against a total estimate range of £154.54M to £195M. Of the fifty-nine available works, twenty-five sold within estimate, giving Sotheby’s specialists an incredible 42% accuracy rate. Fifteen lots (25%) sold below estimate, while ten lots (17%) sold above, and nine lots (15%) went unsold. Among the unsold were highly-valued works by Edvard Munch and Claude Monet.
Sotheby’s London Modern & Contemporary Sale
Lady with a Fan by Gustav Klimt
On Tuesday, June 27th, Sotheby’s London hosted its Modern and Contemporary evening sale. News outlets had reported on this particular sale months prior, mainly because of a single lot: Gustav Klimt’s portrait Lady with a Fan. The portrait is one of Klimt’s last masterworks, with it being discovered on his easel at the time of his death in 1918. It last sold at Sotheby’s New York in 1994 for $10.6M hammer, setting Klimt’s auction record. This time, the Klimt exceeded its £65M estimate, achieving £74M / $94.36M (or £85.3M / $108.78M w/p). This set Klimt’s new auction record, beating out the painting Birch Forest, which sold for $91M hammer (or $104.59M w/p) at Christie’s New York as part of the Paul Allen collection last November. The portrait also set the record for most valuable artwork sold at auction in Europe, pushing out Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture L’homme qui marche II, which sold at Sotheby’s London in 2010 for £65M w/p. Lady with a Fan eventually made up about 46% of the entire sale’s total.
Night Interior by Lucian Freud
The other top lots were just as Sotheby’s specialists predicted. Next up after the Klimt was Lucian Freud’s painting Night Interior, showing the inside of Freud’s apartment and one of his models, Penny Cuthbertson, resting nude in a chair. This is one of seven works featuring Cuthbertson that Freud produced from 1966 to 1970. Tuesday’s sale marked Night Interior’s auction debut, valued at between £8M and £12M by Sotheby’s. It just barely snuck over the minimum, with the hammer coming down at £8.1M / $10.33M (or £9.6M / $12.2M w/p). Coming up right behind the Freud was an untitled work by Cy Twombly. It is a typical Twombly work, consisting of crayon scribbles overtop a layer of oil-based house paint on 61 by 74.75-inch canvas. Having the same estimate range as the Freud, the Twombly fell off the other side of the minimum estimate, falling short at £7.9M / $10M (or £8.9M / $11.4M w/p). The sale had few surprises, with the only one of note being the very last lot. It was an untitled work made of carbonized terracotta by the Kenyan-born British potter Dame Magdalene Odundo. Created in 1999, the piece resembles a vase with a long neck adorned with small loops and is exemplary of her larger oeuvre influenced by pottery from Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Estimated to sell for between £100K and £150K, the vase eventually sold for £420K / $535.5K (or £533.4K / $680.15K w/p), or almost three times its high estimate.
Untitled by Cy Twombly
Overall, the sale brought in £160.21M / $204.3M against a total estimate range of £154.54M to £195M. Of the fifty-nine available works, twenty-five sold within estimate, giving Sotheby’s specialists an incredible 42% accuracy rate. Fifteen lots (25%) sold below estimate, while ten lots (17%) sold above, and nine lots (15%) went unsold. Among the unsold were highly-valued works by Edvard Munch and Claude Monet.