USA: 15 million U.S. dollar Bacon piece leads Sotheby's 125 million USD contemporary art haul

The art market boom continued apace on Tuesday (November 14, 2006) as reflected by the solid 125 million U.S. dollar (USD) total at Sotheby's contemporary and post-war auction, led by a 15 million USD piece by Francis Bacon that smashed the record for the Dublin-born artist. Given the wealth of material on offer during the monumental fall auctions at both Sotheby's and archrival Christie's, with more than 1 billion USD in sales anticipated, the result came as a relief and a sign that even auctions one-third larger in size than the norm can achieve strong, if perhaps undramatic, results. Only seven of the 83 lots on offer were unsold, while records were set for 15 artists. The 125,132,800 USD total including commission was well within the pre-sale estimate. The auction's star was unquestionably Bacon's "Version No. 2 of Lying Figure With Hypodermic Syringe," a powerful 1968 work by the provocative artist estimated at 9 million USD to 12 million USD which sold for 15,024,000 USD to an anonymous telephone bidder, far eclipsing the old record by some 5 million USD. "This is a large, full-size picture from the sixties which are very, very hard to come by. It was the first painting by Bacon sold to a Belgian collector in 1970 and it really, once it went into that house, the Vanthournout home, it really has not been seen publicly since it went into the collection in '70," said Sotheby's New York Contemporary Art Head, Anthony Grant. "It was a very exciting piece to have in the sale and it obviously did well. We had estimated nine to twelve and it brought over fifteen million dollars," he added. Bacon's work was one of 27 being sold from the noteworthy Vanthournout collection, all of which found buyers, most for well above their estimates with many breaking artists' records. The collection's 42 million USD total beat even the high estimate by some 7 million USD, and went along toward assuring the success of the sale overall. "The sale realized nearly a hundred and twenty-six million dollars, that's just shy, that's just shy of the record we had in the Spring, which was a hundred and twenty-eight million, so we're extremely happy," said Grant. As has been the case for several seasons, Warhols performed well, with three included among the top 10 lots led by "Flowers," one of the pop artist's seminal images which fetched 6,848,000 USD, beating its high estimate of 6 million USD. Among the few casualties were a pair of major works that included Roy Lichtenstein's "Head - Yellow and Black." The sale's second-highest price work, it drew no bids beyond 7.6 million USD. David Smith sculpture "Voltri XVII," estimated at 5 to 7 million USD, also went unsold. Other highlights included Willem de Kooning's "Untitled XXX," which at 10,656,000 USD achieved the sale's second-highest price; and Lichtenstein's "Black and White Sunrise" which went for 6,624,000 USD. New records were set by Piero Manzoni, Anish Kapoor, Isamu Noguchi, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre and several other artists whose names are less prominent in the high-stakes auction arena. The New York auctions conclude on Wednesday (November 15) with Christie's much-anticipated auction of contemporary and post-war art, which is poised to become the largest such sale in history.

ITN Source | November 17, 2006

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