Results: Christie's London Post War and Contemporary Evening Sale

Christie's recently held its Post War and Contemporary art evening sale.  The results were mixed, or bascially as expected with no real big winners, continuing a trend from these recent London sales. The sale totaled $68.6 million including buyers premiums, which is on the low side of the pre sale estimates of $62 million to $87.8 million. 84% of the lots sold with 62 lots offered and 52 selling. Buyer breakdown revealed 58% from Europe and the UK, 30% from the Americas,  4% from Asia, and 5% from Other areas.

Kelly Crow reports in the Wall Street Journal that many buyers were cautious, even thought good quality art sold well.  The Warhol of Liz Taylor was the only lot to sell over $10 million, at $10.1 million, and a previously Liz Taylor by Warhold sold in 2007 during the markets peak for over $20 million.

Crow reports

Rare or coveted works still saw healthy competition throughout the sales, however. On Wednesday, at least five bidders chased after Chris Ofili's "Orgena," a glittery portrait of a black woman created by the artist for his Turner Prize-winning exhibit at the Tate in 1998. An American collector bidding over the telephone got the Ofili for a record GBP 1.8 million, over its GBP 1 million high estimate.

Glenn Brown's homage to Surrealist icon Salvador Dalí also broke the artist's auction record, selling to an American collector for GBP 1.4 million. The 1992 painting, "Dalí-Christ (after Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War 1936 by Salvador Dalí)," was priced to sell for up to GBP 1 million.

Elsewhere in the sale, Roy Lichtenstein's "Collage for Nude with Red Shirt" sold to a European collector for GBP 2.7 million, over three times its high estimate. Jeff Koons' 1999 painting, "Loopy," sold to the artist's dealer Larry Gagosian for GBP 3.4 million, just under its GBP 3.5 million high estimate.

To read the WSJ article, click HERE.