Results: Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London

Sotheby's London just held its Contemporary Art Evening sale and the results were decent, but not exceptional. The sale offered 39 sales with 35 selling for a very respectable 89.7% sell through rate. The sale totaled $21.24 million including buyers premium, and reached just over the total low estimate of the sale.

The top selling lot was by Andy Warhol, Diamond Dust Shoes, acrylic silkscreen ink and diamond dust on canvas, 1980 which sold for $2.49 million (see image).

Scott Reyburn of Bloomber reported on the sale, stating

Dealers said the event offered encouragement to a contemporary market that is still in recovery mode after prices halved for some artists during the financial crisis.

“The sale was solid,” Paul Shoenewald, a Dusseldorf-based dealer, said. “The estimates are still a little bit high, making it difficult for dealers to buy. The real test will be in November in New York, where the quality will be better.”

Warhol’s vibrantly colored “Diamond Dust Shoes” from 1980 had never been offered at auction before. It sold in the room to the London-based dealer Alan Hobart of the Pyms Gallery, bidding for a client. Its minimum estimate was 1.3 million pounds.

“It’s rare to see a Warhol of this scale come up for auction and it was fresh to the market,” Hobart said. “Buyers are still selective, even though the bidding has never been more international.”

To read the Bloomberg review of the sale, click HERE.