Recap: Bidding Is Thin at Christie’s in London - Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com
Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 09:00AM
Peter Doig’s oil “Night Playground” (1997-98).
Summer season of evening contemporary art auctions ended here at Christie’s on Tuesday night when collectors went bargain hunting, feeling comfortable dropping $2 million, but thinking hard when the numbers started rising according to the New York Times.
Bidding was thin at the sale, which consisted of commercially appealing art by popular, time-tested names. The 40 works brought $31.7 million, in the middle of the estimate of $28.6 million to $40.9 million. Five works failed to sell.
Three paintings, including canvases by Gerhard Richter and Richard Prince, vied for the title of top seller. The winner was a work by the Scottish artist Peter Doig, who has fetched solid prices here recently. On Tuesday “Night Playground,” his densely painted landscape from 1997-98 being sold by Joel Mallin, a New York collector, went for $5 million, well above its high estimate of $3 million. Five bidders competed for the work, which went to a telephone buyer. (Last week Sotheby’s sold “Almost Grown,” a Doig canvas from 2000, for $3.3 million.)








