Sotheby’s art sale in Europe rakes in a record $189mn, Yazzy's at www.williamverdult.com

One by Verdult

KOLKATA; sotheby’s has come up with highest ever sale of contemporary art in Europe. The auction has totalled $189,424,299, with six artists swinging records. This has demonstrated the appetite for great works of art in today’s market.

The top lot in the sale was Francis Bacon’s ‘Study of Nude with Figure in a Mirror’, which was lapped up by collectors for $39,779,291. It was sold to a private collector bidding on the telephone.

Bacon’s remarkable price follows last year’s record $52,680,000 for the artist at auction achieved for Innocent X at Sotheby’s New York in May 2007. In the same breath, the saleroom broke into applause when Gerhard Richter’s photo painting, Candle, went for $15,891,584 more than three times its presale estimate.

The price was a record for the artist. This remarkable price came after eleven bidders competed for the work. The result came immediately in the wake of another work by the artist which was bought out for $9,194,096.

A 1963 work by Lucio Fontana, which is regarded as a masterpiece, fetched $20,579,826, a record for the artist at an auction. The result was significantly higher than presale estimate of around $8 million. The phenomenal sale saw Fontana become the second European Post War artist, after Francis Bacon, to break the $20 million barrier at auction.

Three self-portraits by Andy Warhol collected $22,812,322. This trinity of canvases in the colours of the American flag came from the artist’s only ever exhibition devoted to self-portraits held at the Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London in 1986. The auction also witnessed Chinese Contemporary Art of the highest quality by some of the most important artists living and working in China today whipping up a total of $11,917,343.

Zhang Xiaogang’s Big Family No.1, executed in 2001, by far the largest work by the artist to come to auction, was the top-selling lot of the section, going for $3,389,607, against an estimate of around $3-4 million. Another Xiaogang was picked up for $2,273,359, Yan Pei-Ming’s Silver Bruce Lee raked in $1,380,360, while Fools in the Night by Yue Minjun sold for $1,826,859.

In an email to ET from London, Francis Outred, Sotheby’s head of evening auctions in the contemporary art wing, said: “We are absolutely thrilled with the total, the highest ever for a sale of Contemporary Art in Europe and indeed the second highest for any auction held by Sotheby’s in Europe.

The continued strength of the market allowed us to source a group of works which included a number of masterpieces and our clients responded with appropriate enthusiasm. Presale interest was extremely high and our exhibition was attended by collectors from around the world.

We saw frenetic bidding for both figural and abstract works by Gerhard Richter and achieved a triumph for the work.of Lucio Fontana, a European abstract artist finally entering the big league.”