London hosted this fabulous auction on June 30 in which the pieces sold by Sotheby’s hailed mostly from a major private collection in post-war’s Germany and featured such boldface names as G. Baselitz, Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke. Buyers came from 14 nations and their biddings one-upped the previous record of 105 million euros for any auction held in that city.
One important highlight is the fact that many of the pieces had never been on sale over the past 30 years. The highest-paid artwork was Irish painter Francis Bacon’s Crouching Nude (1961) that reached 9.24 million euros. The runner-up piece was a painting by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) that sold for 6 million euros. Five artists scored personal highs with their works, while a grand total of 29 pieces sold for over 1.1 million euros each.
Not bad, is it? The only remaining question to be asked now is whether the ongoing crisis will continue to make a dent in the art market or that market is definitely off to a final rebound.
Source: El Pais
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