1 March 2023 in London, Sotheby’s two sales of Modern and Contemporary art achieved a combined total of £172.6 million / $208.2 million – an increase of 15% on Sotheby’s equivalent sale last June. Nine Artist Records Set. Across the evening, 92% of the lots were sold.
Five works sold in excess of £15 million, more than in any London sale season since 2015: Wassily Kandinsky, Gerhard Richter, Lucian Freud, Edvard Munch and Pablo Picasso.
10 Top Lots:
LOT 115
Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau mit Kirche II (Murnau with Church II), oil on canvas, Painted in 1910; Sold for 37,196,800 GBP (44,874,220 USD)LOT 112
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1986, oil on canvas, 260 by 400 cm; Sold for 24,179,000 GBP (29,169,546 USD)LOT 108
Pablo Picasso, Fillette au bateau, Maya, oil on canvas, 73 by 60.4cm., Executed on 4 February 1938; Sold for 18,089,300 GBP (21,822,932 USD)LOT 106
Lucian Freud, Ib Reading, 1997, oil on canvas, 133 by 158.2 cm; Sold for 17,514,800 GBP (21,129,855 USD)LOT 110
Edvard Munch, Dans på stranden (Reinhardt-frisen) (Dance on the Beach (The Reinhardt Frieze)), tempera on canvas; Sold for 16,940,300 GBP (20,436,778 USD)LOT 121
Robert Delaunay, Rythme circulaire, oil on canvas, Executed in 1937; Sold for 7,173,800 GBP (8,654,472 USD)LOT 118
Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, 1980, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 106.7 by 106.7 cm; Sold for 6,599,300 GBP (7,961,396 USD)LOT 103
František Kupka, Complexe, oil on canvas, 50 by 61 cm. Executed in 1912; Sold for 4,646,000 GBP (5,604,934 USD)
LOT 113
Philip Guston, Odessa, 1977, oil on canvas, 172.7 by 195.6 cm; Sold for 3,980,500 GBP (4,802,075 USD)
LOT 128
Keith Haring, Untitled (Sept. 6 1986), 1986, vinyl paint on canvas, 242.3 by 239.4 cm; Sold for 2,226,000 GBP (2,685,446 USD)
Courtesy to Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction Date: 2023.03.01 Venue: Bond Street, London Grand Total (including Buyer’s Premium and Overhead Premium): 160,943,900 GBP (194,162,721 USD) Sold by Lot: 83.3%
