A Roaring Success for Contemporary Art at Christie's

by Zoe Strimpel
Tue, 1 Jul 2008 at 4:34 PM

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Christie's Post-War and Contemporary art sale last night was a roaring success, making £17.3 million ($34.5 million) despite the fact that the economic mood in London has not been worse in years.

I had suspected that the hype from Christie's press office, which said that all was rosy, was a little overblown and masked fears of the underperformance onlookers perceived at last fall's sales. But no: It appears, perversely, that the Contemporary art market has never been better. The total earnings were the highest ever for a Post-War sale for the house in Europe.

The Baconian frenzy continued apace, his self-portrait triptych selling for £17.3 million ($34.5 million). Jeff Koons's "Balloon Flower Magenta" went for £12.9 million ($25.7 million), and Lucian Freud's "Naked Portrait With a Reflection" garnered £11.8 million ($23.5 million).

And India made its first high-profile European triumph at auction with the sale of "La Terre, 1973" by Syed Haider Raza, a founding member of the Bombay Progressive Artist's Group. It went for £1,273,250 ($2,540,030). The champagne's still flowing for some, evidently.

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