Chinese Art Rules London Sales
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LONDON — The mood was capricious at Christie’s in London last night with bids popping up from all corners of the floor, and in-house bidders vying with the heaving bank of telephone buyers (up to 13 for some works). One latecomer delighted in bidding several hundred thousand dollars more than his predecessor on the hottest Chinese works, then bowing out.
Some of the sale’s most established works were left to flounder — Jean Michele Basquiat’s “Untitled” (1985) and Andy Warhol’s “Unidentified Woman” (c. 1980) were among those that didn’t sell. Less hyped works, however, went many multiples over the highest estimates; “Fivefold Eye” (2000) by the Danish artist Olafur Eliasson sold for $1,316,250 — a shocking jump up from the estimate of around $200,000. Robert Longo’s “Untitled (Skull Island)” went for $324,000, about twice the expected amount. Anselm Reyle did extremely well, too — his “Untitled” (2004) went for $526,500, substantially more than the predicted maximum of $500,000.
The Chinese lots came at the end of the sale, and the energy in the room surged. All except one — “Sunshine” (1993) by Yue Minjun (who did very well at Sotheby’s on Friday)—well exceeded estimates. Zeng Fanzhi’s unsettling picture of a man on the beach wearing a mask, from Mask Series, went for $1,417,500, nearly four times its estimated high. Fang Lijun’s “Untitled,” of cheering people before a blue sky, went for $1,377,000, also nearly quadruple its estimate.
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Friday’s hotly anticipated evening sale of contemporary art at Sotheby’s in London got off to a roaring start with frenzied bidding for Chinese art. Bidding for “Untitled” (2000) by Liu Ye, a stunning red picture of a child peering behind a curtain at a battle ship, went on for upward of 10 minutes and landed $1,013,800, far more than its top estimate of $396,000. But the most expensive painting of the night was “Execution” (1995) by Yue Minjun, which went for $5,271,760, the highest price paid for a Chinese contemporary artwork ever.
Kashmiri newcomer Raqib Shaw, however, was the real star of the night. His “Garden of Earthly Delights III” (2003) beat its upper estimate four times over, selling for $4,866,240. Overall though, it was a slow night for European and American art, with the highly buzzed Francis Bacon barely scraping above its lower estimate of $2,970,000, and a Frank Auerbach and Damien Hirst failing to reach their reserve prices. One striking exception was a shimmering David Hockney swimming pool that went for $2,128,000 rather than the $1,090,000 originally predicted.