New record holder, Francis Bacon’s triptych ‘Three Studies of Lucian Freud’.
Christie’s postwar and contemporary sale in New York’s Rockerfeller Plaza on Tuesday evening has set the art world reeling with heady buoyancy for a strengthening market.
Francis Bacon’s triptych of friend and fellow painter, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, hit a world record for an artwork to be sold at auction. Selling at $152.6 million ($US142m /£89.3m) to private client via the phone, the hammer fell in just under ten minutes.
The painting was sold at $57 million over its estimate, an auctioneers dream sale. The record was previously held by Edvard Munch’s iconic painting The Scream, which sold in May 2012 for $120 million.
Christies moved the work from lot 32 in the catalogue, forward to lot 8A due to the strong interest in the Bacon, and sureing up sales for other multi-million dollar works that were to follow including Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter and Mark Rothko.
Painted in 1969, ‘the three panels were separated for 15 years after different sales in the 1970s to collectors from Rome, Paris and Japan. However they were later reunited when the collector in Rome bought the other two’, explained Christie’s. Bacon died at 82 in 1992
‘Bacon’s previous auction record of $US86.3 million was set for a much more sombre triptych in May of 2008, the last heady auction before the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich bought the 1976 work.’ Reported Bloomberg.
The records were not held alone for Bacon. Described as a ‘pop-provocateur’, Jeff Koon’s 3-meter tall sculpture Balloon Dog (orange) sold for $58.4 million ($US62.2m) making it the highest on record for a living artist.
Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dog (Orange) at Christie’s in New York. Photo: AFP
Christie’s catalogue described Lot 12 as ‘one of the most recognizable images in today’s canon of art history’. Its estimate was set high at $US35 – 55 million.
Andy Warhol’s oversized Coca-Cola bottle was not far behind. It packed a hammer price of $US57.3 million.
Eleven of the 69 lots last night sold for more than $20 million and only six failed to find buyers. The total auction sale value again marked a new high at $US691.6 million, which well exceeded the record held by Christie’s May sale this year at $495 million.
Bloomberg reported: ‘In all, 22 lots, or almost a third of the sale, were guaranteed.Records were smashed for 10 artists, including Willem de Kooning, Donald Judd, Ad Reinhardt, Lucio Fontana, Christopher Wool, Wade Guyton and Wayne Thiebaud.’
It was a welcome change for Christie’s, whose sale of Impressionist and modern art on 5 November totaled a disappointing $US144.3 million.
