For Immediate Release 15 February 2012 Contact: Cristiano De Lorenzo tel. +44 7500 815 344 [email protected]CHRISTIE’S FEBRUARY AUCTIONS OFPOST-WAR&CONTEMPORARY ARTREALISE £ 109.5 MILLION / $ 172.1 MILLION / € 130.5 MILLION The Highest Total Achieved by a Series ofPost-War &Contemporary Art Auctions at Christie's London TOP LOT OF THE EVENING SALE TOP LOT OF ‘A WAY OF THINKING’ TOP LOT OF THE DAY SALE Francis Bacon Ellsworth Kelly Gerhard RichterPortrait of Henrietta MoraesUntitled (EK683) Umgeschlagene Blättersold for £21,321,250 sold for £713,250 sold for £1,497,250 Top price of the week - £21.3 million for Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Henrietta Moraes1 work sold for over £10 million / 3 o ver £5 million / 16 lots over £1 million Strong prices at every level / 13 artist records London - Christie's February auctions ofPost-War & Contemporary Artin London realised £109,514,400 ($172,110,443/ €130,573,642) - the highest total fora series of Post-War &Contemporary Art Auctions at Christie's London. The top price of the week was paid for Francis Bacon’s Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, which sold for £19.1 million / $30.1 million / € 22.9 million - the highest price for a work of Post-War &ContemporaryArt at Christie's London since February 2008. In total, 17 lots sold for over £1 mil lion (29 for over $1 million).
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The Highest Total Achieved by a Series of Post-War & Contemporary Art Auctions at Christie's London
*The pre-sale estimate for the week of auctions was £85 million to £125 million
*The works of Post-War & Contemporary Art from the Hubertus Wald Collection sold 100%, totaling £6,949,725
About Christie’s
Christie’s, the world's leading art business, had global auction and private sales in 2011 that totaled £3.6 billion/$5.7
billion. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well asinternational glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie's has since conducted the greatest and most celebrated
auctions through the centuries providing a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 450
auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles,
wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history conducting
private sales for its clients in all categories, with emphasis on Post-War and Contemporary, Impressionist and Modern, Old
Masters and Jewellery. Private sales totaled £502 million / $808.6m in 2011, an increase of 44% on the previous year.
Christie’s has a global presence with 53 offices in 32 countries and 10 salerooms around the world including in London,
New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Zürich, and Hong Kong. More recently, Christie’s has led the market
with expanded initiatives in emerging and new markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with
successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium. Sales totals are hammer price plus buyer’s premium and do not reflect costs, financ ing fees or
application of buyer’s or seller’s credits .
# # #
Images available on request
Visit Christie’s Web site at www.christies.com
*Full results can be found at the following link: http://www.christies.com/results/
Portrait of Henrietta Moraes , one of the most seductive and sexually charged paintings by Francis Bacon,
sold for £21,321,250 ($33,474,363 /€ 25,436,251), becoming the 2nd most valuable work of Post-War &
Contemporary Art auctioned at Christie's London and the highest price achieved in the category in
London since February 2008. Offered at auction for the first time having remained in the same private
collection for almost thirty years, this rare painting depicts the artist‟s close friend and model Henrietta
Moraes. It was painted by Francis Bacon towards the end of 1963, the year after his breakthrough
retrospective at the Tate Gallery, London, and the same year as his first major American exhibition at
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. For many years, the work formed part of the Schniewind
collection of important post-War paintings, the present owner acquiring it from the family in 1983, almost
thirty years ago. Portrait of Henrietta Moraes represents part of the pantheon of great paintings by Bacon
executed in 1963, the majority of which are now housed in major international museum collections.
Gerhard Richter‟s outstanding Abstraktes Bild sold for £9,897,250 ($15,538,683 / € 11,807,419), against
an estimate of £5 million to £7 million. Created in 1994, this majestic painting belongs to the finest period
of the artist‟s abstraction and was executed using the spontaneous squeegee technique which reveals layers
of bursting azure, emerald and mauve throughout the canvas. The painting was shown in the historicalmonographic exhibition staged at the d‟Offay Gallery in London in 1995.
Agrigente , an extraordinary abstract landscape from the renowned series of „Agrigente‟ paintings by
Nicolas de Staël, realized £5,305,250 / $8,329,243 / €6,329,163 (estimate £3.5 million to £5 million),
becoming the 2nd most valuable work by the artist sold at auction. This particular work, which was realised
in Provence in August 1953, on his return from a visit to Agrigento, Sicily, is one of the largest paintings
from the series. The thick impasto is applied with a palette knife in a technique honed down by the artist,
fully emphasising the large juxtaposed strips of vivid colour. De Staël unusually signed, titled and dated the
piece on its reverse, revealing its particular importance.
Rediscovered recently, the meticulous and emotional drawing Boat, Connemara was executed in 1948 by
Lucian Freud and sold for £657,250 / $1,031,883 / €784,099, against an estimate of £200,000-300,000.
Originally purchased from the artist‟s studio by accomplished architect, collector and patron W. G.
Howell, this is the only known Irish landscape by the artist and is a significant piece in his oeuvre,
showcasing his fine draughtsman-ship skills with just a pen and tempera, and reflecting his style of the late
1940s before the focus of his work switched to oil portraiture. Freud travelled to Ireland for three weeks
in August 1948 and produced only two works during his stay on the Irish coast, one of which is Boat,
Connemara , where he sketched his picturesque surroundings and the lonely vision of this large vessel resting
upon the empty shore.
Following the success of works from the collection in the Impressionist and Modern art sales last week, all
nine Post-War & Contemporary lots from the Hubertus Wald Collection (lots 47-55) sold this evening
realising a total of £6,464,450 ($10,149,187 / €7,712,089). The top lots from this section were a 1959
Achrome by Piero Manzoni, fetching £1.7 million, and Wols‟ Le feu , which sold for £1.4 million.
The profits from the sale will benefit The Hubertus Wald Charitable Foundation in Hamburg.
# # #
Images available on request
Visit Christie‟s Web site at www.christies.com
*Full results can be found at the following link: http://www.christies.com/results/
Comment: Darren Leak, Head of the Sale : “Featuring works by a number of artists rarely seen at auction, the sophisticated visionof „A Way of Thinking, Works From An Important Private Collection‟ attracted the interest of many international collectors . Themomentum of the robust bidding from the Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale carried through with record prices set for various artists, including Victor Burgin, Raoul De Keyser, Matt Mullican and Ian Wallace. This unique and varied collection provedthe continuing strength of the market for conceptual works”. Press Contact: Cristiano De Lorenzo +44 207 389 2283 [email protected]
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280 Lynn Chadwick, Little Girl III , 1987 250,000-350,000
£361,250$567,492 €430,249
US Private
333 Martin Kippenberger, Untitled , 1992 80,000 - 120,000
£361,250$567,885 €430,249
Anonymous
260 Tom Wesselmann, Final Study for Sedfre Nude Print ,1969
130,000 - 220,000£325,250$511,293 €387,372
Anonymous
Comment: Darren Leak and Beatriz Ordovas , Heads of Sale : “Following the extraordinary results of yesterday evening, we were pleased tosee continuing solidity and trends at the Day sale, illustrating a healthy market at every price level. The top 10 prices of the day include works of art spanning 50 years, and, as with last night, we saw demand for both established Post-War masters as well as exciting and cutting edge contemporary artists. Three out of the top ten lots of the sale were works by Gerhard Richter, a clear demonstration of the strength of the artis t’s market at many different levels ”. Press Contact: Cristiano De Lorenzo [email protected] tel +44 207 389 2283