Auction Analysis Spotlight: London’s March Auctions

Victoria Kleiner, Head of Art Due Diligence and Digital Art Expertise

Overall Sotheby's, and particularly Christie’s, saw stronger Evening Sales than generally expected given recent market conditions. Sotheby’s Evening Sale took 62,506,800 GBP premium, with 3 works withdrawn and 4 of the remaining 38 lots unsold. Christie's had the strongest Evening Sale, which fetched a premium total of 82,150,500 GBP, in addition to the very strong results posted by the Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, which fetched a premium total of 42,071,800 GBP. Christie’s withdrew 4 lots from their Evening Sale, with 44 of the remaining 47 lots finding buyers. Phillips took a premium total of 15,386,950 GBP, withdrawing 2 lots and selling 26 of their 29 remaining lots.

Overall the sell through rate at the three houses was a strong 92.1%, up 4.1% from March 2024.

Top lot at Sotheby’s was Yoshitomo Nara's 'Cosmic Eyes (In the Milky Lane)' which sold for a premium price of 9,027,000 GBP against an estimate of 6-8 million GBP.

Also worthy of note was Lisa Brice's 'After Embah', which sold for a record premium price of 5,408,000 GBP, far above its estimate of 1-1.5 million GBP and hugely in excess of her previous auction record of 3,166,000 USD, made in November 2021. This result was helped in part no doubt by the heavy marketing the house awarded it, with the image blown up to huge proportions to cover the walls of the main staircase at Sotheby's during the pre-sale view.

Lucian Freud's drawing 'Flyda and Arvid' also sold well, achieving a premium price of 1,748,000 GBP against its estimate of 1.2-1.8 million GBP. This was a strong price considering that the work had been withdrawn from Sotheby's Modern British sale in November 2024, where it had been estimated at 1-1.5 million GBP, and marked a good return for the consigner given that it had previously sold for a premium price of 713,000 GBP in November 2015.

Even artists whose markets have been struggling over the last few years, such as Edouard Vuillard and Christopher Wool, managed to achieve solid results. Overall, this was an encouraging sale given general recent market conditions.

Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Sale took 8,468,995 GBP and the Impressionist and Modern Day Sale took a near identical 8, 614,410 GBP. The Modern Day Sale saw some strong results, in particular, for works by artists that would previously have been offered in Russian Art sales, such as Sergei Arsenievich Vinogradov, Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin and Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky, all of which saw prices well in excess of their high estimates

Records during the Christie’s Evening Sale were made for works by Danielle McKinney, Emmi Whitehorse and Michael Andrews. Although the Bacon portrait which was due to lead the sale did not generate much excitement, hammering below its low, multiple other works surpassed expectations to sell well.

Of particular note in the Surrealist Sale were three very fresh to market and highly significant Paul Delvaux oils from the same private collection. Put in at ‘come get me’ low estimates of 1 million GBP, 1.2 million GBP and 500,000 GBP, these soared past these to fetch premium prices of 2,330,000 GBP, 6,175,000 GBP and 4,396,000 GBP.

The cover Rene Magritte lot also fared well in the Surrealist Sale, fetching a premium price of 10,315,000 GBP against its estimate of 6-9 million GBP.

As with their Evening Sales, Christie’s saw stronger results than Sotheby’s in their Day Sales, with the Contemporary Sale fetching a premium total of 14,847,966 GBP and the Modern Day Sale achieving 10,192,140 GBP. As in previous seasons, Christie’s opened their Modern Day Sale with a strong showing of works on paper from the artist’s estate. All pitched at very attractive estimates, these all performed strongly against their estimates and provided a positive start to the sale.

Overall, this sale season provided primarily positive and encouraging signs for the market.