Surrealism and Lalannes: success for the Karpidas collection at Sotheby's
All 247 lots were sold in the two auctions, evening and daily: the two catalogues fetched close to £100m, exceeding the overall estimate of £49-69m
3' min read
3' min read
The resumption of London auctions, usually linked to Art Week in mid-October, was preceded by the offering of the contents of the London house of Pauline Karpidas, a well-known British collector married to the Greek magician Constantinos, who had among her advisors the famous art dealer Alexander Iolas. For the occasion, Sotheby's transformed the exhibition environment, reproducing the original spaces that housed the artworks and decorative design objects; this strategy and the recognisable provenance convinced the market, leading to the sale of all lots in both the evening auction on 17 September and the following day. The combined total of the two catalogues was close to £100m for the 247 lots sold, the highest result for a London collection, exceeding the overall estimate of £49-69m.
The evening auction
.It took almost three hours to disperse the 55 lots chosen for the evening auction on 17 September, totalling £73 million, above the pre-sale high estimate of £55 million. The catalogue was fully guaranteed by the auctioneer, who transferred the risk of half of the lots to third parties, works that therefore arrived at the auction already sold. The majority of these guarantees proved to be worthless thanks to raises mainly over the phone which resulted in 22 lots crossing the £1 million mark, double the million estimate, with a predominance of American buyers. The collection comprises three groups of works, relating to Surrealism, Pop Art and the design objects of the Lalannes, with whom the collector had a friendship that allowed her to commission customised, and therefore unique, works.
The most striking results came from this group of nine lots, thanks to the popularity of these glittering decorative objects, often in gold-patinated bronze: the realisation of £13.6m quintupled the high estimate of £2.6m, led by a complex plant-form mirror that increased its low estimate tenfold to close at £3.6m, after a protracted series of bids, while two benches realised £3.8m from an estimate of £180-250k.
The heart of the collection, however, remains the group of surrealist works, 23 lots for a total realisation of £30.2m, above the estimate of £19.8-27.7m, including over £10m for Magritte's La Statue Volante, previously owned by Iolas. The work stopped towards the low estimate of £9-12 million, thanks also to the help of the third-party guarantee. In contrast, the three other Magritte works in the catalogue exceeded their respective estimates, including a gouache 'La Race Blanche' at £1.8m (estimate £1-1.5m) and two sculptures. Record prices for Hans Bellmer's work 'Milles Filles' which tripled its low estimate to £304,000. Million-plus results were also achieved for works by Picabia, Tanguy and Masson. An important contribution to the final result was made by the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons, with three million-plus lots in the top ten results. Warhol's Pop interpretation of Munch's Scream doubled its high estimate of £2-3 million to £6.6 million with commissions after a protracted series of relaunches, while another Warhol work reproducing two of Munch's most recognisable images, the 'Madonna' and the famous 'Self-Portrait' reached £2.8 million from an estimate of £1.5-2 million. In contrast, the contemporary heir to the King of Pop Art, Jeff Koons, saw one of his canine sculptures 'Poodle' touch the high estimate of £2.5 million.
Lalannes dominate the daily auction
.The success of the main evening catalogue helped sell the entire 192 lots offered on 18 September for a total result of £26.3m, almost double the high estimate of £9.8-13.7m. No fewer than six of the top ten realisations in the daily auction, at around £5.6m, were works by Francois-Xavier or Claude Lalanne, led by a bronze Console patinated in gold, which realised £1.7m, seven times the high estimate. Several lots achieved multiples of the estimates, including in addition to several Lalannes' objects, a portrait of Alexander Iolas painted by Giorgio de Chirico, which fetched up to £35k from an estimate of £3-5k. The very positive results of this collection bode well for the autumn market recovery. It will not, however, be easy to replicate the success of the collection, which is linked to three specific and non-replicable factors: the provenance from a well-known collection, the strong presence of decorative works by the Lalannes, who have enjoyed global success for some time now thanks to their aesthetic, and the strong presence of surrealist works, a category that has been growing strongly for some time.
The next London auctions will be held during the week of the Frieze fair from 13 to 19 October.
