The Zabludowicz Collection leads the way in contemporary art
Established names are in the spotlight, whilst the young newcomers who had attracted a great deal of speculative and trend-driven interest have lost all their momentum
Key points
Following the evening auctions at Sotheby’s, which raised nearly 393 million pounds thanks to works of modern art, to which was added 17.8 million pounds for the daily catalogue also at Sotheby’s, over the following afternoons, four auctions dedicated to contemporary art were held: two at Christie’s on 25 June, one at Phillips on 26 June, and a further one at Sotheby’s, raising a total of around 47 million pounds.
Christie’s and the Zabludowicz Collection
Before dispersing the general catalogue, on the afternoon of 25 June the auction house put 53 lots up for auction (following three withdrawals) from the wider Zabludowicz collection, which has been active in London for three decades with spaces and initiatives open to the public. Despite the interesting provenance, the skilful auctioneer Yuge Wang often struggled to elicit bids. The total result for the 47 lots sold was just under 15.5 million pounds, half of which was attributable to the four lots that fetched over a million, three of which were guaranteed by third parties (out of a total of eight guarantees), which in two cases may have prevented the lots from going unsold.
One was a typical work by Philip Guston – ‘Mirror Head’, a large-scale canvas from 1977 – which fetched just under £4 million, from an estimate of £3.5–5.5 million, most likely thanks to the guarantee, whilst the second million-pound sale, a print from the well-known ‘Cowboy’ series by Richard Prince from 1994, exceeded the guaranteed estimate to reach 1.6 million pounds.
A two-colour composition by Mark Bradford from 2015 also achieved a million-pound result at 1.270 million, within the estimate of 1–1.5 million.
No less than half of the catalogue featured works priced below 100,000 pounds, and in the case of two lots offered without reserve, this highlighted the risk involved in this decision: a curious, large-scale wooden sculpture by Aaron Curry from 2008 was sold for 381 pounds, against an estimate of 10–15 thousand, whilst a second wooden structure by Haim Steinbach from 2007 changed hands for just 1,270 pounds, again from an estimate of 10–15 thousand.
Next up is the catalogue of various properties comprising 79 lots (15 unsold) totalling 10.2 million pounds, led by a guaranteed work by Cecily Brown ‘The Haunter’ from 2010, which came close to its high estimate of 2.8 million pounds including commission. This catalogue also features a victim of the ‘no reserve’ policy: a 1994 photograph by Cindy Sherman sold for £1,905, against an estimate of 8–12 thousand.
The Phillips catalogue
On the afternoon of 26 June, Philips offered 90 lots of modern and contemporary art, raising just under 12 million, with 14 works remaining unsold. Leading the catalogue was a 1991 landscape by David Hockney, who recently passed away, which sold for just under the high estimate at 2.4 million sterline, whilst two works by Kusama from 2013 and 2010 respectively were sold for 1.5 million, exceeding the estimates, and 322 thousand pounds.
Two other contemporary female artists featured in the top ten by revenue: Jadè Fadojutimi, with a brightly coloured canvas from 2024, sold for 426,000 pounds, within the estimates, and Adriana Varejao, with a classic composition featuring cut-outs from 2014, exceeded estimates to fetch 284,000 pounds.
