At 4.9 million pounds, the colorful view into the garden advanced to the top lot.
(Photo: Phillips)
Phillips was the auction house feeling the effects of Russia’s war against Ukraine most in the 20th- and 21st-century art auctions in London late last week. The house has belonged to the Russian Mercury Group since 2008. However, this hardly disturbed the morally free art market. The auctioneer was not boycotted, but in the evening auction there was some hesitation with some bids.
Just before the auction, Phillips was prompted to announce that sellers’ and buyers’ commissions would be donated to the Ukrainian Red Cross.
Chief Executive Stephen Brooks was able to pass on £5.8m. The press release highlights the humanitarian commitment but makes no mention of Russian ownership. Cheyenne Westphal, Phillips’ Global Chairwoman, confirmed to Handelsblatt that the donation was made after consultation with the two owners, Leonid Fridlyand and Leonid Strunin.
She responded positively to further questions about the future of the house. Sanctions would not be in the air as neither Fridlyand nor Strunin live in Russia. According to company information services, Fridlyand resides in Monaco, Strunin in Cyprus. Westphal emphasizes: “The coming season will be one of our strongest. Our group of buyers is global and is with us.”
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However, questions remain unanswered: What’s next for Mercury? The group operates the largest luxury fashion chain in Russia and the famous Tsum department store in Moscow. In November last year, she wanted to go public, but then withdrew the listing, according to the Archyde.com news agency.
The 2006 canvas painting came in at £831,600, a multiple of its estimate.
(Foto: Christie’s Images Ltd. 2022)
Phillips only offered 41 works in the evening sale, with a total estimate of £24m to £35m. This is a heavily discounted offer compared to its competitors. It’s related to Phillips’ weakness in the high-priced Classic Modern arena.
However, the auction ended up raising £30m in line with expectations and saw a strong 95 per cent sell rate. David Hockney’s ‘Self-Portrait’ finished topless at £4.9million.
Four of the five withdrawn works had estimates in the millions. Affected by the disinterest of potential buyers – according to the statement at the press conference – were Sigmar Polke’s “Untitled” from 1965 from Jerry Spiegel’s collection and a Banksy picture from 2008.
Weak interest in Banksy
Interest in Banksy has been consistently weak this week. Whether the Banksy hype is over will become clear in the course of the year.
Phillips’ public support for Ukraine prompted Christie’s to announce a donation to the Red Cross and the UN refugee agency. A work by Odessa-born artist Sonia Delaunay fetched £700,000 in the daily auction.
Christie’s and the consignor will each donate a portion of the proceeds. In the daily auction, however, it was works from two German collections that achieved excellent results. An anonymous collection that has been built up over the course of thirty years is convincing with works fresh from the market. Instead of the estimated £522,000 to £790,000, she brought in a hefty £1.2m.
Walter Dexel and Otto Freundlich had themselves raised to new price levels. Both artists also appeal to younger collectors with their abstract colourfulness. Drexel’s ‘The Locomotive From The Front’ went for £300,000 for twice the estimate to a client of Dirk Boll, one of three Presidents at Christie’s.
A composition by Lásló Moholy-Nagy fetched a staggering £126,000 at an estimate of between £15,000 and £25,000. This trend also continued for works by Heinrich Hoerle and others.
The ten works from the Deutsche Bank collection sold above the overall estimate of £542,000 to £836,000 and fetched just under £1 million, including works on paper by Heinrich Campendonk, Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Two works on paper by the unknown Erika Giovanna Klien fetched ten times the estimate, one came in at £28,000 and the other at £50,000.
Boll is satisfied with the Handelsblatt: “The prices for works of German art show the great experience that Christie’s has built up over 30 years in this field, and also the internationalization of the collectors – but also their strict quality selection.”
Expert Keith Gill emphasizes that the house had more European bidders than in previous years, but that interest in German art is still shared by New York.
More: Private collection Linda and David Macklowe: Trophy collector’s appetizer: Sotheby’s replenishment from the Macklowe collection