Press Release
For Immediate Release
London | +44 (0)20 7293 6000 |Mitzi Mina | [email protected]
Rosamund Chester | [email protected] | Toby Skeggs |[email protected]
Sotheby’s Highest-Ever Total
For an Auction of Contemporary Art in Europe
Evening Sale Realises: £130.4m/ $204.7m / €183.9m
Warhol’s Painting of a One Dollar Bill sells for £20.9m/ $32.8m / €29.4m
- Highest price for any work sold in London this week Two newly discovered works by Francis Bacon make £30 million
Four Eggs on a Plate, a present from Lucian Freud
to the Late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, makes almost £1 million
-Ten times low estimate, and £250,000 per egg-
“We reached new heights at Sotheby’s tonight with the highest total we’ve ever achieved for
Contemporary Art in London. Bidders from across the globe were drawn to Warhol works that
ripped up the rule book for 20th-century art; rediscovered Francis Bacon gems; and some of the
greatest works by British artists of the last 70 years. Tonight’s achievements affirm the pivotal
position of London within the international art market.”
Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art, London
1st July 2015 - Tonight’s sale realised £130,376,500 / $204,730,218 / €183,870,150 - the
highest total for any auction of Contemporary Art ever held at Sotheby’s London.
Artistic Currency: Warhol’s One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate)
Andy Warhol’s landmark first ‘dollar’ painting, hand-painted in 1962, sold for £20.9m / $32.8m
/ €29.4m tonight - the highest price achieved across all auction houses this week (est. £1318m). This marks the fourth consecutive sale season in London that Sotheby’s has achieved the
top lot across all auction houses.
 One of the defining works of the artist’s career, this work not only set the foundations
for the entire ‘dollar bill’ series, it is also the only painting from this body of work to
have been painted entirely by hand.
 This was one of eight works sold this evening that took the dollar as their subject, which
made a combined total of £34.3m / $53.9m / €48.4m. The remaining 11 works from the
collection will be sold in the Contemporary Art Day auction tomorrow.
Further standout works
Two major self-portraits by Francis Bacon, re-discovered in a European private collection
earlier this year, sold for a combined total of £30m. Acquired soon after they were painted in
1975 and 1980 respectively, they had never been on public exhibition before this year:
 Francis Bacon’s, Self-Portrait (1975) realised £15.3m / $24m / €21.5m (est. £10-15m).
 Francis Bacon’s, Three Studies for Self-Portrait (1980) fetched £14.7m / $23.1m /
€20.7m (est. £10-15m).
Gerhard Richter’s A B, Brick Tower (1987), created for the artist’s first major commercial
exhibition in London, held at Anthony d’Offay Gallery in 1988, sold for £14.1m / $22.2m/ €20m
(est. £12-16m). The last time this work appeared at auction in 2001 it realised $534,000 or
£367,000.
British Art
British art accounted for over 30% of this evening’s sale total (£42m)
 Seven bidders drove Four Eggs on a Plate (2002), a treasured gift from Lucian Freud to
the late Dowager Duchess of Devonshire to £989,000 / $1.6m / €1.4m, nearly 10 times
the pre-sale low estimate (£100,000-150,000), equating to almost £250,000 per egg!
 The auction record for Paula Rego was broken twice this evening when the sale of
Looking Out (1997), for £965,000 / $1.5m / €1.4m, was swiftly followed by The Cadet
and his sister which soared to £1.1m / $1.8m / €1.6m (est. £600,000-800,000).
 Frank Auerbach’s early portrait of his cousin Gerda, Head of Gerda Boehm (1961),
soared to £2.2m / $3.5m / €3.1m (est. £250,000-350,000) - a new auction record for
any work on paper by the artist, and the second-highest price achieved for the artist at
auction.
 David Hockney's view of his beloved Yorkshire Wolds, Arranged Felled Trees (2008)
recently exhibited at The Royal Academy and The Guggenheim Bilbao, totalled £3.4m /
$5.3m / €4.8m, above its high estimate (£1.5m – 2m).
New Auction Records
 For any work by Paula Rego: her record was broken twice this evening when the sale of
Looking Out (1997) for £965,000 / $1.5m / €1.4m was swiftly followed by The Cadet
and his sister which soared to £1.1m / $1.8m / €1.6m (est. £600,000-800,000).
 For any work on paper by Frank Auerbach: Head of Gerda Boehm (1961) soared to
£2.2m / $3.5m / €3.1m (est. £250,000-350,000).
Notes
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Pre-sale estimate: £142.2 – 202.6m ($223.3-318.2m/ €200.6m-285.8m)
Sotheby’s previous highest total for any auction of Contemporary Art in London:
£123.5m (February 2015).
Freshness of the material: 78% of works offered in tonight’s sale had never before been
offered at auction.
84.5% sold by lot – Sotheby’s 11th consecutive Evening Sale of Sotheby’s Contemporary
Art worldwide with a sell-through rate over 80%.
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Sale continues tomorrow
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293 lots, estimated to raise £13.1- 18.5m (US$21-30m)
Led by Peter Doig’s Bird House (small) (1995), est. £600,000-800,000; a group of neverbefore-seen letters written by a teenage Lucian Freud to the poet Stephen Spender; and
28 works being sold to benefit Ikon gallery on its 50th anniversary.
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