Sets a new record for the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction in Europe: the last portrait of Gustav Klimt Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a fan), for a bounty of £85.3m included ($108.4 million)—Sotheby’s achieved its lofty goal in a mini sales marathon held in London this afternoon and early evening.
The work of art, which the auction house presented as the austrian artist last masterpiece – it was still on the easel in Klimt’s studio when he died in 1918 –carried an estimate “over £65million”. Already that aligned beat the previous European auction record, which had been held since 2010, when Alberto Giacomettithe sculpture walking man also sold at Sotheby’s London, for £65 million ($104.3 million).
The top price for the continent’s most expensive painting, meanwhile, had stood for 15 years, with the £40.9m ($80.4m) sale of Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet at Christie’s London. This figure was almost equaled last March with The Empire of Lights by René Magritte, which fetched £59.4 million ($79.8 million) at Sotheby’s London.
It’s also worth noting that the work was backed by an outside offer or third-party guarantee, so it would have sold no matter what. However, the strength of the final price – the work was hammered for £74m – was undoubtedly good news for the auction house, the seller and anyone else heavily invested in the Austrian painter’s market. .
The last time Dame mit Fächer hit the block, in 1994 it had also set a new benchmark for the artist, with a sale of $11.6 million at Sotheby’s New York. It is now also the most expensive Klimt ever sold at auction, having surpassed the recently set record price of $104.6 million achieved for birch forest at Christie’s last fall, when it was sold from the collection of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
Gustave Klimt, Dame mit Fächer (Lady with a fan) (1917-18). Courtesy of Sotheby’s London.
The bidding activity in the room reflected the intense demand from Asia, as it ultimately resulted in a ten-minute bidding war between Sotheby’s Vice President for Asia, Jen Hua, who was bidding for a client she was on the phone with, and Patti Wong, a longtime former chairwoman of Sotheby’s and head of Asia, who left in late 2022 to run her own consultancy business.
Helena Newman, president of Sotheby’s Europe and global head of impressionist and modern art, opened the auction at £58m and increased it alternately in increments of £500,000 and £1m. Wong leapt into action as the prize rose to over £60million and competed tenaciously with Hua until Wong’s client emerged victorious.
Following the sale, Wong said his company “is honored to have secured this magnificent Klimt masterpiece for our client in Hong Kong. This rare beauty, with a distinguished provenance, which now enters a prestigious collection , was painted during the artist’s heyday and shows his avant-garde thinking and experimental technique.
In total, the Modern and Contemporary evening auction of 59 lots (one work was withdrawn) realized £190.3m ($241.9m), against a presale estimate of £162.1m sterling to £206.9 million ($206.7 million to $263.8 million). Of the 59 lots on offer, 22 lots, or 40% of the sale, were backed by irrevocable third-party auctions. One of the lots had a direct guarantee from Sotheby’s.
Lucian Freud, Night interior (1968-69). Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Fifty of the lots, or 85%, found buyers. After Klimt, which was the only eight-figure artwork on offer, the second-highest price achieved today was the £9.6 million ($12.2 million) paid for Lucian Freud. Night interior (1968-69) which went to a buyer in the room. Given that the hammer price of £8.1 million was so close to the low estimate of £8 million, it is possible that Freud went to the third party funder who guaranteed it.
It was closely followed in price by a classic chalkboard painting by Cy Twombly, Untitled (1970) also backed by a third-party guarantee, which sold for £8.96 million ($11.4 million). The estimate was £8-12 million.
Two other third-party-backed works fetched the identical price of £5.6 million ($7 million): Alberto Giacometti’s portrait bust of his brother, Bust of Diego with turtleneck (1951) and Frank Auerbach Mornington Crescent (1969).
The sale included three other works by Auerbach which all performed well, fetching £11.2m ($14.2m) against a high cumulative estimate of £9m ($11.5m) .
Leonor Fini, Self-portrait with red turban (1938-41). Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The sale of modern and contemporary art was launched with a dedicated section entitled “Face to face” with the special offer of portraits related to the Reopening of the National Portrait Gallery. The 15 works in the special section were led by the aforementioned Freud painting depicting a favorite subject of the artist, Penelope Cuthbertson.
Other highlights include Jenny Saville shadow study (2006–07) which sold for £3.4 million ($4.4 million). The work was previously auctioned in 2014, when it fetched £506,500 ($868,335), meaning it made more than five times as much on its most recent release. A rare self-portrait of the surrealist painter Leonore Fini inspired by the Old Masters, Self-portrait with red turban (1938-41), attracted six bidders before selling for £711,200 ($904,113).
Mark Bradford, soldier on the ground (2018). Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Today’s series of sales also included many ultra-contemporary offers under the label “The Now”. The thin 17-lot auction got even thinner when it was revealed that three works had been pulled, all paintings by buzzing female artists – Louise Bonnet, Emily Mae Smith and Hilary Pecis – suggesting it could there are concerns in the market about price speculation for these names.
The best lot in the contemporary sale was one of two lots benefiting from third-party guarantees: the large painting by Mark Bradford soldier on the ground (2018), which sold for an average estimate of £3 million ($3.9 million). The other lot with an outside funder was a Untitled 2019 painting of sought-after market phenom Adrian Ghenie, which sold for £1.2 million ($1.5 million).
Adrian Ghenie, Untitled (2019). Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.
In total, ‘The Now’ sale made £8.7m ($11m) compared to a revised lower resale estimate of £6.1m to £8.7m for reflect withdrawn batches. The sales rate was 93%, with all but one lot sold.
Records have been set for a few artists, some of whom, unsurprisingly, have short auction histories given the ultra-contemporary material on offer, including Arthur Jafa and Michel Majerus.
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