London – Delivering a market-leading performance, up 17% from last year, Christie’s 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale and The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale realised a combined total of £196,685,600 / $250,380,769 / €229,335,410, selling 87% by lot and 95% by value. Tonight’s auctions were led by René Magritte’s L'ami intime (The Intimate Friend), offered from The Gilbert and Lena Kaplan Collection, which sold for £33,660,000.

The sales saw strong international buyer participation with 72% from EMEA and 24% from the Americas. Christie’s unique 20/21 sale series attracted registered bidders from 31 countries, confirming the wide appeal to global collectors of the presentation of 20th century masterpieces showcased alongside cutting-edge contemporary artists. Active buying was witnessed from millennials (10%). 

THE 20th / 21st CENTURY: LONDON EVENING SALE 

The 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale achieved a total of £137,699,300 / $175,291,209 / €160,557,384, selling 86% by lot and 94% by value. The results reflected strong demand for selected masterpiece lots, many unseen on the market for decades.

Testament to the strength of the London market, the auction achieved strong prices for British artists, with Francis Bacon’s Landscape near Malabata, Tangier realising £19,630,000. David Hockney’s California, unseen in public for more than 40 years, sold for £18,710,000 during its worldwide auction debut. Lucian Freud’s intimate portrait, Kai, originally unveiled at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1993, achieved £4,638,000. Michael Andrews’ School III: Butterfly Fish and Damsel Fish realised a world auction record for the artist (£3,125,500).  

Claude Monet’s Matinée sur la Seine, temps net, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, was offered at auction for the first time in 45 years and realised £14,397,500. Further Impressionist highlights included Monet’s Prairie fleurie à Giverny, which sold for £6,290,000 against an estimate of £5,500,000-8,500,000 and Théo van Rysselberghe’s L'île du Levant vue du Cap Bénat, Provence (£2,460,000). 

Evidencing continued global interest for works by contemporary female artists were two new auction records for Allison Katz as Snowglobe sold for £277,200 against a low estimate of £40,000 and for Jadé Fadojutimi’s The Woven Warped Garden of Ponder which sold for £1,552,500. Claire Tabouret’s Les Debutantes (Pink and Black), the final lot in the auction, sold for £239,400 against a low estimate of £180,000.

London continues to be the leading marketplace for European masters: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s double-sided canvas, Zwei Mädchen mit Badewanne (Frau in flacher Wanne und Mädchen mit Fächer) (recto); Sitzender schwarzhaariger Mädchenakt (verso), painted in Dresden at the height of the artist’s involvement with Die Brücke, sold for £3,791,000 (estimate: £2,000,000-3,000,000) while Alexej von Jawlensky’s Frau mit Fächer (Frau aus Turkestan) realised £4,759,000 and Hermann Max Pechstein’s Abend in der Düne achieved £2,460,000.

Coming from a single, visionary, private collection, four works by Alighiero Boetti were offered this evening, recently featured in a retrospective held here at Christie’s in February, led by Mettere al mondo il mondo (Bringing the world into the world) (£1,310,500) and (i) Rosso Gilera 60 1232 (ii) Beige Sabbia 583 (£907,200). 

THE ART OF THE SURREAL EVENING SALE  

Now in its 24th year as a standalone platform, and coinciding with the centenary of the Surrealist Manifesto, The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale achieved £58,986,300 / $75,089,560 / €68,778,026, selling 88% by lot and 99% by value, up 52% year on year.   

René Magritte’s L'ami intime (The Intimate Friend), offered from The Gilbert and Lena Kaplan Collection, led the auction, realising £33,660,000. Further works by Magritte achieved strong prices against pre-sale expectations, including Le principe d'Archimède (£1,492,000) and La magie noire (£4,638,000).

Records were set for two female Surrealists with Hannah Höch’s 1920 collage Das schöne Mädchen (The Beautiful Girl) (£453,600) and Meret Oppenheim’s iconic and rare Surrealist object, Tisch mit Vogelfüssen (£529,200).  

For further commentary on the sale, please view Giovanna Bertazzoni (Vice Chairman, 20th / 21st Century Art Department), Katharine Arnold (Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Europe), Keith Gill (Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, London) and Olivier Camu (Deputy Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art) discussing their highlights in the post-sale analysis.

Our 20/21 Sales continue with the Impressionist and Modern Art Day and Works on Paper Sale on 8 March and the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale on 9 March. First Open: Post-War and Contemporary Art Online remains live for bidding until 12 March.