Phillips started off the London Sale Week with their 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale. Although the sale did not see astonishing prices, it achieved a solid sale total of £26.3m (US$34.1m) which falls within the range of its pre-sale estimate. Amongst the 38 lots, only two failed to sell, generating a sale by lot of 95%.
Despite the current economic downturn, the sale’s performance is overall better than that of the same sale last year. The auction house offered 43 lots last year and brought in a total of £25.8m (US$33.6m), slightly less than this year's sale total. This is partly due to the 1% increase in buyer’s premium which only came into effect in October. Phillips’ Chief Executive Edward Dolman said that he believed the success of the sale was driven by enthusiastic Asian online bidders.
One of the highlights of the sale was anonymous street artist Banksy’s Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia which fetched £1.23m (US$1.6m), surpassing his “shredded” Girl with Balloon sold two years ago.
Henry Highley was the auctioneer for the Evening Sale (© Thomas De Cruz Media: Haydon Perrior)
Banksy’s Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia is a double-sided screenprint with Girl with Balloon on the front side
On the reverse is Morons which depicts a scene in a saleroom
The saleroom fuses into Girl with Balloon when the painting is seen under the light
Lot 8｜Banksy Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia｜Top 6th lot
Executed in: 2007
Size: 56.5 x 76 cm
Provenance:
- Private Collection, Los Angeles (acquired directly from Pest Control)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: £500,000 - 700,000
Hammer price: £1,000,000
Price realised: £1,232,500
Measuring at 56.5 x 76 cm, Girl with Balloon & Morons Sepia was executed in 2007 and is one of the only 8 double-sided Banksy compositions. It is the second one out of the eight.
Banksy magically fused the images on both sides into one composition. When observed under the light, the girl stretches out to reach the balloon and the auctioneer from the other side mirrors her hand, also stretching out his hand to touch the balloon. The current screenprint is the only one out of the eight with this effect.
Girl with Balloon was shredded once the hammer was put down
The Banksy work went on offer with an estimated price of £500,000 - 70,000. It was eventually sold for £1m and realised £1.23m, surpassing the price of the artist’s iconic “shredded” Girl with Balloon which achieved £1.04m.
Lot 1｜Emily Mae Smith Alien Shores｜The artist’s auction record
Executed in: 2018
Size: 137.2 x 116.8 cm
Provenance:
- Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
- Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above)
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: £40,000 - 60,000
Hammer price: £220,000
Price realised: £277,200
Phillips has helped various young artists set their auction records in recent years. In this sale, American artist Emily Mae Smith and African artist Portia Zvavahera’s records were also set.
The sale saw a strong start with 18 keen telephone and online bidders going after Emily Mae Smith’s 2018 work Alien Shores. The price rocketed through the painting’s pre-sale estimate of £40,000 - 60,000 and was hammered down at £220,000 which is 5 times the estimate. It was said that the painting has been acquired by an Asian buyer, selling for £277,200 (US$361,620) with premium.
Smith’s last auction record was set in New York in July this year by her 2015 work Still Life for US$190,000.
Lot 3｜Portia Zvavahera Arising from the Unknown｜The artist’s auction record
Executed in: 2015
Size: 198.8 x 148.9 cm
Provenance:
- Stevenson, Johannesburg
- Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York
- Acquired from the above by the present owner
Estimate: £40,000 - 60,000
Hammer price: £130,000
Price realised: £163,800
Portia Zvavahera’s work Arising from the Unknown also ignited an intense bidding war. The 2019 painting shares the same estimate with the Smith lot (£40,000 - 60,000) and was hammered down at three times its estimate at £130,000. The work sold for £164,000 (US$213,946) and set a new auction record for Zvavahera.
However, the top lot of the sale, Georg Baselitz’s Das letzte Selbstbildnis I, failed to meet expectations. With an estimate of £4.7m - 6m, the large oil on canvas work surprisingly only received one single bid. The auctioneer struggled to find more bidders after a two-minute wait, and finally, put his hammer down at £4.1m. The work fell short of its low estimate and achieved only slightly less than £5m (US$6m), though it is still the top lot of the sale.
The auction house’s global chairwoman Cheyenne Westphal had said that the failure was attributed to the overly-ambitious pre-sale estimate and the lack of competition for the work at the sale.
Lot 10｜Georg Baselitz Das letzte Selbstbildnis I｜Top lot
Executed in: 1982
Size: 250 x 200 cm
Provenance:
- Waddington Galleries, London
- Berry Morrison, New York
- Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne
- Galerie Beyeler, Basel
- Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris
- Hauser & Wirth, Zurich
- Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago
- Pace Wildenstein, New York
- Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2001
- Estimate: £4,700,000 - 6,000,000
Hammer price: £4,100,000
Price realised: £4,983,500
A total of 7 works were sold for over £1m, the following are ones which have not been mentioned above:
Lot 13｜George Condo The Age of Reason｜Top 2nd lot
Executed in: 2010
Size: 193.7 x 198.8 cm
Provenance:
- Skarstedt Gallery, New York
- Private Collection, New York
- Private Collection
- Christie's, London, 11 February 2016, lot 53
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Estimate: £2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Hammer price: £1,850,000
Price realised: £2,261,000
Lot 17｜Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988) Untitled (Pestus)｜Top 3rd lot
Executed in: 1982
Size: 114.3 x 182.8 cm
Provenance:
- The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Robert Miller Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)
- Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above in 1995)
- Private Collection
- Max Lang Gallery, New York (acquired from the above)
- McCabe Fine Art, New York (acquired from the above in 2010)
- Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 2010)
- Estimate: £2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Hammer price: £1,800,000
Price realised: £2,200,500
Lot 12｜Keith Haring (1960 - 1988) Untitled (Grace Jones Mask)｜Top 4th lot
Executed in: 1987
Size: 113 x 110.5 x 31.8 cm
Provenance:
- Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York
- Hokin Gallery Inc., Palm Beach
- Private Collection, New York
- Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2017
Estimate: £1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Hammer price: £1,400,000
Price realised: £1,716,500
Lot 18｜Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987) Flowers｜Top 5th lot
Executed in: 1964
Size: 61 x 61 cm
Provenance:
- The Artist
- Paul Warhola Family Collection, Pittsburgh
- Christie's, New York, 8 November 1989, lot 341
- Private Collection, Europe
- Private Collection, Paris
- Private Collection
- Christie’s, New York, 17 May 2018, lot 63B
- Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
- Estimate: £1,400,000 - 1,800,000
Hammer price: £1,300,000
Price realised: £1,595,500
Lot 21｜Sean Scully Somebody's Angel｜Top 7th lot
Executed in: 2017
Size: 215.9 x 190.5 cm
Provenance:
- Cheim & Read, New York
- Acquired from the above by the present owner in 2017
Estimate: £600,000 - 800,000
Hammer price: £820,000
Price realised: £1,014,700
Auction summary
Auction house: Phillips London
Sale: 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale
Sale date: 2020/10/20
Lots offered: 38
Sold: 36
Unsold: 2
Sale by lot: 95%
Sale total: £26,332,849