Adrian Ghenie, the trendy artist whose expressionistic style blends figuration and abstraction, was sought after by Asian and Western collectors.
Seven bidders chased Ghenie’s “The Hunted,” a large 2010 canvas with a central baboon figure, pushing the price to 1.9 million pounds, more than three times the high estimate. A smaller work, “Self Portrait as a Monkey” from 2011, fetched 665,000 pounds, more than three times the top target.
Red Fish
Only one collector pursued Rudolf Stingel’s untitled canvas inspired by an oriental rug. The piece, whose price of 1.7 million pounds was within the estimated range, is one of five Stingels on the auction block this week in London.
There wasn’t much action for Sigmar Polke’s 1992 abstract work “Roter Fisch (Red Fish).” Sotheby’s found a buyer willing to place an irrevocable bid prior to the sale and lowered the reserve. The final price was 3.1 million pounds, below the low target of 3.5 million pounds. The bid was executed by Patti Wong, chairman of Sotheby’s Asia.
“Its scale is prohibitive to many people,” Branczik said of painting that’s 10 feet tall by 13 feet wide. “It went to a great collection.”
Jen Hua, Sotheby’s Beijing-based specialist bidding on behalf of the Long Museum, also won Neo Rauch’s large painting “Gut Gut” for 869,000 pounds, above the upper estimate. Hua also chased works by Ghenie and Chinese artist Zeng Fanzhi but lost out.
Works that didn’t sell included sculptures by Lucio Fontana and Ai Weiwei.
“These were great results at the best of times,” said Wendy Goldsmith, a London-based art adviser. “Currency obviously played a role today because so many bidders were Asian and American. It’s a 10 percent discount for them at least.”
Sotheby’s rose 2.2 percent to $27.43 a share at 12:11 p.m. in New York.