The Fair had opened strongly, with positive mood and good sales eclipsing the worries of the previous year, when Lehman Bros collapsed and Damian Hirst had pocketed 111 million pounds from his carefully engineered single artist sale ‘Beautiful inside my head forever’.
Christies kept their estimates reasonable - one might even say ‘climate controlled’. The auction began with Gursky’s famous deadpan photograph of instore rows of shoes, Prada 1, which soared to an impressive hammer price of 140,000 pounds, almost 3 times the lower 50,000 pound estimate.
The reasonably large Peter Doig, Pine House (Rooms for rent) 1994 sold just below the lower estimate at 1 200 000 pounds; followed by a brilliantly painted Luc Tuymans Pigeons, 2001, which at a hammer of 320 000 pounds comfortably exceeded its top estimate of 300 000 pounds—reinforcing the sense that it had been modestly estimated for such a fine work.
The next lot soared: Neo Rauch’s large format 1999 work Stellwerk (Signal Box) reached 760 000 pounds in spirited bidding over a top estimate of 450 000 pounds. This artist is rising fast in the primary market, so is both desirable and seldom offered to the secondary. This is a winning combination that was repeated in the sales of two major Kippenbergers, both previously owned by Saatchi. These works formed a hub around which the auction had clearly been structured. They were fiercely contested with the larger Paris Bar of 1991, of size 2 metres by almost 4 metres finally knocked down for 2 000 000 pounds over a top estimate of 1 300 000 pounds.
Kippenberger is well-placed for sale now, having been showcased by the Tate Modern in their current Pop Art Survey, and not many major works have appeared on the secondary market since his untimely death in 1997. This currency continued into the offerings the next day when a small oilstick on paper self portrait rocketed to a feverish hammer of 115 000 pounds over a top mark of 22 000 pounds.
The confidence exuded by this sale (only one work was passed in) seemed to extend even to the famous Damian Hirst butterfly work I miss you 1997-8, which sold well and within range at 280 000 pounds. This sale level is well down on previous levels when it failed to sell in Feb 2008 in the range 700 000 – 900 000 pounds. But the point is that it did sell. Clearly the price range was right, and these new benchmarks are best left to speak for themselves rather than refer to the past highs.
Many of the more minor Hirsts offered sold well, so the future of his work may well be stronger from here on in. Indeed, for his latest London show at the Wallace Collection, Hirst abandoned his studio technicians, tradesmen and painters and had a go at painting the works himself—much to the disdain of the London press, who universally accused him of painting them badly. His attempts have probably stabilised his market by addressing perceptions of oversupply.
The total sale made a successful 11.2 million pounds against presale estimate totals of 6-9 million pounds.
