Stories

If you thought the Ernie Barnes wave had run its course, last week gave you a big surprise. During Christie's London sale, Main Street Pool Hall from 1978 made $1.8 million against an estimate under $100,000. That was the third highest price paid for a Barnes painting after the $15 million record Sugar Shack from 1976 and the $2.34 million paid for Storm Dance from 1977. Both of those sales took place in early May.

This week’s Old Masters sales offer the potential to set a number of new records for old names. The auctions begin on Tuesday, July 5th at 7 am EDT. Christie’s Old Master and British Works on Paper: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints 1500-1900 will take place live in London.

Young artists with persistent markets helped the house close the season with a £17.5 million sale. Phillips London Evening Sale totaled £17.5 million ($21.28 million) with 31 of the 33 lots offered finding buyers. That’s a 94% sell-through rate, helped along by the withdrawal of two lots—a Baselitz and a Grotjahn—before the sale.

Combined sales make $181 million from Bacon, Monet, Warhol, Richter and a range of women artists young and old.

A white-glove Chagall sale helped Christie's post strong results for Monet, Ernie Barnes, Barbara Hepworth and many more artists. Christie’s held three sales in one Evening to bring together more than the European market by bridging London-to-Paris.

Multiple trending artists see up to 8 lots hit the block across this week’s Paris and London sales. Caroline Walker, Stanley Whitney, Simone Leigh, and more rise to the top

The full breakdown of the Day and Evening sales at Phillips this week highlighting the continued demand for women artists, the power of online bidders, and the artists to watch

How did an Ivoirian artist Jean-Michel Basquiat discovered in the 1980s suddenly join two of the hottest galleries and become and auction star? Of all of the surprises that took place during the May sales in New York, one big one—the sale of Ouattara Watts’ Afro Beat from 2011 for a remarkable $781,200 during Christie’s 21st Century Evening sale—has gone almost unremarked upon.

Unseen for 57 years, the central panel from a triptych portrait that Bacon himself broke up appears in London

On the heels of her Venice triumph and a strong new record set in New York, Christie's will open London evening sale with a recent work.

Christie's announced that Victor Pinchuk and his wife Olena are selling their Jeff Koons Balloon Monkey (Magenta) in London later this month with a £6 million ($7.5 million) estimate.

A little something for everyone this week with a themed sale, some ceramics, and a whole lot of Old Masters