The tradition of the London summer season with modernity and contemporaries remained;
As in 2020, the format was a new one.
Sotheby's joined the “Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale” with the otherwise separate “British Art Evening Sale: Modern / Contemporary”.
Together, the evening auctions turned over £ 156.2 million;
the expectation was between 119.7 and 170.3 million.
The young London painter Jadé Fadojutimi started this time with modern and contemporary art. Her painting “I'm pirouetting the night away” from 2019 rose to 320,000 pounds (estimate 80,000 / 120,000). Picasso was represented seven times: his most expensive work, "Homme et femme au bouquet" from 1970, was guaranteed and sold for the lower estimate of eight million pounds. Wassily Kandinsky's abstract “Tensions calmées” from 1937, submitted from an American collection, were topless. Eighteen to twenty-five million pounds were expected; the hammer fell at 18.3 million. Maria Lassnig's soccer-playing nun in “Kampfgeist I” achieved £ 380,000 (350,000 / 450,000). A total of £ 108 million were realized with 53 of 57 lots in the offer.
British art led Lucian Freud's market-fresh portrait of his painter colleague “David Hockney” from 2002. Five telephone bidders from London, New York and Asia fought for ten minutes; the successful buyer offered 12.8 million euros (8/12 million) for it. Peter Doig's painting from the nineties was sold more quickly: At 4.5 million (5/7 million), “Blue Mountain” fell short of his expectations; Doig's "Bomb Island" fetched £ 3.6 million (3/5 million). A ceramic vase by Kenyan-born British artist Magdalene Odundo set a record at £ 300,000 (60,000 / 90,000).
Christie's had connected two evening auctions in Paris to the “20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale” and with this close connection between the two locations set a signal for the future - “Post-Brexit”. A total of £ 153.6 million were sold with 82 lots. The auctioneer and global president Jussi Pylkkänen made the start in London; he was followed by three auctioneers in London and Paris. The very first lot, Stanley Whitney's colorful squares in “Light a New Wilderness” from 2016, set the only artist record of the evening with 420,000 pounds (120,000 / 180,000); it went to a bidder on the phone of Elaine Kwok, who was stationed in Hong Kong. Picasso's "L'Étreinte" from 1969 rose with the final bid of 12,6 million pounds (11/16 million) for the most expensive ticket and relegated Alberto Giacometti's “Homme qui chavire” from 1951 to second place. Giacometti's sculpture attracted three bidders and with 12.4 million (12/18 million) just overcame its lower estimate. Basquiat's "Untitled" figure in green from 1984 fetched five million pounds (4/6 million). Keith Haring's yellow “Untitled” composition with computer from 1984 came to its lower estimate of 3.9 million (up to 4.5 million): The monumental work was guaranteed, so its European consignor made at least a small loss; he acquired it in 2018 at Christie's in London from the collection of the German gallery owner Paul Maenz for £ 3.94 million, including buyer's premium. Kandinsky's “Noir bigarré”, at 7.8 million, was just below its estimate (8/12 million);Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Pantomime Reimann: The Dancer's Revenge" from 1912 achieved six million pounds (6/9 million).
It continued in Paris, with 24 works from the collection of the advertising entrepreneur Francis Gross, who died in 1992. Topless was René Magritte's “La Vengeance” from 1936. Six bidders drove the hammer price to 12.5 million euros (6/10 million). In the third part of the evening, the “Paris vente du soir”, Pierre Soulages placed the top lot because Basquiat's “The Elephant” (3.7 / 5.5 million) had been withdrawn. Soulages' abstract “Peinture 162 × 114 cm, 17 avril 1972” in black, white and blue rose to 1.7 million just over the top tax of 1.5 million euros. Kazuo Shiraga's composition "T56" from 1962 rose to the second most expensive lot with the hammer price of 1.4 million euros (900,000 / 1.2 million).