On Wednesday, Christie’s staged its marquee modern and contemporary art sales in London and Paris. The back-to-back sales, made $212.5 million with buyer’s premium across 82 lots, hammering at $176.9 million, above the $128 million pre-sale estimate and realizing a strong 90 percent sell-through rate.

Notwithstanding the strength and dominance of Asian collectors at auctions over the past 6 months, for these particular sales, bidding from this region “was nothing out of the ordinary, with much of these buyers’ attention focused on a few lots by George Condo, Yayoi Kusama and Edgar Degas.”

Among the top lots, Picasso’s L’étreinte (1969) sold for £14.7 million ($20.3 million) in its auction debut. Two bidders from New York and London competed for the guaranteed work with the hammer eventually falling at £12.6 million ($17.4 million), putting the final sum just above its £11 million high estimate.

Alberto Giacometti’s bronze sculpture Falling Man (ca. 1950–51) attracted three bidders, two on the phone from New York and London and another from a man in the salesroom finally realizing a hammer price of £11.7 million ($16.2 million), meeting its low estimate of $16 million.

René Magritte La Vengeance (1936) drew interest from six clients, who drove the final price to £12.5 million ($17.3 million).

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Images:
The 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale - Live auction on 30 June at Christies King Street, London.
Photo: GUY BELL

Lot 8
PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)
L'Étreinte
signed ‘Picasso’ (lower centre); dated ’23.10.69.’ (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
44 ¾ x 57 ½ in. (113.6 x 146 cm.)
Painted in Mougins on 23 October 1969