{"id":2199718,"date":"2026-10-15T01:25:39","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T22:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2199718"},"modified":"2026-10-15T01:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T22:25:39","slug":"christies-london-auctions-total-289m-during-frieze-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2199718","title":{"rendered":"Christie\u2019s London Auctions Total $289M During Frieze Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Adrien-Meyer-selling-Francis-Bacons-Figure-in-Movement-1978-for-17185000.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tChristie\u2019s London brought in \u00a3218.6 million ($289.4 million) across two evening sales Wednesday, more than doubling last year\u2019s total and offering an encouraging sign for the art market ahead of the New York auctions next month. <\/p>\n

\n\tSeven auction records were set, including five during the sale of British businessman Peter Simon\u2019s collection, while a Wassily Kandinsky painting fetched \u00a331.6 million ($41.8 million) in the evening\u2019s second auction. (All prices reported include buyer\u2019s premium.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe two sales, which coincide with Frieze London and Frieze Masters, achieved a combined sell-through rate of 91 percent by lot and 96 percent by value. The Simon collection, which several market insiders described to ARTnews<\/em> as the real attraction in London this week, accounted for \u00a3107.5 million ($142.3 million) of the total, making it the highest-value single-owner collection ever sold at Christie\u2019s London. The subsequent 20th- and 21st-century sale brought in \u00a3111.1 million ($147 million). <\/p>\n

\n\tThere was, however, some confusion about when the festivities were supposed to begin. Although the Simon sale started at 6 p.m., in some places Christie\u2019s live-auction website advertised a 7 p.m. start time. At least three market professionals, including an adviser with a global clientele, had understood that the sale would begin at the later hour. Whether the hiccup caused anyone to miss bidding remains unclear. <\/p>\n

\n\tEven still, Christie\u2019s was packed when the \u201cMonsoon: The Peter Simon Collection\u201d sale began. Assembled by the founder British retailer Monsoon who has appeared on each edition of ARTnews<\/em>\u2019s Top 200 Collectors list since 2005, the collection sold 98 percent by lot and 99 percent by value, with only one of the 41 works failing to find a buyer. <\/p>\n

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Wassily Kandinsky\u2019s early masterpiece Das bunte Leben<\/em> was the evening\u2019s top lot, earning \u00a331.6 million ($41.8 million). <\/span>Courtesy Christies Images Ltd.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tOne of the evening\u2019s biggest surprises came from Russian avant-garde painter Liubov Popova, whose Painterly Architectonic<\/em> sold for \u00a37.64 million ($10.1 million), more than three times its \u00a32.5 million ($3.3 million) high estimate. Setting a new auction record for the artist, the work saw nearly eight minutes of bidding both in the room and on the phones.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther records set Wednesday came for Bridget Riley\u2019s Streak 2<\/em>, which \u00a35.21 million ($6.9 million), and David Bomberg\u2019s San Miguel, Toledo, Afternoon<\/em>, which brought \u00a33.26 million ($4.32 million). The bidding for the Bomberg work had the room cheering, and the auctioneer even asked for a closer inspection of the painting. Further records were achieved for Portia Zvavahera and Barbara Hepworth.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Simon collection\u2019s most expensive work, Francis Bacon\u2019s Figure in Movement<\/em>, fetched \u00a317.19 million ($22.8 million), selling to a bidder in the room, while Piet Mondrian\u2019s Composition A, with Double Line and Yellow<\/em> brought \u00a39.71 million ($12.86 million). Joan Mir\u00f3\u2019s Peinture (Les amants \u2013 Adam et Eve)<\/em> sold for \u00a38.56 million ($11.33 million), and Hurvin Anderson\u2019s Last House<\/em> brought \u00a35.7 million ($7.5 million) against an estimate of \u00a32 million\u2013\u00a33 million ($2.6 million\u2013$3.9 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tPhilip Hoffman, chairman and founder of the Fine Art Group, told ARTnews<\/em> before the sale that a handful of works in Simon\u2019s collection would race ahead while much of the rest would sell with relatively little competition. Buyers at Frieze Masters, he said, had been holding back money in anticipation of the auction.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfterward, Hoffman called the two sales a clear indication of a solid market, though he cautioned against reading too much into the totals, especially since 29 of the 41 lots in the Simon evening sale carried third-party guarantees, meaning much of the financial risk had already been accounted for before bidding began. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThese auctions are staged, managed, and already pumped up to the max for the best guarantees they can get,\u201d he told ARTnews<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\n\tBy the time the auction\u2019s final two paintings, Glenn Ligon\u2019s Large Silver In Show Business<\/em> and Beatriz Milhazes\u2019s O Rapaz (The Boy)<\/em>, each sold for \u00a3192,000 ($250,000) against low estimates of \u00a3400,000 ($529,000) and \u00a3300,000 ($397,000), respectively, the room was mute.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the short break before the 20th\/21st Century evening sale, the energy returned, with two Josef Albers works exceeding their estimates, followed by Ren\u00e9 Magritte\u2019s Le seize septembre<\/em>, fetching \u00a33.26 million ($4.3 million), well above its \u00a31.8 million ($2.4 million) high estimate.<\/p>\n

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Francis Bacon\u2019s Figure in <\/em>Movement fetched \u00a317.19 million ($22.75 million), selling to a bidder in the room. <\/span>Courtesy Christie\u2019s Images Ltd.<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe zing of the Brits could be felt when David Hockney\u2019s Dog Painting 17<\/em> came under the hammer. The painting, appearing at auction for the first time, prompted applause and a spirited contest involving Christie\u2019s London specialist Edmond Francey and at least three other specialists bidding by telephone. It eventually fetched \u00a33.51 million ($4.64 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe patriotic spirit continued with British painter Flora Yukhnovich\u2019s Capriccio<\/em>, which fetched \u00a32.2 million ($2.9 million), against a high estimate of \u00a31.5 million ($1.98 million).<\/p>\n

\n\tBut silence fell over the room for Mondrian\u2019s Composition III<\/em> (1920), as spectators and bidders alike took out their cameras to record the moment the painting sold for \u00a325.2 million ($33.4 million), squarely in the middle of its \u00a320 million\u2013\u00a330 million ($26.5 million\u2013$39.7 million) estimate.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough the Mondrian was expected to achieve the highest price going into the auction, Kandinsky\u2019s Das bunte Leben<\/em> proved to be the bigger attraction. Auctioneer Adrien Meyer described it as \u201cthe most important early work by the artist to ever come to auction.\u201d Nearly 20 bids ricocheted across the room, with Christie\u2019s specialists Amelia Walker, Katharine Arnold, and Maria Los competing for the work. Los ultimately secured the painting on a \u00a327 million ($35.7 million) hammer bid, bringing the final price to \u00a331.56 million ($41.79 million), against a \u00a325 million high estimate. The painting had been restituted to the heirs of Hedwig Lewenstein-Weyermann in 2023.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs with the first sale, the mood changed again toward the end of the auction. At the 27th lot, Warhol\u2019s Mona Lisa (Reversal Series)<\/em>, which ultimately sold for \u00a31.5 million ($1.98 million), Meyer stepped away from the rostrum and Yu Ge Wang took over. What followed was a difficult stretch, with works by Cy Twombly, George Condo, Alberto Giacometti, and Lucian Freud among those failing to find buyers. By 8:52 p.m., the sea of polished loafers and designer handbags had started to disappear.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven a charitable cause could not entirely revive the room. Igshaan Adams\u2019s The certainty of being a rose (ii)<\/em>, a sculpture made of beads, thread and textile, fetched \u00a396,000 ($127,000) despite the auctioneer reminding bidders that proceeds would benefit environmental charities. The result nevertheless established an auction record for the artist.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe second sale finished with an 85 percent sell-through rate by lot, well below the Simon collection\u2019s 98 percent. Yet with two works selling for more than \u00a325 million, the combined results gave Christie\u2019s plenty to celebrate ahead of its New York sales, which begin November 17.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Hoffman, the evening\u2019s results were encouraging but not necessarily conclusive, and the extensive use of guarantees should be taken with a grain of salt. He added that he waiting for the sale of the Antonio Homem Sonnabend collection, estimated to bring more than $50 million and offered without guarantees, for a clearer reading of the market.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/christies-london-frieze-week-peter-simon-auction-results-2026-1234802435\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Adrien-Meyer-selling-Francis-Bacons-Figure-in-Movement-1978-for-17185000.jpg?w=1024″] Christie\u2019s London brought in \u00a3218.6 million ($289.4 million) across two evening sales Wednesday, more than doubling last year\u2019s total and offering an encouraging sign for the art market ahead of the New York auctions next month. Seven auction records were set, including five during the sale of British businessman Peter Simon\u2019s collection, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2199718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2199718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2199718\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2199718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2199718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2199718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}