Auction Analysis: London Post-War & Contemporary Evening Auctions – October 2017

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LONDON POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY EVENING AUCTIONS – OCTOBER 2017

The post-war and contemporary art evening sales in London this week raised a total of £160,928,000 (excluding buyer’s premium), against a total pre-sale estimate of £209,696,000 to £292,975,000 (this analysis and all results include selected lots from Christie’s two curated evening sales* Up Close An Evening Auction and Masterpieces of Design & Photography). The sales total between Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips was 59.2% higher than in October last year, and 83.9% above the October results in 2015. This was the highest sales total ever for a London post-war and contemporary evening sales season in October. The great increase is partly due to Christie’s opting out of doing a June auction earlier this year in favor of consolidating the sale into the October season of auctions. When comparing the combined value of evening sales in both June and October with the same auctions last year, the result is a much more modest increase of 9.6%.

Christie’s kicked off the auction week in London with their two curated evening sales on the 3rd of October, followed by their regular evening sale on October 6. In total they sold 91 lots for a combined sales value of £94.98 million, putting it 111.7% above their sales total in October 2016. The result was however well below the pre-sale estimate range of £148.8 million to £208.2 million due to a Francis Bacon painting valued at £60-80 million going unsold.

Sotheby’s, who held their evening sale on the 5th of October, achieved a hammer total of £46.66 million, within the pre-sale estimate range of £43.67 million to £60.38 million. Sotheby’s result was up 29% from October 2016.

This was followed by Phillips who also had their evening sale on October 6, which achieved a total of £19.3 million. The sale ended up within the pre-sale estimate range of £17.2 million to £24.35 million and was 28.1% above their sale total in October 2016.

REPORT CONTENT:

COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE (SOTHEBY’S, CHRISTIE’S AND PHILLIPS).

TOTAL SALES VS ESTIMATE (2008 – 2017).

AVERAGE PRICES 2008 – 2017.

HAMMER VS ESTIMATE RATIOS 2008 – 2017.

AUCTION GUARANTEE ANALYSIS.

AUCTION FLOW ANALYSIS (VISUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE AUCTION RHYTHM)

TOP AUCTION PRICES.