The key figures
£168.8m
The overall total from the June Contemporary art sales in London (including premium) at the top three salerooms. Of this, Sotheby’s totalled £68.8m, Christie’s £83.2m (including the £31.6m of post-war art sold in the Defining British Art sale) and Phillips £16.8m. The equivalent series last year raised £282m.
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The number of works bought by buyers living in the UK at Christie’s evening sale, over a quarter of the catalogue offering. “I’ve not seen a statistic like that in all the time I’ve been taking Contemporary sales,” said global president Jussi Pylkkanen.
£7.6m
The combined price of two paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat belonging to film star Johnny Depp sold at Christie’s evening sale.
£5.95m
The hammer price for Jenny Saville’s Shift which was bought by Wang Wei, director of the Long Museum in Shanghai. It more than doubled the previous auction record for the artist.
£1.2m
The low estimate on Frank Auerbach’s Mornington Crescent-First Light which failed to sell at Sotheby’s. With a fully backed guarantee, the auction house now becomes the owner.
£180,000
The hammer price at Bonhams for a Banksy spray-painted SWAT van. It sold below the £200,000-300,000 estimate.
