Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction picks up $363.2 M.

A promising night for the art market, as Sotheby’s sold $363.2 million in modern and contemporary art yesterday, via a digitally streamed live auction conducted from New York, London and Hong Kong simultaneously, with no direct access to bidders. The new format replaced its postponed May evening sales in New York.

The auctions were live streamed in high-definition, each lot accompanied by an onscreen image. Bidders participated by phone or online. The Sotheby’s auctioneer, Oliver Barker was live, by video, taking bids from Sotheby’s specialists on the phone banks in New York, London and Hong Kong with the results broadcast to screens in a control centre studio setup.

Among the leading lots across the auctions were major works by Francis Bacon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Joan Mitchell, and Lee Krasner. Auction records were achieved for Mario Carreño, Vija Celmins, Leonor Fini, Helen Frankenthaler, Wifredo Lam, Alice Rahon, Remedios Varo, Matthew Wong, and for a work on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Francis Bacon’s Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus from 1981 sold for $84.6 million with fees by a telephone bidder in New York against competition from an online opponent in China. The price is the third-highest ever achieved for the artist at auction.

Basquiat’s untitled work on paper went for $15.2 million, beating the previous record price of $13.6 million achieved for a work on paper by the artist.

Realm of Appearances by the late artist Matthew Wong, opened the contemporary art evening sale, and went for $1.82 million against an estimate of $60,000–$80,000.