Eyeblog

Auction highs continue to rise as Bacon, Freud and Gibson break more records at Sotheby’s and Christie’s

On Tuesday 13th May, Sotheby’s hosted a Photography sale. Record highs were reached once again, and many lots outsold their original estimates.

These figures, and the fact that records are currently being broken in art auctions all over the globe on a weekly basis, illustrate that secondary market trading remains a thriving business and that there continues to be a high demand for highly sought after work. With investors less likely to invest in property at a point when the housing market is in dire straights, art is looking to be the latest thing to invest in.

At the Sotheby’s Photography sale, a set of three photographic works by Ralph Gibson went for £3,500. Each print was signed and dated by the artist. Eyestorm has a piece by Gibson at the same size and also signed and numbered available at £1000 plus vat, along with a selection of his other works. Click here for more.

In other auction news, Roman Abramovich, the successful Russian tycoon, purchased two important paintings from separate auction sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s last week. Francis Bacon’s

Triptych, 1976 and Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, 1995, were bought by the multi-billionaire for the combined amount of $120 million. Both works made auction history; the Bacon made the highest auction price ever for a post-war work of art, while Lucian Freud became the most expensive living artist, taking the title from

Jeff Koons.

Click here to read the full story in this article published in The Art Newspaper.

Also last week, an outright offer of £1.5 million was made for Damien Hirst’s Jubilation, a recent oil painting featuring butterflies, when seen by a wealthy diner on the wall of ‘St Alban’ in London where it is permanently displayed. The offer was subsequently rejected by the restaurant due to the piece being a gift from Hirst and made especially for the space.

Click the following link to read more in

The London Paper.

In Association with the Institute of Contemporary Arts

Eyestorm is the leading online gallery of limited edition contemporary art. Founded in 1999, Eyestorm came under new management in 2006 and has refined its operations to make buying the finest contemporary art easier and more enjoyable than ever before.