Sotheby’s, a leader of the luxury auction world, achieved a remarkable result at its Modern & Contemporary Evening Auction in London. Held on 15 October, the sale totalled £46 million ($61 million) and drew intense interest from international collectors.
The night’s brightest moment came from Willem de Kooning’s 1977 Untitled. Estimated at £8–12 million, it sold for £9.8 million ($12.9 million), setting a new European auction record for the artist. The result again underlined collectors’ unwavering demand for works from the masters’ later period.
It was not only de Kooning: giants of German painting and American abstraction also shone. Gerhard Richter’s monumental 1992 Abstraktes Bild changed hands for £6.7 million ($8.9 million), while Mark Rothko’s 1969 Untitled on paper, contemporary with the Rothko Chapel paintings, closed at £3.8 million ($5 million). David Hockney’s works were among the most fiercely contested: Henry Reading sold for £2.8 million, and his 2021 iPad work Water Lilies in the Pond with Pots of Flowers reached nearly three times its high estimate at £1.9 million, a new auction record for the artist’s iPad works.
Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s Chairman of Modern & Contemporary Art, Europe, noted that the house’s London sales have exceeded $1 billion since the start of the year, a clear sign of its confidence in the city and the global art market.
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