A key new benchmark price achieved as eight bidders drove Piero Manzoni’s monumental Achrome well beyond pre-sale expectations to £12,626,500 / $20,249,118 / €15,872,822 (est. £5-7m) – establishing the highest price across all the Frieze auctions this week. The painting was the star lot at Sotheby’s auction of Italian Art this evening which established a grand total of £41,406,650 / $66,403,845 / €52,052,461 – the highest ever total for an auction of 20th century Italian Art. Alongside Manzoni, works by Castellani, Bonalumi and Simeti (all white) nearly doubled the previous records for the artists. All three works came from Giobatta Meneguzzo’s collection and were sold to benefit his museum, the Museo Casabianca. During the Contemporary Sale, a new record was set for one of the founding fathers of the ZERO movement Heinz Mack, when Die Vibration der Stille sold for £302,500.
CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING SALE
Totalled £28,203,200 / $45,229,472 / €35,454,352 (est. £25.1- 35.1m)
125% increase in Chinese participation compared to last year. Martin Kippenberger’s Ohne Titel (1992) sold for £2,322,500 / $3,724,593 / €2,919,624 to Yuz Museum, Shanghai. The top lot of the Contemporary Evening Sale, by the most important living French painter, Pierre Soulages, Peinture from 1958, was bought by a private Asian collector for £2,658,500/ $4,263,436 / €3,342,011 (est. £2-3m). Following the record price established at Sotheby’s in June for Adrian Ghenie, in his third appearance at a Sotheby’s evening auction, bidders drove Duchamp’s Funeral I to £1,022,500 / $1,639,783 / €1,285,389 (est. £400,000-600,000). The top lot of the Contemporary Evening Sale, by the most important living French painter, Pierre Soulages, Peinture from 1958, was bought by a private Asian collector for £2,658,500 / $4,263,436 / €3,342,011 (est. £2-3m). Hotly contested artists introduced at auction tonight, Israel Lund & Danh Vō: both set new records this evening selling for £110,000 and £314,500 respectively
Seven Auction Records
Piero Manzoni, Enrico Castellani, Agostino Bonalumi, Turi Simeti, Israel Lund, Dan Vō & Heinz Mack
Art Market Talks 