Overview
- Christie’s three evening auctions totaled about £197.5 million with a 96% sell-through by lot, led by Henry Moore’s King and Queen at £26.3 million, a new auction record.
- Christie’s also logged artist records for Dorothea Tanning and Toyen during its dedicated Surrealism sale, which achieved full sell-through after a late withdrawal.
- Sotheby’s opened the week with a white-glove £131 million Modern and Contemporary sale, topped by Francis Bacon’s 1972 self-portrait at £16 million and a Leon Kossoff record at £5.2 million.
- Guarantees underpinned large portions of value—about half the Sotheby’s sale by estimate—while many lots across both houses traded near their low estimates and several works were withdrawn.
- Single-owner consignments and canonical names drove bidding—most notably the Joe Lewis works at Sotheby’s and the Vanthournout collection at Christie’s—while ultra‑contemporary supply remained scarce and demand subdued.