Sotheby’s London Sale Hits £131M With Bacon, Freud, Basquiat Drama

After New York’s multibillion-dollar auction in November, all eyes are on London this week to assess what the market can do amid growing global tensions that have now erupted into open conflict. Since the beginning of the year, the news cycle has given little respite, and the headlines of the auction week have not strengthened the knee. A few days before the sale, the United States and Israel attacked Iran, sparking retaliatory strikes across the Gulf, the assassination of Supreme Leader Khamenei and a regional crisis that quickly jolted markets.

Still, despite the world seemingly falling apart, Suthu managed to deliver a successful performance last night in London, earning £131 million ($176 million) against an estimate of £95,650,000-135,700,000 and closing with white gloves. The 100 percent sale of all 54 properties, however, only came after the withdrawal of one lot and the successful opening of the Jean-Michel Basquiat tender. She is thin at Dala (1986), which initially went unsold when bidding stood at £4.4 million at the last telephone bid before returning a few lots later to sell for £3.7 million after the reserve may have been renegotiated.

The evening opened with Joseph Albers’ bright, bright yellow study Honoring the Squarewhich from its initial bid of £300,000 quickly rose to £650,000 hammer in the room, finishing at £832,000 plus fees. Both subsequent Warhols brought strong results. One of his dollar signs — once exhibited by Leo Castelli — almost doubled its low estimate, closing at £576,000 in fees after being chased by six buyers, while being his same reputation. Flowers from 1964 it reached £1.4 million against its estimate of £800,000-1 million, reaching £1,792,000 in costs. The result places it among the top 10 values ​​achieved by Warhol Flowers auction from 2022. The work was shown in Galerie Burén’s 1965 exhibition dedicated to this series and had previously appeared at Sotheby’s London in 2006, where it fetched $731,200.

The rhythm of the sale has been a little wobbly with Magritte’s gouache Automateachieved below the estimate of £750,000, finished at £960,000 plus fees. Next came a pure and unusual stain Achrome by Piero Manzoni, who called Italian art expert and Sotheby’s Italy chairwoman Claudia Dweck for £400,000 (£512,000 plus fees). However, the work was acquired by the consignor in 2007 from the one-owner collection of Suthu Verheyen in Milan for a record high of €988,200.

The momentum is back with another Warhol icon, The Four Marilyns (Reversal Series) from 1986, which reached its highest estimate to sell for £3.3 million in cash. Antony Gormley’s sculpture was chased by many bidders, closing above its £435,200 high estimate, as did the black Soulages before it, which reached £614,400 with costs.

Making its first appearance at auction in over three decades, Edvard Munch’s landscape, Houses in Kragerøit recently met its selling price of £1,664,000. The next lot—Claude Monet is highly anticipated Jardinier restaurantpainted on the Italian Riviera in early 1884—it also came in as expected, reaching £6.7 million and reaching £8,215,000 in premiums, still below its £8.5 million high estimate despite its exceptional availability. The painting was first acquired from the artist’s dealer, Paul Durand-Ruel, by John Singer Sargent and remained with him until the dissolution of his estate in 1925, after which it passed through a series of pioneering women collectors in the United States. The current consignor bought it at Sotheby’s London in February 2007, where it fetched $7.9 million at a premium compared to the high estimate of $3.5 million.

There was great excitement following one of Brancusi’s characters after his famous death You have a Museof 1972, which exceeded its estimate after fees, selling for £3.6 million. Then followed a succession of lows, including the sale of Sean Scully at an estimate of £768,000 and a tapestry by El Anatsui—one of the few living artists to sell—underestimated at £742,400.

Attention then turned to one of the most anticipated consignments of the evening: a magnificent quartet of London School artworks from the Joe Lewis collection, which alone generated £35.8 million against a combined estimate of £18.6-26.8 million. The one who opened this group was Leon Kossoff Children’s Swimming Pool, 11 o’clock Saturday morning, Augustwhich rose to a record £5,214,000 from an estimate of £600,000-800,000 after a five-minute battle between 10 bidders. The first Swimming Pool painting to appear at auction since 2001, it sold for 25 times its 1992 auction price (£209,000). Kossoff had long enjoyed strong institutional and gallery support in the United States. By the 1980s, he was represented by the LA Louver Gallery, and his work had entered major museum collections in California and New York, cementing a transatlantic presence that continues to affect collectors.

Next came Lucian Freud’s portrait of a young artist, which fetched £5.8 million after more than five minutes of bidding, finishing at £7.2 million in cost. According to artist Ken Brazier, this painting marked a turning point in Freud’s practice, as he began to move from a direct, academic approach to a looser, tactile handling of paint that would reinforce the psychological presence of his sitters.

More spectacle followed with Francis Bacon Self-Portraitthe only painting from 1972 to come to auction was 30 years ago, as it was last sold in Suthini in 1994 for £330,000 from the collection of Paul Brass, the doctor Bacon had gifted the work to after helping him through his darkest night. This time the drawing is fixed on the phone at £ 13.5 million, reaching £ 16,035,000 in cost and exceeding its estimate of £ 8-12 million. Last in the quartet was Lucian Freud’s nude White Girl In Bed (1987). Despite being a new-to-market example of one of the artist’s most highly regarded titles in the trade, it sold directly over the phone for £7,410,000, no guarantee.

What followed was a successful succession of lots selling at or above average, with a brief moment of uncertainty over a Basquiat piece quickly resolved by reopened bidding.

Among the notable moments was that of David Hockney The English Gardenthe artist’s first fully available English lot, which reached £1.5 million under the hammer and £1,920,000 in premium—well above the £90,000 it fetched when it last appeared at auction in 1997, underscoring the artist’s greater market appreciation following recent institutional attention. The painting was exhibited at the Kasmin Gallery in 1965 and at the Galleria dell’Ariete in Milan in 1966, and later appeared in the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s 1970 Hockney exhibition. It recently reappeared in the exhibition catalog of the artist’s major retrospective of 2025 at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, an institutional confirmation that further strengthened his market.

Both Bridget Riley and Lucio Fontana that followed sold within the range, for £832,000 and £1,792,000, respectively. Notably, the gold slash-surface made by Fontana was one of five that was never made tag jobs that were once offered on the secondary market.

Among the modern highlights, is Alberto Giacometti’s Women’s debut it rose from a £1.4 million opening bid to £5,092,000 in fees, doubling its estimate of £2.2-2.8 million after an ongoing competition between seven bidders. The cast had never appeared at auction, having been in the same private collection for over 60 years. Another highlight, by Paul Signac Marseille. This Port came to a low of £4 million (£4,378,519 plus fees), while Edgar Degas’ Ballet stage it blew past its £2.55 million low, reaching £3,201,000 in payouts. More recently, the work was recently reacquired by Vilhelm Hammershøi on the fence for £1.4 million, reaching £1,792,000 in fees and just above its £1.5 million estimate. A painting by Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes opened at £410,000 and quickly sold for £450,000 (£576,000 in fees), despite the recent museum attention surrounding the artist.

Towards the end of the sale, a memorial portrait of Dame Barbara Hepworth Triple Obliques (Turn in) it quickly rose from a £2 million opening bid to £4,701,020 in payments, despite its three-metre height. Described as one of Hepworth’s most impressive bronzes and among his largest non-commissioned public works, the figures have been in the same private collection since they were sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2006. Anselm Kiefer’s Für Velimir Chlebnikov: Lehre vom Krieg: Seeschlachten (Lot 49) again more than doubled its high estimate of £600,000, fetching £1.4 million in fees. Overall, Sotheby’s strong, carefully staged performance suggests that renewed market confidence remains despite the turmoil taking place beyond the salesroom. After all, the art industry has always followed its logic, even in the midst of—or perhaps especially in the midst of—the worst tragedies.

Next up is Christie’s 20th / 21st Century: London Evening Sale, which takes the baton today, March 5, at 6 pm GMT.

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