It took nearly 20 minutes and more than 20 bids between several specialists on the phone and a bidder in the room, but Sotheby’s came away with at least one major win at Thursday’s contemporary art evening sale. That victory lot was Francis Bacon’s Portrait of a Dwarf (1975), which hammered above its £6 million to £9 million estimate, landing at £13.1 million with fees, or approximately $17.6 million.
While that’s nowhere near Bacon’s auction record of $142.4 million, set at Christie’s New York in 2013, the result—and the sale of another Bacon, the lot right before it, at just above the low estimate—stood as a positive outcome in a market that has yet to break out of its funk.
Prior to Thursday’s sale, Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s chairman and head of modern art, positioned the evening auction as a “tight, high-quality offering” centered on a small private family collection that included the two Bacon works and two Rodin bronzes.
“It’s unusual for us to have modern works in this season,” Branczik said, “but the Rodins come from the same collection as the Bacons. It was very much part of the strategy to present a dialogue between the two artists.”
Indeed, it was a brisk affair, clocking in at just over an hour for 27 lots. Overall, the sale netted £47.6 million ($63.3 million), with three lots going unsold and an 88.9 percent sell-through rate by lot. That marked a 26.5 percent increase over last year’s equivalent sale, which brought in £37.6 million on 22 lots. The total was almost exactly in line with the October 2023 evening sale result of £45.7 million, though that auction featured 42 lots. (All prices include buyer’s premium unless otherwise noted.)
The Bacons performed well enough. The Rodins less so, with the works selling for £889,000 and £762,000, both on £600,000–£900,000 estimates. There were few fireworks before Portrait of a Dwarf hit the block at Lot 11, with auctioneer Tom Eddison, senior vice president of contemporary art in London, trying—and mostly failing—to coax more than a few bids out of each lot.
In the first half of the sale, a Ser Serpas work sold for less than its low estimate; a Hernan Bas landed just above the low estimate when including fees; and an Emma McIntyre sold in the middle of its estimate range, also when including fees. Even the house’s Basquiat on offer—the 1982 painting Untitled (The Arm)—landed in the middle of its £4.5 million–£6.5 million estimate, selling for £5.53 million. It was the same story with Andy Warhol’s Four Pink Marilyns (Reversal Series), 1986, which went for £4.3 million on a £3 million–£5 million estimate.
The heaviest action of the evening came at Lot 23, Lucy Bull’s psychedelic 2021 painting 9:59. Eddison opened bidding at £180,000, and no fewer than five specialists quickly dove in. The work climbed well past its £300,000–£500,000 estimate, with Eddison moving like a conductor among the eager bidders. Despite most of the bidding being divided among Bame Fierro March, Alex Griffiths, and Seiun Lee, it was David Schrader, executive vice president and chairman of global private sales, who swooped in at the end with the winning £1 million bid. The final result with fees was £1.26 million ($1.68 million), good for the artist’s sixth-highest result and her best since her record was set at Christie’s Hong Kong in September 2024. That work, 18:50, was also from 2021.
It was a nice boost from her more recent result, also at Christie’s Hong Kong, when her 2020 work 8:50—which had set her then-auction record at $1.46 million at Phillips Hong Kong in 2022—sold for around $604,000, just shy of its $643,000 high estimate.
“Collectors are very specific when it comes to Lucy Bull,” Antonia Gardner, Sotheby’s head of evening sales for contemporary art in London, told ARTnews after the sale. “It’s been proven that when someone has a passion for Lucy Bull’s work, they’ll go to lengths to acquire it. But the truth is, it’s hard to know what drives those decisions. I can tell you, though, it was a great surprise.”
Eddison wrapped up the sale fairly quickly from there, moving through the final four lots with efficiency. Lot 25, Neo Rauch’s Gegenlicht (2000), sold for £381,000, well below its previous sale price at Sotheby’s London in 2015 of £461,000. The final lot, Richard Serra’s 2010 painting Elevational Weights, Vertical, hammered after a few bids to a buyer in the room for £310,000, or £393,700 with fees. That work last sold in 2017 for around £730,000, also at Sotheby’s London.
Both consignors appear to have taken quite the bath on those works. Alas, such are the times.
