LONDON, ENGLAND.- Christie’s record breaking auction of Post-War and Contemporary Art on 8 February 2007 realised £70,429,200/ $138,393,378/ €106,488,950, a record total for any auction in this category in Europe. The top lot of the sale was Study for Portrait II by Francis Bacon (1909-1992) which sold for £14,020,000 ($27,549,300/ €21,198,240), the 2nd highest ever price for a post-war work of art at auction, and the highest ever price for the artist at auction.

The sale saw 11 auction records broken, including those for Francis Bacon, Sigmar Polke, Antonio Saura, Hiroshi Sugimoto and Alberto Burri, as international bidders fought fiercely for the works on offer. Buyer activity at the auction was 23% United Kingdom, 40% rest of Europe, 32% Americas and 5% Asia (by lot). The auction was 99% sold by value and 98% by lot against a pre-sale estimate of £39.7 to £54.4 million.

Pilar Ordovas, Director and Head of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie’s in London, said: “We are thrilled with this evening’s record breaking results which demonstrate Christie’s driving dominance of the Post-War and Contemporary art market. In particular, we are delighted with the result of Bacon’s Study for Portrait II which realized a record price establishing Bacon’s position as one of the leading artistic figures of the 20th century. This evening’s sale built on the continuing strength of the market as we welcomed a significant number of new clients, the majority of whom were private international buyers. Increased interest and bidding from the new markets, including Russian, Middle Eastern and Asian clients, has had a significant effect on the art market over recent years and it is particularly encouraging to see the majority of works this evening bought by European-based clients, highlighting the intrinsic role of London within the international art market.”

Highlights of this evening’s sale:

- Study for Portrait II by Francis Bacon (1909-1992) which sold for £14,020,000 ($27,549,300/ €21,198,240), the 2nd highest ever price for a Post-War work of art and the highest price for the artist at auction. The finest of Bacon’s Papal series ever to come to the market, the work was painted in 1956 and is inspired by Diego Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, 1650, which Bacon said was ‘one of the greatest portraits that has ever been made’. It was subject to a bidding battle between a telephone bidder and a client in the room, before eventually being sold in the room to Andrew Fabricant for Richard Gray Gallery.

- Brigitte Bardot, 1974 by Andy Warhol (1928-1987) sold for £5,396,000 / $10,603,140 / €8,158,752. Appearing at auction for the first time having been acquired directly from the artist, this was one of a series of eight portraits in which Warhol commemorated the original sex-kitten. Warhol’s Three Women, painted in the summer of 1963, sold for £4,444,000 / $8,732,460 / €6,719,328.

- Mark Rothko’s (1903-1970) mood-drenched Untitled (Black, Red, Black on Brown), 1968 realised £3,380,000 / $6,641,700 / €5,110,560, a world record price for a work on paper by the artist.

- Strand, 1966, by Sigmar Polke (b. 1941) sold for £2,708,000 / $5,321,220 / €4,094,496, a world record price for the artist at auction.

- This evening’s sale included a number of contemporary Chinese artworks, including Zhang Xiaogang’s Bloodline series: The Big Family, 1997, which realized £288,000 / $565,920 / €435,456 and Bloodline Series No. 48 which sold for £168,000 / $330,120 / €254,016.

The Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale will take place on 9 February 2007 at 10am and 2pm at Christie’s King Street salerooms.

In total, new auction record prices were set for 11 artists at this evening’s sale:
Francis Bacon, lot 54 £14,020,000 Previous record: $15,024,000
Sigmar Polke, lot 24 £2,708,000 Previous record: $1,696,000
Alberto Burri, lot 6 £1,924,000 Previous record: FF16,000,000
Anselm Kiefer, lot 17 £1,812,000 Previous record: $1,360,000
Antonio Saura, lot 30 £535,200 Previous record: €348,000
Hiroshi Sugimoto, lot 63 £524,000 Previous record: $744,000
Keith Haring, lot 18 £512,800 Previous record: $710,400
Dan Flavin, lot 14 £412,000 Previous record: $744,000
Michael Raedecker £138,000 Previous record: £114,000
For works on paper for:
Mark Rothko, lot 13 £3,380,000 Previous record: $408,000
Lucien Freud, lot 53 £468,000 Previous record: £364,500

- The previous record for a work by Francis Bacon was Version No. 2 of lying figure with hypodermic syringe, 1968 sold at Sotheby’s New York in November 2006 for $15,024,000.

- The current record price for a post-war work of art is $27,120,000 / £14,373,600 / €21,153,600 realised by Untitled XXV, 1977 by Willem de Kooning at Christie’s New York sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art on 15 November 2006 in New York.