New records set for Post-War and Contemporary art

A Francis Bacon painting, Portrait of George Dyer Talking, sold for £42.2 million at Christie’s London on Thursday, making it the most expensive work of post-war and contemporary art sold at auction in Europe and setting a world record price for a single canvas by the artist at auction.

The painting was offered in the Post-War and Contemporary evening auction – a sale that amassed £124.2 million, selling 83% by lot.

Other top lots included Abstraktes Bild by Gerhard Richter, which fetched £19.6 million; Cracked Egg (Magenta) by Jeff Koons, which sold for £14 million (estimate £10 million – £15 million); and Black Hair by Domenico Gnoli, which soared past its estimate of £1.2 -1.8 million to fetch £7 million, a world record price for the artist at auction.

A further record was set for Bridget Riley, with Chant 2 fetching £2.8 million. Peter Doig’s Tour de Charve fetched £2.3 million, far exceeding its estimate of £900,000 to £1.2 million. Also surpassing its estimate was Untitled (Rome) by Cy Twombly, which was estimated to fetch £1.2 -1.6 million but achieved £2.6 million.