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Sotheby's auction smashes art record
Louise Jury and Mark Blunden28 Feb 2008
Sotheby's was today celebrating a record-breaking auction which saw artwork from Francis Bacon to Gilbert and George total more than £95 million.
The sale was the highest in Europe for contemporary art, helped by £636,500 for a Gilbert & George piece - the most ever paid for their work.
Star attractions included Andy Warhol's Three Self Portraits, a trio of canvases in the colours of the Stars and Stripes flag, which sold for £11,444,500.
But the Francis Bacon masterpiece Study Of Nude With Figure In A Mirror, was sold to a European buyer for £19,956,500 - more than £5 million short of some estimates.
Francis Outred, of Sotheby's, said there was "frenetic bidding" as dealers sought to secure some of the world's most sought-after art.
The early Gilbert & George piece, Bad Thoughts No. 2, is a huge photograph from the Seventies showing the pair drinking in their home, off Brick Lane.
The lot smashed through its estimate of less than £500,000 and beat their record set last year when Red Morning (Hate) sold for just over £490,000. The identity of the buyer was not released.
Mr Outred said: "This piece is one of their great masterpieces. Gilbert and George are very important artists in the history of post-war art but they are undervalued. Following on from their show at the Tate, it will only be a matter of time before that is corrected and my feeling is this photograph will change things."
Bad Thoughts No. 2 shows the artists quietly drinking London gin at their home in Fournier Street in a composition that echoes the form of the Union flag. A second Gilbert and George piece, Yellow God, easily beat its £200,000 estimate.
Bacon's nude study, a rare full-length portrait, was bought by a European collector. A smaller Bacon portrait sold for £2,036,500.
Warhol's triptych was completed by the New York artist in 1986, a year before his death. It went to an anonymous buyer. Other Warhols included a portrait of Jackie Onassis.
Jeff Koons's sculpture Kiepenkerl, estimated at up to £2.5 million, fetched £3,156,500 including buyer's premium.
Mr Outred said: "We are absolutely thrilled with tonight's total - the highest ever for a sale of contemporary art in Europe."
The sale comes at the end of a month of record-breaking auctions in London showing unshakeable belief in the art world amid turmoil in the world's financial markets.
