Small Mirror by Sean Scully.
Small Mirror by the Irish artist Sean Scully sold for £91,250 at Christie’s post-war and contemporary day auction in London on June 28. An oil on canvas laid down on board it was painted in 1998 and measures just over 20″ x 16″. Christie’s day auction realised £15,463,725. The top lot was Andy Warhol’s Jackie 1964, which made £589,250. This followed on from the evening auction on June 27 which made £132,819,400, the highest total for an auction of Post War and Contemporary Art in Europe.
At Christie’s the evening and day sales combined realised a combined total of £148,283,725. At Sotheby’s the summer sales of contemporary art, including the Gunter Sachs Collection sold in May, made a combined total of £124.5 million.
Despite financial uncertainty buyer’s are still prepared to pay record breaking prices, but only for works of great quality and rarity. Uncertainty about the economic outlook is still hurting the market for lesser works.