Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (768-4), 1992, oil on canvas, 200 by 160cm. made £4,857,250. (Click on image to enlarge).
The consolidated total for Sotheby’s contemporary art auction February series amounted to £66,074,225 against a combined pre-sale estimate of £46,942,600-65,621,100. The February 16 day auction brought in £15,385,775, the sale on the previous evening made £50,688,450. Gerhard Richter’s oil on canvas Abstraktes Bild signed, dated 1992 and numbered 768-4 on the reverse, was the top lot of the series. It made £4,857,250.
Commenting on the results, Olivia Thornton, Sotheby’s deputy director and head of the Contemporary Art day auction, said: “We are extremely pleased with the results achieved for today’s sale which brought a total comfortably within pre-sale expectations of £12.4-17.5 million. Following on from our evening auction last night, Gerhard Richter and Jean-Michel Basquiat dominated the sale once again, demonstrating the unabated demand for their work.”
See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 15, 2012.