Gerhard Richter (B. 1932)
Vierwaldstätter See (In the region of £10 million). Courtesy, Christie’s Images Ltd., 2015. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £15,762,500
The February London art sale season is fast approaching and it is looking good. At Christie’s the pre-sale low estimate for a sale of 64 lots at the Post War and Contemporary Art evening sale on February 11 is £95 million. This is the second highest total for any such sale ever in Europe. Gerhard Richter’s photo-painting Vierwaldstätter See (Lake Lucerne), 1969, will lead the sale. It has been in the same private collection since 1973.
Following the world record price of $69.6 million achieved for Cy Twombly’s Untitled in November, the sale includes Untitled (New York City), 1970, a large-scale work from the same series of ‘blackboard’ paintings. The record Post War and Contemporary Art Evening auction in Europe was held by Christie’s in June 2012, and realised £132 million against a low pre-sale estimate of £102 million. Last year’s equivalent February season at Christies broke the record for any Post War and Contemporary Art week in Europe when it realised £176 million, including the benchmark sale of Arte Povera and Post-War Italian art, Eyes Wide Open: an Italian Vision, which brought in £38 million.