David Hockney’s The Splash made £23.1 million in a sale of Contemporary Art that brought in £92.4 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight. This is the third highest price for the artist. Executed in 1966 the painting first appeared at auction in Sotheby’s London salesroom in 1973, and again in 2006 when it sold for £2.9 million – a record price for Hockney at the time. Nine of the top ten top prices for Hockney have been set in the past two years.
JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT’S Rubber sold for £7,487,600; FRANCIS BACON’S Turning Figure sold for £7,032,000; CHRISTOPHER WOOL’S Untitled achieved £6,156,809 and YVES KLEIN’S Anthropometry, (ANT 132) realised £6,177,750.
ADRIAN GHENIE’S The Arrival made £4,184,500 / $5,401,353. The top 11 prices for the artist have been set since 2016. WAYNE THIEBAUD’S Californian Fruit Stand made £1,815,000 and there was a new world record for A R Penck’s Welt des Adlers I (/World of the Eagle 1) when it sold for £531,000 BANKSY’S Vote to Love more than doubled its pre-sale estimate to £1,155,000.
