Francis Bacon’s Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus sold for $84.6 million at Sotheby’s live streamed global sale overnight. There was a ten minute bidding battle between an online bidder in Asia and a client bidding by phone with Gregoire Billault of Sotheby’s in New York. It went to the phone bidder for a price surpassing the $80 million high estimate.
The sale, which totalled $363.2 million, was conducted remotely by auctioneer Oliver Barker in London taking bids from phone banks in New York, Hong Kong and London and online bidders.
There were auction records for Mario Carreño, Vija Celmins, Leonor Fini, Helen Frankenthaler, Wifredo Lam, Alice Rahon, Remedios Varo, Matthew Wong and Jean-Michel Basquiat for a work on paper. The auctions offered a strong selection of works by women artists, with all 25 works offered by 16 artists selling for a total of $86.1 million, and setting five new world auction records.
