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There was a new world record for Henry Moore at Christie’s London 20/21 evening sale when King and Queen sold for £26,345,000. This was 76% above the high estimate. The result came after a bidding battle that went on for almost eight minutes with six bidders in the room. It is the highest selling lot of the London season. The sale generated a total of £114,175,900 a 39% increase on the total achieved last year, with 92% of lots sold by lot and 98% by value. Three evening sales brought in £197,472,600, up 52% on last year.

The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, celebrating its 25^th edition this season was 100% sold by lot and value and generated a total of £42,978,950. It set two significant world auction records: Dorothea Tanning’s Children’s Games (1942) realised £4,686,000, while Toyen’s Le devenir de la liberté (1946) achieved £3,710,000.

Modern Visionaries – The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection made £40,317,750, selling 97% by lot and 94% by value. The three evening sales generated £197,472,600.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for February 13, 2026)

Henry Moore’s seminal work King and Queen will be a highlight at Christie’s 20^th/21^st Century: London evening sale on March 5.  It has been in the same British collection for the past 70 years. Conceived in 1952–53, the sculpture was first cast in an edition of four plus an artist’s cast. This is the only remaining example still in private hands; all other casts are held in major public collections, including the Moa Museum of Art, Atami; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; the Middelheim Museum, Antwerp; and the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena. Two subsequent casts were produced specifically for the Tate Collection (1957) and The Henry Moore Foundation (1985). The estimate is £10 million – £15 million.

Henry Moore’s Square Form, a rare surreal sculpture from 1936, is among the highlights at Christie’s Modern British Art evening sale in London on January 21. It is estimated at £3-5 million. The auction will launch the 20th century series at Christie’s which includes a day sale and works from the collection of Allen and Beryl Freer on January 22 and 23. The Mill, Pendlebury, a recently discovered painting by L.S. Lowry bought directly from the artist is estimated at £700,000-1,000,000. The evening auction will feature early Modernist paintings by Ben Nicholson, John Piper, and Richard Lin alongside the Vorticists David Bomberg, William Roberts and Lawrence Atkinson. Two paintings by Howard Hodgkin from The Jeremy Lancaster Collection continue to illustrate the collector’s career-long support for the artist.

Henry Moore – Festival. The 1951 work was commissioned for the Festival of Britain.

Christie’s Defining British Art: Evening Sale, curated as part of the celebrations of the 250^th anniversary of the company, was led by an iconic sculpture by Henry Moore in London tonight. His Reclining Figure, Festival sold for a record £24.7 million in a sale that brought in £99,479,500. There were records for Frank Auerbach, Lynn Chadwick, Frederick Lord Leighton, Henry Moore, Samuel John Peploe, Bridget Riley, David Roberts and Thomas Daneill. Registered bidders from 32 countries from across four continents demonstrated continuing global demand. The sale was 87% sold by lot and 83% sold by value.  The diverse works of art represented provided a journey through British art over four centuries. Version No. 2 of Lying Figure with Hypodermic Syringe by Francis Bacon made £20.2 million.

Ever since James Christie first opened his doors in 1766 the company has championed art and artists and artists like Reynolds and Gainsborough were regular visitors to the rooms in early years.

 “We saw global participation tonight with strong bidding from the Americas and are very pleased with establishing so many artist world records in this sale that celebrated British art and our long relationship with artists and collectors,” said Jussi Pylkkänen, Global President and lead auctioneer. “We thank all our clients, vendors and buyers, past, present or future, for entrusting us now and over the centuries with the safe passage of precious and historic objects – from one country to another, and from one generation to its successor.”

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for June 2 and June 9, 2016)

Henry Moore – Reclining Figure: Festival © Susan Young

Henry Moore’s ground-breaking 1951 modernist sculpture Reclining Figure: Festival will lead the sculpture section of Christie’s 250^th  anniversary auction, Defining British Art, in London on June 30.  Commissioned for the Festival of Britain in 1951 it was a focal point on the newly built South Bank. This was Moore’s first large reclining figure to be cast in bronze. The artist said it was the first sculpture in which he succeeded in making form and space sculpturally inseparable. The work is now estimated at £15-20 million. It will be offered alongside further large-scale major British sculptures by Dame Barbara Hepworth, Sea Form (Atlantic), 1964 (£3-5 million) and Lynn Chadwick, Back to Venice, 1988 from the artist’s estate (£1.4-1.8 million).

Cyanne Chutkow, Deputy Chairman, Impressionist & Modern Art, Christie’s said: “Reclining Figure: Festival is one of the great masterpieces of Moore’s oeuvre and is arguably his most masterful and elegant sculptural synthesis of form and space. Privately held in an American collection for almost a half century, this work is a testament to the owners’ discerning and sophisticated artistic sensibility.”

UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR A RECORD £24.7 MILLION