Christie's 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale Totals $146.9m

A work by Wassily Kandinsky, which had a guarantee, was the headline sale at Christie's '20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale' on October 14 in London.

• The sale totaled $146.9m (GBP111.1m), meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 39 works sold totaling $146.9m.
• Estimates totaled: $117.2m (low) and $170.7m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 76% of the original 51 lots announced.

The star lot was: Wassily Kandinsky, Das bunte Leben (La vie mélangée) (1907), which sold for $41.73m, 75% above its $23.84m low estimate. The work was backed by a guarantee. It has been traded 10 times in the past.

The outperformer sold for 284% above its low estimate. Gilbert and George, Dead Boards No 19 (1976), sold for $203,100 ($52,900 low estimate). The work was backed by a guarantee. It has been traded once in the past.

• 17 works, or 44%, sold above their high estimate.
• 17 works, or 44%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 5 works, or 13%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Guaranteed sales

Auction record

Igshaan Adams, The certainty of being a rose (ii) (2026), sold for $126,900 to beat the artist’s previous auction record by $26,100, a 25% rise.

14 works were backed by guarantees, including: Piet Mondrian, Composition III (Komposition No.XIII) (1920). It sold for $33.37m, 25% above its $26.49m low estimate. It has been traded 11 times in the past.

Works that did not sell

7 works were bought-in, including: Cy Twombly, Untitled (1971), estimated at $3.97m (low) to $6.62m (high). It has been traded 4 times in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

5 works were withdrawn before the sale, including: Anselm Kiefer, Paul Celan: we scooped the darkness empty, we found the word that brought summer: flower; (We scooped the darkness empty, we found the word that brought summer: flower) (2012), estimated at $1.06m (low) to $1.59m (high).

Terms and definitions

All results include the fees and premiums added to the price of a work of art when the auctioneer's hammer falls. Estimates, sale prices and totals are converted into US dollars. Sale prices are compared to the auction house’s low estimate, which do not include premiums.

Guarantees: Sometimes an auction house guarantees to pay a seller for a work, regardless of whether the bidding reaches the reserve price, a figure that is typically confidential.

Bought-in: If there are no bids for a work, or if bidding falls short of the reserve price, the lot is unsold or “bought-in”.

Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.

Premiums: Typically a sliding-scale of charges paid in addition to the hammer price by the buyer, plus any other fees.