London Summer Sales Are Down 20% But Not Out

Phillips’ summer auction in London bucked the market trend in a week that is a shadow of its former self. The three major auction houses' sales totaled $133m, down 20% on comparable sales in the city last June.

The downward trend appears inexorable. According to HENI News data, since 2022 there has been a 70% fall in the value of art sold in London shortly after the Swiss edition of Art Basel, when many VIP collectors are still in Europe. This year's results were down by more than $350m compared to four years ago.

This year, Sotheby’s and Phillips kept faith with London with sales totaling $103m and $17m respectively this week. Christie’s, however, sold less than $13m of Modern and contemporary art. To put that in context, it is less than a painting by Gerhard Richter that Christie’s sold in its marquee New York auctions in May: the early seascape Korsika (Schiff) went for $15.2m.

This week’s high points included the sale of unconventional female nudes by Tamara de Lempicka and Jenny Saville for $10.5m and $7.3m respectively. Both were backed by guarantees and sold with little fanfare, however.

A monumental drawing by Saville, Mirror, did receive applause when it sold at Sotheby's for nearly $2.9m, as did a Marlow Moss abstract. Her 1944 work White, Black, Blue and Red sold for $828,100, more than three times the low estimate and a new auction record for the pioneering female artist.

By contrast, the top lot during Christie’s low-key week was the sale of a moody portrait by Victor Man for just short of $1m, albeit more than twice its low estimate.

Phillips rounded off the week with a strong sale. A combined day and evening sale totaled $17.5m, comfortably exceeding its low estimate of $13.5m, and $1m more than the auction house achieved in June 2024.

Its sale was led by a Basquait, which had a guarantee and sold for $6.7m but that was overshadowed by a 32-strong group of works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude from a single collector. The works totaled more than $3m, three times their low estimate. They included a preparatory sketch for Surrounded Islands (Project for Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida) (1982), which sold for $243,900, three times its low estimate.

Some big-ticket works will have been sold privately, and others consigned to the New York salerooms. While London’s summer sales have lost some of their prestige the city still has pulling power.

Ahead of the auction week, Sotheby’s announced that in September it is due to sell the blue-chip collection of Pauline Karpidas, the wife of a Greek shipping magnate, acquired to beautify her London home. It has a $81m estimate. In 2023, art from her Hydra home sold at Sotheby’s Paris for an impressive $38m.