2018 Auction Records: Hockney, Saville, Marshall, and Major Collections

In 2018, David Hockney became the most expensive living artist when his 1972 painting 'Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)' sold for $90.3 million at Christie's New York Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in November, surpassing Jeff Koons' $58.4 million record from 2013. Jenny Saville's 'Propped' (1992) sold for £9.5 million at Sotheby's London in October, setting a record for a living female artist, overshadowed by Banksy's self-destructing 'Girl with Balloon'. Kerry James Marshall's 'Past Times' (1997) achieved $21 million at Sotheby's New York in May, a record for a living African American artist, purchased by Sean Combs (Puff Daddy). Major private collections sold: the Rockefeller Collection at Christie's New York totaled $832.6 million, the highest for a single collection; the David Teiger Collection at Sotheby's exceeded $100 million; and the Barney A. Ebsworth Collection of American Modernism at Christie's New York reached over $317 million, including works by Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Jackson Pollock. The National Gallery in London acquired Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria' (1615–17) for £3.6 million in July, raising her international profile amid #MeToo, though provenance questions later emerged regarding possible Nazi looting.