Christie's and Sotheby's 2017 Top Lots: Basquiat, van Gogh, and Klimt Lead Record Sales
In 2017, both Christie's and Sotheby's achieved impressive results, with Christie's experiencing a 30% increase and Sotheby's a 13% rise compared to the previous year. On November 15 in New York, Christie's made headlines by auctioning Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi for a staggering $450.3 million, establishing a new record; the buyer, Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud, plans to showcase the artwork at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, Sotheby's set a record for an American artist when Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled (1982) sold for $110.5 million in May, acquired by Yusaku Maezawa. Other significant sales included Vincent van Gogh's Laboureur dans un champ ($81.3 million), Fernand Léger's Contraste de formes ($70 million), and Andy Warhol's Sixty Last Suppers ($60.8 million).
Key facts
- Christie's 2017 sales up 30% vs 2016
- Sotheby's 2017 sales up 13% vs 2016
- Salvator Mundi sold for $450.3 million, auction record
- Basquiat Untitled (1982) sold for $110.5 million, record for American artist
- Van Gogh Laboureur dans un champ sold for $81.3 million
- Léger Contraste de formes sold for $70 million, artist record
- Klimt Bauerngarten sold for $59.3 million at Sotheby's London
- Brancusi La muse endormie sold for $57.3 million, artist record
Entities
Artists
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Vincent van Gogh
- Fernand Léger
- Andy Warhol
- Gustav Klimt
- Constantin Brancusi
- Cy Twombly
- Francis Bacon
- Pablo Picasso
- Amedeo Modigliani
- Alberto Giacometti
- Edvard Munch
- Claude Monet
- Zhang Daqian
- Edouard Vuillard
- Kerry James Marshall
- Marc Chagall
- Georgia O'Keeffe
- Vilhelm Hammershøi
- Laura Owens
- Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
- Roy Lichtenstein
- Alberto Burri
- Jean Dubuffet
- Jeff Koons
- Peter Doig
- Franz Kline
- Yoko Ono
- Ludovica Capobianco
Institutions
- Christie's
- Sotheby's
- National Gallery of London
- Louvre Abu Dhabi
- Start Today
- Zozotown
- Forbes
- New York Times
- Intesa Sanpaolo
- Artribune
- Phillips
- Whitney Museum
- New Museum
Locations
- New York
- United States
- London
- United Kingdom
- Vienna
- Austria
- Chiba
- Japan
- Paris
- France
- Saint-Rémy
- Texas
- Saudi Arabia
- Abu Dhabi
- United Arab Emirates
- China
- Middle East
- 20 Rockefeller Plaza
- 1334 York Avenue
- 450 Park Avenue