Christie's London Auction Nets €32M, Picabia Drawing Sets Record at €4.1M

Christie's London kicked off Frieze Week with a fiery auction of the Leslie Waddington collection, netting over €32 million. The sale featured 40 works by 20th-century and contemporary masters, with 80% selling above estimate. Highlights included Jean Dubuffet's 'Visiteur au chapeau bleu' achieving €5.46 million, leading a group of seven Dubuffet works to €7.6 million. Francis Picabia's rare 1923 drawing 'Lampe' shattered its €900,000–€1.7 million estimate, selling for €4.149 million—tripling the previous record for a Picabia work on paper (Hera, 1929, €2 million). Other records included Michael Craig-Martin's 'Las Meninas I' at €170,000, Amedée Ozenfant's 'Verrerie' at €635,000, and Patrick Caulfield's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon Vues de Derrière' at €265,000. The Waddington collection, honoring the late dealer and early Frieze supporter, will see a second tranche auctioned in late November. Upcoming sales include Christie's Italian sale on Thursday and Sotheby's Italian sale on Friday, alongside Sotheby's Contemporary Evening Auction and Christie's Post War & Contemporary Day Auction.