Eli Broad Acquires Mark Bradford Record at Phillips Auction

Eli Broad, the billionaire philanthropist and art collector, has set a record by purchasing Mark Bradford's significant artwork "Helter Skelter I" at a Phillips auction, intended for The Broad museum in Los Angeles. This piece, created in 2007 for the New Museum's inaugural exhibition "Collage: The Unmonumental Picture," spans over 10 meters. Previously owned by former tennis player John McEnroe, it was auctioned with a guarantee and an estimated value of around £6,000,000. The final bid reached £8,671,500, establishing a new auction record for Bradford, which surpassed the earlier record set at Christie's just two days prior. Additionally, Phillips achieved its highest auction total of £98,025,250 for its March Post-War art sale in London, a significant increase from last spring's £14,660,000. The Broad, a 3,000-square-meter museum designed by Zaha Hadid and opened in 2015, features works from artists like Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama. Bradford, who represented the U.S. at the 2017 Venice Biennale, has seen a notable rise in his market value, particularly following a solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles, with another solo show set to launch on March 26, 2018, coinciding with the opening of Hauser & Wirth's new Hong Kong gallery during Art Basel Hong Kong.