Sotheby's and Christie's London Auctions: Mixed Results with Hockney Leading

Sotheby's London auction on March 2019 was subdued, with no works exceeding £10 million and total sales around £93 million, down from the previous year. Christie's fared better, achieving £79 million with a 93% sell-through rate, led by David Hockney's 'Pacific Coast Highway and Santa Monica' from the Barney Ebsworth collection, which sold for £37.6 million (including premium). The auction saw strong bidding from 26 countries and 70% of works were fresh to market. Notable records included Jordan Casteel's 'Patrick and Omari' at £299,000, Barry Flanagan's 'Nijinski Hare' at £1.45 million, and Jonathan Yeo's 'Claire's Room' at £125,000. At Sotheby's, top lots included Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Apex' at £8.2 million, Gerhard Richter's 'Abstraktes Bild' at £6.9 million, and Roy Lichtenstein's 'Vicky! I — I Thought I Heard Your Voice' at £5.8 million. Rebecca Warren set a record with 'Fascia III' at £450,000, and Toyin Ojih Odutola's 'Selective Histories' fetched £200,000. Christie's also held a design and photography auction that achieved £6.4 million with an 83% sell-through rate, setting records for El Lissitzky's 'Self-Portrait ('The Constructor')' at £947,000, Joris Laarman's 'Bone Chair' at £707,000 (a world record for design), and Ben Swildens' 'Cantilever Desk and Seat' at £347,000. The design market showed steady growth.