This evening’s sale at Christies in London brought a total of $175 million. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the market for art seems only to strengthen as other financial instruments get weaker.
Unfortunately, whatever serious critics and I might say, Jeff Koons continues to prosper mightily. His absurdly juvenile “Balloon Flower (Magenta)” was sold for $25.6 million, which is I believe a record for the artist. Christies calls it a “masterpiece”!
The fact that one of Damien Hirst’s pieces failed to meet its over-extended minimum supplies only partial consolation.
On the other hand Francis Bacon’s “3 Studies For A Self-Portrait” from 1975, sold for a very impressive $34.3 million. Lucian Freud’s “Naked Portrait With Reflection” was perhaps a little disappointing at $23.4 million (the estimate was up to $30m).
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Jak's View of Vancouver v.3 