{"id":318990,"date":"2026-03-08T09:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/318990\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T09:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:56:24","slug":"henry-moore-and-dorothea-tanning-set-records-at-christies-triple-header-sale-in-london-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/318990\/","title":{"rendered":"Henry Moore and Dorothea Tanning set records at Christie’s triple-header sale in London – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christie\u2019s London brought in \u00a3197.4m (with fees) across three evening sales on Thursday, marking a 52% increase year on year on the equivalent auctions<\/a> last season. Bidding proved robust throughout the nearly four-hour marathon, with a 96% sell-through rate by lot and 98% by value. Artist records were achieved for Dorothea Tanning, Henry Moore and Toyen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe standout performers of the night were the works that were fresh to market. People are really pursuing quality,\u201d Katharine Arnold, Christie\u2019s vice chairman of 20th and 21st Century sales, told The Art Newspaper after the sale. \u201cIn a world that remains uncertain, quality is what prevails, and that’s really the key ambition for us as we put together sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following a respectable showing<\/a> the previous evening at rival house Sotheby\u2019s Modern and Contemporary evening sale, Christie\u2019s triple bill began with the 20th and 21st Century evening sale.<\/p>\n

Results were healthy but measured, with many works hammering around the low end of their estimates. Even so, there were moments of excitement. A prolonged bidding battle for Henry Moore\u2019s King and Queen (1952-53) sculpture ended at \u00a322.5m (\u00a326.3m with fees), well above its \u00a310m to \u00a315m estimate, prompting an eruption of applause in the room. The sculpture is the last cast from the series still in private hands; the others reside in institutional collections including Tate. The result set a new auction record for the British sculptor and was the top lot of both the evening and the London season so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result that it achieved was the right result. It was a masterpiece, and we will not see another sculpture of that type for the foreseeable future\u2014certainly not a King and Queen,\u201d Arnold said.<\/p>\n

Other strong results included Sonia Delaunay\u2019s Rhythme couleur (1946), which sold for \u00a31.45m (\u00a31.8m with fees) against a \u00a31m to \u00a31.5m estimate, and Rose Wylie\u2019s Tube Girl (2016), which fetched \u00a3120,000 (\u00a3152,400 with fees), nearly doubling the high end of its \u00a350,000 to \u00a370,000 estimate. The sale of the Wylie work coincides with the artist\u2019s major exhibition<\/a> at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe very much position our sales within the London ecosystem and the art world, in terms of exhibitions and the broader art context,\u201d said Keith Gill, vice chairman of 20th and 21st Century sales. \u201cWe are very careful to curate our sales to be resonating with today’s audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lot carrying the highest estimate was Wassily Kandinsky\u2019s Le rond rouge (1939), which hammered at the low end of its \u00a310.5m to \u00a315.5m estimate (\u00a312.5m with fees). Three works near the end of the sale\u2014by Georg Baselitz, Gerald Laing and Marc Chagall\u2014failed to sell, and none returned for renewed bidding at the close.<\/p>\n

Four works were withdrawn shortly before the auction began: a 1931 painting by Bridget Riley estimated at \u00a33.5m to \u00a35.5m; Cecily Brown\u2019s Shadow Burn (2005\u201306) with a \u00a33m to \u00a35m estimate; Lucian Freud\u2019s Pluto\u2019s Grave (2003) estimated at \u00a32m to \u00a33m; and Frank Auerbach\u2019s To The Studios IV (1985), also estimated at \u00a32m to \u00a33m. Together, the works carried a combined estimate of \u00a310.5m to \u00a316.5m.<\/p>\n

The 20th and 21st Century evening sale totalled \u00a393.7m (\u00a3114m with fees), comfortably within its pre-sale estimate range of \u00a377.2m to \u00a3115.1m and achieving a 92% sell-through rate by lot.<\/p>\n

Surrealism riding a high<\/p>\n

Next came the Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, marking the 25th anniversary of Christie\u2019s dedicated Surrealism auction in London. Long a market favourite, the category delivered \u00a334.6m (nearly \u00a343m with fees), at the high end of its \u00a322.9m to \u00a335.2m estimate.<\/p>\n

The sale opened strongly when Joan Mir\u00f3\u2019s Peinture (1949) hammered at \u00a33.9m, more than doubling the low estimate of \u00a31.5m to \u00a32.5m amid energetic bidding. Pablo Picasso\u2019s Figure (1929) fetched \u00a32.1m (\u00a32.6m with fees) against a \u00a3600,000\u2013\u00a3800,000 estimate. The most valuable lot was Ren\u00e9 Magritte\u2019s Les gr\u00e2ces naturelles<\/a> (around 1961), which hammered at \u00a37m (\u00a38.5m with fees).<\/p>\n

Two artist records were set during the sale. The first came for Dorothea Tanning\u2019s small but electrifying painting Children\u2019s Games (1942), depicting two young girls ripping away wallpaper to reveal patches of flesh beneath. The work had remained in the same collection for more than four decades and had been on long-term loan to the Dallas Museum of Art since 2012. After nearly ten minutes of bidding, it hammered at \u00a33.8m (\u00a34.6m with fees), far exceeding its \u00a31m to \u00a32m estimate. Toyen\u2019s Le devenir de la libert\u00e9 (1946) also set a new record, selling for \u00a33m (\u00a33.7m with fees).<\/p>\n

Only one lot was withdrawn from the sale: Magritte\u2019s Le choeur des sphinges (1964), which had carried a \u00a35m to \u00a38m estimate.<\/p>\n

Collections remain key <\/p>\n

The evening concluded with a single-owner sale, Modern Visionaries: The Roger and Josette Vanthournout Collection. The Belgian couple spent six decades assembling the wide-ranging collection, which was displayed in their Flanders home. Roger Vanthournout, trained as an interior designer, manufactured furniture.<\/p>\n

The collection brought in \u00a332.3m (\u00a340.3m with fees), within its \u00a328m to \u00a343m estimate.<\/p>\n

The top lot was Pablo Picasso\u2019s Nu debout et femmes assises (1939), which sold for \u00a35.7m (\u00a37m with fees) against a \u00a33m to \u00a35m estimate. Jacques Lipchitz\u2019s Jeune fille \u00e0 la tresse (1914) hammered at \u00a31.6m (\u00a32m with fees)\u2014triple its high estimate including premium.<\/p>\n

No lots were withdrawn from the collection sale, though one failed to sell: Magritte\u2019s La plaine de l’air (1964) stalled at \u00a32.1m. Max Ernst\u2019s Seestuck (1921) initially passed at \u00a3900,000 against a \u00a31.5m to \u00a32.5m estimate, but when the auctioneer returned to the work at the end of the sale it eventually hammered at \u00a31m (\u00a31.2m with fees).<\/p>\n

Afterwards, Gill said the Vanthournout collection had helped drive the sharp increase in totals compared with last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a collection\u2014which was very much the kind of cornerstone of the season\u2014very much goes towards our totals,\u201d Gill said. \u201cThe presence of the collection, then just really just strong performance across the board, across some of the leading artists of the 20th century.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christie\u2019s London brought in \u00a3197.4m (with fees) across three evening sales on Thursday, marking a 52% increase year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318991,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[16823,442,498,499,500,32000,15129,501,97411,156,30522,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-318990","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-art-market","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-arts-and-design","11":"tag-artsanddesign","12":"tag-artsdesign","13":"tag-auctions","14":"tag-christies","15":"tag-design","16":"tag-dorothea-tanning","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-henry-moore","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}