Francis Bacon, Study for a Portrait, 1953 (est. unpublished, realized $28.6 million), via Christies.com

Christie’s sale of Contemporary art on Tuesday night realized $127 million for 53 lots sold. The total, which fell just above the high estimate of $125 million once fees were added, is the highest for any sale at Christie’s in Europe since the boom of June 2008. The top lot was a Francis Bacon self portrait that shows a man sitting in a throne-like chair wearing a suit and glasses. The painting sold for $28.6 million against an unpublished estimate rumored to be about $17 million. A self portrait by the artist sold for $25 million at Christie’s spring sale in New York .

Andy Warhol, Mao, 1973 (est. $9.6-12.8 million, realized $11.1 million), via Christies.com

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Jean-Michel Basquiat, Self-Portrait, 1985 (est. $3.2-4.8 million), via Phillipsdepury.com

The summer sales continue in London this week as the major auction houses host their Contemporary art auctions. Phillips will offer 32-lots on Monday evening, followed by Christie’s 67-lot sale on Tuesday and capped with an 88-lot sale at Sotheby’s on Wednesday. The Phillips sale will take place at the company’s new exhibition space at Claridge’s London. Like the auction house’s move uptown to 450 Park Ave in New York last year, the new London location is closer than their Howick Place headquarters to competitors Sotheby’s and Christie’s. The night’s 32 lots are expected to fetch $16-23 million and are headlined by a Basquiat self portrait that is estimated to bring as much as $4.8 million.

Damien Hirst, Confession, 2008 (est. $958,000-1.3 million), via Phillipsdepury.com

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Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1990 (est. £5-7 million, realized £7.2 million ), via Sothebys.com

February’s Contemporary Art auctions began Tuesday night at Sotheby’s London. The auction house offered fifty-nine lots (a work by Anslem Kiefer was withdrawn) with a presale estimate of £30-43 million. The sale just beat its high estimate, raising £44.4 million with a 91.5% sell-through rate by lot and 95% by value. Sotheby’s noted that this is the strongest sell-through rate they’ve had in several seasons and that combined with the Contemporary offerings at the “Looking Closely” sale last week, the auction house has sold £88.2 million worth of Contemporary art in 2011 thusfar, making it the most successful Contemporary sales season at Sotheby’s London since July 2008.

Tobias Meyer standing in front of Andy Warhol‘s Marilyns at Sotheby’s London, via Art Observed

more images and story after the jump…

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Untitled, Maurizio Cattelan (2001) Estimate: $3–4 million Price Realized: $7.9 million

Last night, Sotheby’s confirmed the art market’s return to form as 50 of the 53 lots on offer sold at its Contemporary art sale.  Tallying $189,969,000 in sales, well over the house’s $162 million pre-sale estimate, 39 works fetched more than one million dollars, with two selling for more than $30 million, and seven making more than $5 million. Further to this, the sale achieved the two top lots achieved so far at New York’s Contemporary sales week, surpassing Christie’s sale of Jasper Johns Flag for $29 million on Tuesday night  – Andy Warhol’s Self-Portrait more than doubled its high estimate to sell for $32,562,500, and an Untitled Mark Rothko painting from 1961 soared over the high estimate to sell for $31,442,500.

Self Portrait, Andy Warhol (1986). Estimate: $10-15 million. Price Realized: $32,562,500

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Juan Muñoz’s Hanging Figure, part of the retrospective of his work now showing at Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Image courtesy of the Museum.

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia is hosting a retrospective of the works of Juan Muñoz.  The show is rotating between the Tate Modern, Guggenheim Bilbao, and Serralves Foundation and will leave its current home on August 31, 2009.  This the most complete retrospective of the artist’s work to date, even featuring works never before exhibited.  The retrospective spans sixteen years, since Muñoz’s first solo exhibition in 1984 to the last piece he finished before his death in 2001.  The retrospective  is organized and curated in collaboration with Tate Modern.

Related links:
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Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia – Exhibitions
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Juan Muñoz [artist page]

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Juan Muñoz, Conversation Piece, courtesy of the Museum.

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