David Hockney pool painting soars to $90m, record for living artist
Christie's did not identify the seller or the successful bidder
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An iconic 1972 painting by British artist David Hockney soared to $90.3 million at Christie s on Thursday (November 15), smashing the record for the highest price ever paid at auction for a work by a living artist.
With Christie s commission, "Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)," surpassed the auction house s pre-sale estimate of about $80 million, following a bidding war between two determined would-be buyers once the work hit $70 million.
The previous record for a work by a living artist was held by Jeff Koons sculpture "Balloon Dog," which sold for $58.4 million in 2013. Hockney s previous auction record was $28.4 million.
The 1972 work by the 81-year-old British artist, one of Hockney s most famous paintings which depicts a man in a pink jacket looking down on another figure swimming underwater in a pool, was reported to have been consigned by British billionaire currency trader Joe Lewis.
Christie s did not identify the seller or the successful bidder, who was bidding via telephone during a nearly 10-minute contest for the work.
Morgan Long, senior director of art investment house Fine Art Group, hailed "a great result for Christie s," saying it achieved its predicted $80 million price "through a combination of clever marketing and what looked like sheer determination on the part of (a) phone client to take the painting home."
In a virtually unprecedented move for such a valuable painting, "Portrait of an Artist," which was on exhibition at Tate Britain, the Pompidou Centre and New York s Metropolitan Museum of Art over the past two years, was sold with no reserve, the minimum price at which the consignor agrees to sell a piece.
The price went far to boost the success of Christie s post-war and contemporary art auction, which took in a total of $357.6 million, roughly the middle of its expected range, with 41 of the 48 lots on offer finding buyers.
Other sale highlights included Francis Bacon s "Study of Henrietta Moraes Laughing," which sold for $21.7 million against a pre-sale estimate of $14 million to $18 million, and Alexander Calder s "21 Feuilles Blanches," which more than doubled its high estimate, selling for just under $18 million.
