Auction Analysis: Christie's London

Modern & Impressionist / Surrealist Art Evening Sale  | February 27, 2018

Slow and very selective bidding (with active Asian bidders via the Christie's Asia Specialists).

Very low sell-through rate of only 76% of the lots. 

Several lots exceeded the expectations, but most of the lots just sell in the region of their  low estimate.

The Top Lot, Picasso's 'Mousquetaire', barely reached its low estimate.

This bidding pattern reflects through the whole sale: the majority of lots hammers down only just within their estimates.

The lots in the Modern & Impressionist Sale did slightly better than in the Surrealist sale.

What sells then? This was not an evening for the bold and obvious, as the underwhelming performance of the top Picasso and of another top lot, the Monet Giverny landscape, showed (which hammered down at GBP 6.5million,  just below its low estimate of GBP 7million). 

But it was an evening for the smaller, special lots: the little Kandinsky landscape well exceeded its estimate; the Picasso from the Tapiés collection found bidders fighting over it; Kokoschka's 'Katze' soared past its high estimate and Kupka attracted a lot of interest.

WHO BOUGHT WHAT

- Harry Smith of Advisory Firm Gurr Johns seems on a buying spree for Picasso. He is the winning bidder on all major Picasso lots of the evening, actively bidding from the room.

- Bidding in the room: Beaumont Nathan team, Acquavella, Thomas Seydoux. And several asian bidders with Sotheby's specialists on the phone.

Let's take a look now at the Top Lots and at what didn't sell:

MORE TOP PRICES

WITHDRAWN FROM THE SALE

UNSOLD TOP LOTS

OTHER NOTABLE LOTS

WORST PERFORMANCE

Christie's Christies Modern Impressionist Surrealist Sale Auction Evening Sale London March February 2018 Picasso Monet Magritte Degas Picabia Kupka Kandinsky Ernst Delvaux Matisse Derain van Dongen