It Wasn't "Bacon's Blessing" That Stole the Show at Christie's...

I went to Christie's auction of post-war and contemporary art today primarily to see the sale of Francis Bacon's Study from the Human Body, Man Turning on the Light. The Royal College of Art put the painting on the block to raise funds for a new campus, and with the market for Bacon being what it is these days — his work continues to fetch astonishing prices — Christie's had promoted the piece as a centerpiece of the sale and expected it to bring £7 million - £9 million. Turns out, it was a lackluster lot, eeking out a hammer price only £200,000 above its low estimate. It was the 11 contemporary Chinese works closing the sale that made eyes pop.

When the second of the Chinese lots — Zeng Fanzhi's Mask Series 1999 No. 5 — was up, a bidding war ensued, with one of Christie's salesmen taking bids from two telephones (one on each ear). With a bid at under £200,000, Larry Warsh — the son-in-law of Howard Farber, who sold works from his collection of contemporary Chinese art at Phillips last night — signaled that he'd pay £300,000, voluntarily bidding more than the customary increase. He made the same unusual move again two lots later in the sale, offering £300,000 for Liu Ye's The Happy Family when the bid was only at £ 95,000. Although Warsh successfully bid at Phillips last night, he didn't go home with any work today.

Even £300,000 was a bargain price for the pieces, according to Warsh, who likened the artists in the sale to China's Hockneys. "The world is just starting to understand the importance of this," he said. "It's not a fluke. It's not a bubble."

Mask Series eventually got £804,500 (including buyer's premium) against an estimate of £120,000 - £180,000 and The Happy Family, £569,300 against an estimate of £70,000 - £90,000. Another star lot was an untitled canvas by Fang Lijun. "I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve bidders," the auctioneer said before commencing with the sale of the piece, which was expected to go for £150,000 - £200,000 but brought £782,100.

While none of the Chinese pieces passed, some didn't fare as well as others. A piece by Wang Guangyi — who was a star at Phillips last night, fetching more than £2 million for Mao AO — brought a comparatively meager £192,500. Warsh said it was a weak piece. Same goes for Yue Minjun's Sunshine, which got £602,900 — the artist's Execution got £2,932,500 at Sotheby's on Friday night. Maybe, as many have been saying, collectors are smartening up and only paying top dollar for the best things.

The rest of the sale was a mixed bag. Bidding on market darling Damien Hirst's Wretched War didn't even reach the work's low estimate, with Hirst's dealer, Jay Jopling, getting it for a hammer price of £180,000. (No need to remind you that one of the rumors circulating after Hirst's diamond-studded skull sold to an investment group was, as reported by Carol Vogel in the New York Times, that the artist and his dealer were "trying to save face.") At one point, four lots in a row passed, eliciting some low murmurs from the jam-packed salesroom.

Prices for several lots, though, rose well above their estimates. Richard Prince's Wayward Nurse brought £1,028,500 against an estimate of £ 400,000 - £600,000; Olafur Eliasson's Fivefold Eye, expected to fetch £90,000 - £120,000, went to Jay Jopling (presumably on behalf of a client, as he was on his cell during the bidding) for £748,500; and an untitled piece by Anselm Reyle got £311,700 against an estimate of £18,000 - £25,000.

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