Bacon, Miró and Basquiat Works Star in Christie’s Autumn Sales

A Hong Kong evening auction headlined by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Yayoi Kusama and a single-owner sale estimated to be worth more than £120 million are among the highlights of Christie’s newly-announced autumn sales.

Around 200 artworks amassed by Peter Simon, founder of the Monsoon and Accessorize fashion chains and estimated at between £87 million and £127 million, will be sold across three auctions in London between 14 and 20 October, alongside Frieze week. According to the auction house, the sale will offer the highest value single-owner collection ever to come under the hammer at its King Street headquarters—the latest in a string of similar sales, including Sotheby’s record-breaking Masterpieces from The Lewis Collection.

Works from Francis Bacon, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian are among the pieces on offer in a collection that spans European Modernism, op art and abstract expressionism and reflects Simon’s interest in colour. Representing Modernism, Bacon’s Figure in Movement (1978) has an estimate of between £14 million and £18 million, while Ben Nicholson’s hand-carved 1934 (relief) (1934) is estimated at £1 million–£2 million. 

Meanwhile, Mondrian’s minimalist Composition A, with Double Line and Yellow (1935) has an estimate of £8 million–£12 million, and Miró’s Peinture (Les amants—Adam et Eve) (1925) is estimated at £7 million–£10 million. More than a quarter of a century since it was last seen in a public exhibition, Picasso’s Crâne, lampe, poireaux, pichet (1945) is estimated at between £3 million and £5 million. 

Discussing the sales, the Monsoon and Accessorize boss said: “A critical part of the DNA of Monsoon is the colours and the prints… Having developed an eye for a good print I find it helpful to zero in on the best combination of colour and composition in a picture.” He added that he hopes the sale will free his mind and his wall to start a new direction.

Auction debut for Kusama work

In Hong Kong, Christie’s 20th/21st Century Autumn Sales on 29 and 30 September are headlined by two contemporary pieces. Basquiat’s 1984 work Ancient Scientist, featuring his trademark skull motifs, carries an estimate of HKD 56 million–HKD 76 million (£5.3 million–£7.2 million). Making its auction debut is Yayoi Kusama’s A Pumpkin (YHP) (2011), estimated at HKD 40 million–HKD 68 million (£3.8 million–£6.4 million).

The latter will be the first major sale of Kusama work since the artist’s death last month, and the first test of her posthumous market, which has traditionally been broad and often focused in Asia. Should A Pumpkin (YHP) reach its top estimate, it will become her third highest-value sale at auction. 

Modern Chinese works on sale include Zao Wou-Ki’s interpretation of the cosmos in traditional scripts, Voie Lactée—09.11.56 (1956), estimated at HKD 45 million–HKD 75 million (£4.2 million–£7 million). Making its auction debut is Automne (1998) by Chu Ten-Chun, from the artist’s Snow Landscape series, alongside Liu Ye’s Blue Sea (the 1998 realisation), one of the largest and rarest works from his naval oeuvre. 

Modernism and music

Reflecting global interest in Modernism, a private collection of around 600 paintings, prints and works on paper from the 19th and 20th centuries will be offered across five sales in London, Paris and New York City this autumn, plus more in 2027. 

Titled Radiant Modernism, the collection is estimated at around $40 million–$60 million and includes pieces by Josef Albers, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Odilon Redon and Lyonel Feininger. Artworks by Paul Signac appear in multiple mediums—Giovanna Bertazzoni, Europe chairman at Christie’s, told Artnet that the auction house hasn’t previously seen “such a complete group of Signacs…on the market together”.

Finally, headlining the auction house’s Fall Marquee Week in New York City in November is the collection of the late music executive Clive Davis, founder of Arista Records. The group—spanning Neo-Expressionism, Abstractionism and Pop Art—is expected to achieve more than $35 million and includes artworks by Jean Dubuffet, Alex Katz, David Hockney and Frank Stella. 

Christie’s New York’s chair of post-war and contemporary art, Sara Friedlander, said: “Clive Davis had the unique ability to recognise and cultivate great talent in its most nascent phase. This very discernment and prescience in his musical discoveries was equally applied in collecting fine art: the same instincts and intuition guided him to acquire numerous works by the most seminal visual artists of his generation.”