Brighter Skies in Uncertain Times at London’s Spring Auctions

Spotlight Paddles Up: Five Prized Paintings at London’s Spring Sales Rory Mitchell

A sunny start to spring in the U.K. capital welcomed this season’s auctions. Wednesday evening saw the Sotheby’s saleroom completely packed, as eager spectators awaited an array of buzzy lots, including Crude Oil (Vettriano) (2005), a hand-painted Banksy canvas.

However, unlike previous Banksy sales, there was little in the way of theatrics, with the painting leaving the room in one piece after selling for £4.2 million (with fees) to an online bidder, exceeding its low estimate of £3 million (excluding fees). That figure still pales in comparison to results for similar works by the artist sold in recent years like Sunflowers from Petrol Station (2005) at £10.7 million and Show me the Monet (2005) at £7.5 million, including fees.

Ocula Advisory‘s top pick, Cosmic Eyes (in the Milky Lake) (2005) by Yoshitomo Nara, brought the energy back up. After ten minutes of bidding, albeit extended with much gesticulating by auctioneer Oliver Barker, the painting went to Alex Branczik’s phone bidder for £9 million (with fees), the highest price of both auctions’ contemporary offerings.

The night’s highlight was a six-way bidding war for Lisa Brice‘s After Embah (2018), with a comparable work last setting the artist’s record at 3.17 million USD in 2021. As attendees craned their necks to make out an unfamiliar in-room bidder, the hammer ultimately came down for Lisa Dennison’s buyer, marking a new record for Brice at £5.4 million (with fees).

Another record had hoped to be set for up-and-comer Joseph Yaeger, but Silent Treatment (2023) was withdrawn beforehand despite its original placement as the sale opener.

Christie’s sale on Thursday had a stronger start for emerging painters. Boding well for the less predictable ultra-contemporary market, Danielle Mckinney‘s Other Worldly (2021) reached a new record of £264,600 (with fees) for the artist, and other works by stateside painters like Justin Caguait, Sanya Kantarovsky, and Emmi Whitehorse achieved prices well above estimates. For all but Kantarovsky, these works were the artists’ U.K. auction debut, and a successful one at that.

Conversely, it was the works by reliable, blue-chip artists that yielded more middling results. The Jenny Saville hammered below its estimate but with fees landed in the middle at £982,800, as did the David Hockney at £819,000. The Bridget Riley also made its low estimate at £1.3 million when bundling in fees, while works by Gerhard Richter, Cecily Brown, Antony Gormley, and a Warhol-Basquiat-Clemente collaboration, again when bundling in fees all made varying success within their estimates. The highlight lot, a Francis Bacon portrait, sold for £6.6 million including fees, while the Wassily Kandinsky realised £2.2 million (with fees), surpassing its £1 million (without fees) high estimate. There was surprise success for a Michael Andrews canvas, which doubled the British painter’s auction record, realising £6 million (with fees).

Christie’s was still able to bring in more than £82 million with fees on 51 lots, and Sotheby’s achieved £62.5 million with fees on 38 lots. It was the first major London auction since Sotheby’s reversed its controversial premium policy in December.

The most revealing aspects of the sales, however, may not be the final prices but the bids proceeding. Barker at Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctioneers Adrien Meyer and Yü-Ge Wang all surprised the room by permitting bids outside of the rigid price increments, signalling the auction houses were ready to break their own rules for slightly higher sums in a tricky market.

Barker gave in at the Nara painting, taking increases by only £50,000 when bids were well into the millions. At Christie’s, the unusual bidding figures became so apparent that by the final lots, Wang joked to the room ‘Who needs increments?’, later declaring with tongue in cheek, ‘I take everything tonight!’ —[O]

Main image: Banksy, Crude Oil (Vettriano) (2005). Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction, London (4 March 2025). Courtesy Sotheby's. Photo: Rayan Bamhayan.