Women Artists Support Sotheby’s London Evening Sale to Bring in £62.5m
On Tuesday evening, collectors’ eyes were on works by women artists, who managed to realise a third of value achieved despite representing a smaller portion of lots. Save to My Ocula
Women artists brought a third of the value realised at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary sale despite representing only 13.5 percent of the lots, injecting a dose of optimism into an otherwise slow season.
Christie’s once more opted out from an evening sale, but summer auctions in London got going with Sotheby’s Tuesday evening sale bringing in £62.5 million (all figures with fees).
The 48 lots had a solid 83 percent sell-through rate, with four lots withdrawn but the tally still edging above total estimates.
The evening’s top lots—Tamara de Lempicka’s 1927 La Belle Rafaëla and Picasso’s Nu assis dans un fauteuil (1964)—sold within estimates for £7.4 and £7.1 million, respectively.
Jenny Saville’s imposing 1994 nude, Juncture—the third highest-valued lot of the evening—sold just above estimate for £5.4 million, while Mirror, a two-metre-wide, 2011 charcoal on paper by the artist achieved £2.1 million—over double its estimate of £800,000.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s works on paper continued the trend, with both drawings selling toward their high estimates, reinforcing market appreciation for the medium among top-tier artists. Untitled (Indian Head) from 1981 sold for £6.6 million, while Untitled (NY CZAR) from 1988 sold for £736,600.
Elizabeth Peyton’s 1996 Oasis portrait Liam & Noel sold toward its high estimate for £1.9 million, as did Agnes Martin’s 1982 grid painting Untitled I for £1 million.
Meanwhile, British constructivist artist Marlow Moss set a new record, with the 1944 grid painting White, Black, Blue and Red doubling its estimate at £609,600.
Bidders vied for Japanese painter Yu Nishimura’s 2023 portrait through the snow, which tripled its high estimate, hammering at £292,100.
Sotheby’s launched the evening with the David Zwirner-backed rising artist’s work, followed by London-based painter Joseph Yaeger’s 2022 Loyalty to the nightmare chosen, of a hand pulling a snake from a jar, which sold for over twice its estimate for £101,600.
The evening’s top ten lots included Claude Monet’s Aux Petites-Dalles (£5.6 million), Roy Lichtenstein‘s Purist Still Life with Pitcher (£3.2 million), Henri Matisse’s Femme à l’ombrelle verte (£2.5 million), and David Hockney’s Two Sunflowers Laying on a Table (£2.5 million).
Six works from the collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein collectively brought in nearly £6 million, echoing strong interest from New York last month. —[O]
Main image: Sotheby's Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction, June 2025. Courtesy Sotheby's.
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