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This evening, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London realised the solid total of £41,091,800 / $61,806,176 / €50,111,626, within pre-sale expectations (est. £38.3–52.8 million). This sum represents the third highest total for a Summer Sale of Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s London and is a 60% increase on the equivalent sale last year.

The sale established sell-through rates of 83% by lot and 87.3% by value, and saw 45.4% of the sold lots achieve prices in excess of their pre-sale high estimates. Nine works sold for over £1 million and 16 works for over $1 million.

Highlights of tonight’s sale:

• Yves Klein’s RE 49, Relief Eponge Bleu, was tonight’s top-selling lot and made £6.2 million, near its pre-sale high estimate.
• British Art from a Distinguished Private Collection totalled £4.3 million, towards the upper end of pre-sale expectations. The top-selling work of the group was Frank Auerbach’s Mornington Crescent – Summer Morning, which brought £2.3 million, above the high estimate.
• Bharti Kher’s celebrated sculpture The Skin Speaks a Language not its Own sold for £993,250, not only a new auction record for the artist by many multiples, but also a new record price for any work by a Contemporary female Indian artist at auction.

Sotheby's,

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