Cementing its central role in the capital’s Frieze Week season, Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale, held on 9 October 2024, realised £81,980,050 / $107,147,925 / €97,556,260. The result is up 83 per cent on last October’s total of £44,691,420, with sell-through rates of 96 per cent by value and 89 per cent by lot.
Bidders from 23 countries competed for 52 lots across the curated sale, with 50 per cent of buyers coming from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, 28 per cent from the USA and 22 per cent from Asia. Christie’s unique 20/21 programme — showcasing works by modern innovators and contemporary icons — continued to attract new, younger clients, with 23 per cent of buyers being millennials or younger.
Lucian Freud portraits
Topping the bill was Lucian Freud’s painting Ria, Naked Portrait (2006-07). Depicting the art handler Ria Kirby, who met the 83-year-old Freud while installing an exhibition of his work at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2006, the portrait is notable for its thick, impasto surface, which was slowly built up over 2,400 hours of sittings spread across 16 months.
In the same collection since it was purchased from Acquavella Galleries in 2008, it sold to a telephone bidder for £11,810,000.
