Kandinsky at $41.7 million leads Christie’s London evening sales

The latest:

A Kandinsky work, Das bunte Leben (1907), sold for $41.7 million to lead Christie’s two October evening sales in London, which together cleared 91% of lots and 96% by value. The combined total marked a 103% increase on the equivalent sales a year earlier. Chief executive Bonnie Brennan described it as an extraordinary year for London and pointed to the city’s standing as a global collecting center.

Details:

• The headline lot: Wassily Kandinsky’s Das bunte Leben, painted in 1907, sold for $41.7 million, the top price across Christie’s two London evening sales. Works by Piet Mondrian and Francis Bacon also ranked among the leading lots of the week, according to Christie’s.
• The sell-through: The two evening sales found buyers for 91% of lots and 96% by value. Christie’s said the combined result was 103% higher than the equivalent London evening sales held last year, extending the run the house recorded in its March London season.
• The collection record: Monsoon: The Peter Simon Collection generated £107.51 million ($142.34 million), which Christie’s said is the highest-value single-owner collection ever sold at its London salerooms. It cleared 98% of lots, with 43% of them exceeding their high estimates.
• The bidding war: Liubov Popova’s Painterly Architectonic (1918) sold for £7.64 million ($10.12 million) from the Simon collection, more than four times its £1.8 million ($2.38 million) low estimate. Christie’s said the lot drew close to eight minutes of bidding and set an auction record for the artist.
• Seven records: Bridget Riley’s Streak 2 (1979) reached £5.21 million ($6.9 million) and David Bomberg’s San Miguel, Toledo, Afternoon (1929) sold for £3.26 million ($4.32 million). Records also fell for Portia Zvavahera, Barbara Hepworth for a painting, Igshaan Adams, and Gerhard Richter for a tapestry.
• The charity lot: Igshaan Adams’s The certainty of being a rose (ii) (2026) brought £96,000 ($127,104), a record for the artist, with proceeds benefiting Artists for Climate Action, an initiative linking the Gallery Climate Coalition and ClientEarth.
• The runners-up: After the Kandinsky, the next most expensive lots were Mondrian’s Composition A, with Double Line and Yellow (1935) at £9.71 million ($12.86 million) and Joan Miró’s Peinture (Les amants – Adam et Eve) (1925) at £8.56 million ($11.33 million).
• The fairs: Frieze London and Frieze Masters opened to VIPs at Regent’s Park on October 14th. Hauser & Wirth placed Jan Brueghel the Elder’s Still Life of Flowers in a Stoneware Vase (ca. 1607–08) for about £5 million ($6.64 million), the top reported opening-day sale, according to Artsy.
• The provenance: The Brueghel previously belonged to the Rothschild collection before being seized by the Nazis and later restituted. Gallery president Iwan Wirth called it “one of the most important works we’ve ever been involved with.” Last year’s leading opening-day sale was a Gabriele Münter painting at $3.01 million.
• The booths: Alice Amati, Goodman Gallery, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, a.SQUIRE and Gagosian reported sold-out presentations. David Zwirner led with a new Michaël Borremans painting at $1.5 million, while a Sasha Gordon work went to a European museum for $400,000.

Between the lines:

The same week carried two distinct signals. Auction results are confirmed and comparable year-on-year, which is what makes the 103% figure meaningful. Fair figures, by contrast, are reported by the galleries themselves. Still, Popova’s eight-minute bidding run and the seven records suggest competition concentrated on works with scarcity or record-setting potential rather than broad price inflation.

What’s next

Christie’s will follow the Simon collection evening sale with a day sale and an online auction of the same material. Artsy said its full Frieze sales report is due Monday, after both fairs close.