Abstract Art Top Sales Results, First Quarter 2015

A quarterly snapshot of the top abstract art auctions results: Joan Miró and Gerhard Richter’s works enjoyed outstanding results for the first quarter of 2015 as did the abstract art market in general.

For abstract art sales at Christie’s in the first quarter of 2015, three of the four highest-selling lots were works by Joan Miró, all of which were sold on 4 February 2015 at Christie’s London's King Street location, at the “Art of the Surreal Evening Sale”.

The highest-selling lot was Miró’s Painting Women, Moon, Birds, estimated to sell for between £4,000,000 and £7,000,000, and selling for £15,538,500. Another high-selling lot was Miró’s L'oiseau au plumage déployé vole vers l'arbre argenté, estimated to sell for between £7,000,000 and £9,000,000, which sold for £9,154,500. Miró’s L'Oiseau s'envole vers la zone où le duvet pousse sur les collines encerclées d'or was estimated to sell for between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000, and sold for £5,682,500.

The second highest-selling abstract artwork at Christie's in the first quarter of 2015 was Gerhard Richter's Karmin (Carmine), which sold for £9,602,500 at Christie’s London on 11 February 2015, at the “Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction”. Other high-selling abstract artworks for the first quarter of 2015 at Christie’s included works by the following artists: René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Yaoi Kusama, Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun, and Kazuo Shiraga. The last five of these artists’ works were sold at Christie's Hong Kong.

For Sotheby’s, the most lucrative sales of abstract art in the first quarter of 2015 were made at the following sales: “Contemporary Curated”, which was held at Sotheby’s New York on 5 March 2015, and “Contemporary Art Evening Auction”, which was held on 10 February 2015 at London.

The former sale featured abstract artworks by the likes of Jean Dubuffet, Gerhard Richter, Alexander Calder, Kenneth Noland, Richard Pousette-d'Art, and Nicolas de Staël, among many others. The highest-selling lot at this sale was Kazuo Shiraga's Untitled, which sold for $1,810,000.

The latter sale featured works by artists such as Yves Klein, Cy Twombly, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lucio Fontana, and Andy Warhol. The highest-selling lot at this auction was Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild, which was estimated to sell for between £14,000,000 and £20,000,000, and sold for £30,389,000.