LONDON.- Yesterday’s sale of 20th century British art at Sotheby’s realised £10,900,180 ($22,107,745) – outstripping its top estimate by a wide margin, and establishing new benchmarks for works by British artists. The total ranks at the highest for any sale of 20th-century British art ever staged by Sotheby’s, outstripping last December’s all-time high (of £7.7 million) by a wide margin.

25 new artist’s records were established: John Hoyland (lot 150), Sir Terry Frost (lot 117), Alan Davie (lot 19), Sir Winston Churchill (lot 21), Spencer Frederick Gore (lot 22), Sir Matthew Smith (lot 28), Anthony Hill (lot 78), Prunella Clough (lot 83), John Bratby (lot 97), Sandra Blow (lot 113), Margaret Mellis (lot 124), Gwyther Irwin (lot 147), Boyle Family (lot 153), Alan Lydiat Durst (lot 335), Ben Johnson (lot 184), Alison Watt (lot 179), Albert Irvin (lot 176), William Tillyer (lot 167), Harry Thubron (lot 166), Peter Joseph (lot 164), Merlyn Evans (lot 163), Allen Jones (lot 161), John Plumb (lot 156), Brian Wall (lot 357), Richard Smith (lot 217)- Together with a record for a work in the medium for Dame Barbara Hepworth (lot 61).

Together, 29 works from the collection of Antonio and Priscilla Carluccio from the Neal Street Restaurant realised £166,740 against a pre-sale estimate of £77,000-111,000. David Hockney’s design for the restaurant menu more than doubled its top estimate, selling for £48,000 to an anonymous collector.

James Rawlin, specialist in charge of the sale, said: “The market is on the move. With no fewer than 25 records established in a sale that topped its high estimate by over £3 million, there’s no doubt that demand for 20th-century British art is getting stronger all the time. The market for works from the 50s has risen sharply lately, and as a result, collectors are now looking to other periods - witness the fantastic prices seen today for works from the 60s and 70s seen. Equally, when great early works appear (Matthew Smith’s still life from 1915 was a rarity – hardly any other pictures from that moment exist) – the market chases them fast. And all the time, the parallel appeal of Sir Winston Churchill never wanes.”