LONDON.- Forty-four out of 46 artworks offered in Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Sale, generously donated by some of the world’s leading contemporary artists in aid of the Serpentine Gallery’s new space, the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, were today sold for an exceptional total of £4,545,675 / $7,313,991 – more than double the pre-sale low estimate of £2.2 million for the offering. The Serpentine Sackler Gallery will open in 2012 in Kensington Gardens and is a stone’s throw from the Serpentine Gallery.

The top-selling lot of the offering and Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction was John Currin’s oil on canvas Edwardian, which commanded £713,250 / $1,147,619, above its pre-sale estimate of £300,000-400,000. The second highest price paid in aid of Serpentine Sackler Gallery was for Richard Prince’s collage and acrylic on canvas Untitled, which sold for £541,250 $870,871 against an estimate of £200,000-300,000. Serpentine Gallery Co-Directors Julia Peyton-Jones and Hans Ulrich Obrist said: “The auction was an overwhelming success. We are incredibly grateful to the artists and Sotheby's and couldn't be more delighted with the outcome.”

Oliver Barker, Deputy Chairman Sotheby’s Europe and Senior International Specialist, Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department, commented: “Collectors responded enthusiastically to acquire works, which were generously donated by among the world’s leading Contemporary Artists, in aid of such a good cause. It has been Sotheby’s pleasure to have supported Serpentine Gallery and we are thrilled to have played a small part in raising funds for its new Kensington Gardens space ‘Serpentine Sackler Gallery'.”

Works were also generously donated by artists including Ron Arad, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Phyllida Barlow, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Cecily Brown, Glenn Brown, Anthony Caro, John Currin, Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Fischli & Weiss, Yang Fudong, Gilbert & George, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Douglas Gordon, Antony Gormley, Subodh Gupta, Andreas Gursky, N.S. Harsha, Susan Hefuna, Damien Hirst, M.F. Husain, Jitish Kallat, Anish Kapoor, Ellsworth Kelly, Bharti Kher, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Maria Lassnig, Annie Leibovitz, Takashi Murakami, Shirin Neshat, Chris Ofili, Gabriel Orozco, Richard Prince, Paula Rego, Gerhard Richter, Ed Ruscha, Cindy Sherman, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Do-Ho Suh, Wolfgang Tillmans, Gillian Wearing and Rachel Whiteread.