LONDON.- A C.R.W. Nevinson Print of The Road from Arras to Bapaume, owned by a War Hero who served in Arras during the Great War achieved an exceptional £47,120 in a sale of Modern & Contemporary Prints that also saw auction records for Lichtenstein, Riley and Broodthaers works along with top prices for prints by Hockney and Bacon. The sale was held at
Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ Maddox Street saleroom in London on Thursday 3rd July.
Following a competitive bidding battle, Nevinson’s The Road from Arras to Bapaume print sold for £47,120. [Lot 16] Originally purchased in 1919 by Captain Samuel Davenport Charles (1886-1962) as an evocative memento of his service on the Western Front, the print was preceded by the Captain’s medal group which sold for £3,844 [Lot 15]
Auction Records
A record price was achieved for Bridget Riley’s Untitled (Circular Movement) (k.2) which sold for £35,960 [Lot 300]. One of Riley’s earliest op art works, the piece was produced in 1962, the same year as her first solo exhibition at Musgraves Gallery One in London.
Competitive buyers sent bids rising beyond the high-estimate for Roy Lichtenstein’s Moonscape which finally sold for £28,520, far exceeding its previous world record of USD$32,500 (£18,955) [Lot 251]
World record prices were achieved across the board for a collection of works by Marcel Broodthaers, with his Museum Museum (J.9) selling for £14,880 [Lot 154]. Following in the footsteps of Rene Magritte and preceding Joseph Kosuth, Broodthaers’ work is pivotal in the development of conceptual word-based art and his reputation is continuing to grow.
Exceptional Prices
Works by David Hockney sold well with Lithograph of Water Made of Lines, A Green Wash, and a Light Blue Wash (t.205) leading the pack and selling for £34,720. [Lot 227]
The sale also saw works by the highly desirable artist Francis Bacon continue to achieve prices on an upward trend with After Second Version of the Triptych 1944 (s.24) selling for £21,080 [Lot 126]
The sale was held on Thursday 3rd July at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions’ saleroom in London’s Mayfair.
