PARIS.- With the excellent results achieved by this two-day sale, Sotheby’s Paris has yet again proved to be a first-rate player in the contemporary art market. Since 2006, over 60% of works on average have found buyers above their high estimate at its evening sales. Meanwhile, the percentage of lots sold has been, on average, 90% for the 10 years running.

Stefano Moreni, director of the Sotheby’s France Contemporary Art department said : "The total we achieved during these two days sends out a strong signal to the contemporary art market. It shows, in no uncertain way, that this market is still extremely solid, with prices that have consistently stayed at the same strong level for the last three years."

For the sixth time in a row, with a total of €20 million ($22.5 million), the evening sale joined the restricted circle of auctions reaching the €20 million mark. It was followed by the day sale, which totalled €5.1 million. This strategy proved extremely productive, with collectors coming from 20 countries, with a high proportion of Asian buyers and remarkable results: 93% of lots sold by value and 60% of lots selling above their high estimates.

The highest price of the evening session went to Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled, 1986, which appeared on the cover page of the catalogue. The work, which at €2,667,000 / $3.015.000 almost made three times its low estimate, had remained in the same collection since 1990. This red mask with its primitive features evokes both African statuary and the European artists like Jean Dubuffet (lot 6, estimate: €1,000,000-1,500,000).

It was followed by the evening's second price of over a million: €2,103,000 / $2.376.650 for Uchoten (meaning 'Ecstasy'), a dazzling work painted by Kazuo Shiraga in 1994. This was the second highest price for a work by the artist in 2016 (lot 25, estimate: €1,500,000-2,500,000). Following the principles of the Gutai movement, the Japanese artist produced an explosive, sensual body of work, in which a contemporary approach in the form of happenings and performances revisited the ancestral tradition of calligraphy.

The international market once again confirmed an incredibly high level of interest in Pierre Soulages. The sale included several historic works by the artist. Two paintings that had remained in the same collection since their creation in 1978, Peinture 81 x 81 cm, 20 juin 1978, and Peinture 81 x 81 cm, 14 juin 1978, each made twice their high estimate, respectively achieving €483,000 / $545.850 (lot 16, estimate: €200,000-300,000) and €411,000 / $464.500 (lot 17, estimate: €200,000-250,000). Another historic work by the artist, Peinture 146 x 97 cm, 1949, largely exceeded its high estimate at €1,107,000 / $1.251.000 (lot 19, estimate: €600,000-900,000).

The French market rarely sees any "Anthropométries", created with the deep blue patented by Yves Klein. Collectors were quick to seize upon the one proposed at the evening sale. The first to appear at auction since 1994, Anthropométrie, Sans titre (ANT 135), 1961, from the former collection of Gunther Uecker, went for €1,503,000 / $1.698.600 (lot 10, estimate: €1,100,000-1,500,000).

The first session opened with works on paper by Jean Dubuffet, which had remained in the same French collection since they were purchased from the artist in 1960. At the time, these two works were acclaimed by the great collector and dealer Daniel Cordier: "Unbridled intelligence mingled with natural movements – true poetry." Both these Indian ink drawings exceeded their estimates at €111,000 / $125.450 and €93,000 / $150.000, and were purchased by the same European collector (lots 1 and 2, estimate for each: € 30,000-50,000).

Collectors were highly receptive to a historic work of Jean Tinguely, taking bidding for the "sculpturemachine" entitled Méta-Malevitch, 1954, up to €411,000 / $464.500, largely over its high estimate (lot 11, estimate: €200,000-300,000). Created in 1954, this was one of the sculptor's first mobile pictures with white geometric shapes.

Sotheby’s also offered a monumental painting for sale: Untitled, 1984-1985, a joint work by two geniuses of the 20th century, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, from Sir Elton John's collection. One collector bid all the way up to €819,000 / $925.600 for this composition: a fascinating dialogue between the disenchantment of one and the obsessions of the other.