Sotheby's March 2017 Auctions of Contemporary Art in London Achieve $164 Million (£134.7 Million) A 32.4% Increase on the Same Sales Held One Year Ago

Combined Sell-Through Rate of 89% Across Evening and Day Sales

Gerhard Richter's 'Iceberg' Brings $21.6 Million (£17.7 Million), Leading Evening Auction

Jean-Michel Basquiat's 'Untitled, 1983' Triples Expectations To Sell for $2.6 Million (£2.2 Million) And Lead the Day Sale

Six Auction Records Set for Artists Including: Georg Baselitz, Carol Rama, Wolfgang Tillmans, Franz Gertsch, Pat Steir, Tsuruko Yamasaki, Masaaki Yamada, and Grayson Perry

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Sotheby's

Mar 09, 2017, 12:57 ET

LONDON, March 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sotheby's (NYSE: BID) 8 & 9 March 2017 sales of Contemporary Art in London achieved a total of $164,006,311 (£134,680,875), exceeding pre-sale expectations ($110.9-154.7 million/£91.1-127 million). The results represent a 32.4% increase in Dollars and a 57.3% increase in Pounds on the same sales one year ago.

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 08: A rare iceberg painting by the world's top-selling living painter Gerhard Richter sold for Pounds Sterling 17.7 million ($21.6 million) at Sotheby's on March 8, 2017 in London, England. The Contemporary Art evening sale saw the tally for art sold across auction houses in London reach over half a billion pounds in just seven days. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Sotheby's)

"We are thrilled with the outstanding performance of our Contemporary Evening and Contemporary Day Sales in London," said Tad Smith, Sotheby's President & CEO. "Both sales in the last two days showed that the market is strong and Sotheby's performance for clients and shareholders was excellent."

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Sotheby's has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby's became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973), India (1992) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby's presents auctions in 10 different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby's BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids from anywhere in the world. Sotheby's offers collectors the resources of Sotheby's Financial Services, the world's only full-service art financing company, as well as the collection advisory services of its subsidiary, Art Agency, Partners. Sotheby's presents private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby's Global Fine Art Division, and two retail businesses, Sotheby's Diamonds and Sotheby's Wine. Sotheby's has a global network of 80 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).

*Estimates do not include buyer's premium. Prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer's premium and are net of any fees paid to the purchaser where the purchaser provided an irrevocable bid.

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