黑料不打烊

Adrien Meyer, Global Head, Private Sales & Co-Chairman, Impressionist & Modern Art, selling Peter Doig's Ski Jacket for £14,270,000. Photo: Christie’s.

Christie’s opened Frieze Week in London on October 15, 2025 with its highly anticipated 20th/21st Century Evening Sale. The results were surprisingly positive: Christie’s turned over a total of £106.9 million ($142.9 million) with fees, the auction house’s highest Frieze Week result in seven years and a 30 percent increase year on year. The 61-lot sale was 92 percent sold by lot and 90 percent by value, landing squarely within its presale expectations of £87 million ($116.3 million) to £129 million ($172.5 million). The performance marked a decisive improvement from £82 million ($107 million) achieved in 2024 on 52 lots.

Christie’s executed a carefully calibrated sale that balanced top-tier consignments with prudent estimates and a heavy use of guarantees, 31 lots in all, seven underwritten by the house itself. The figures provided a measure of reassurance to a market that has been in a downtrend going back to 2021. The bottom may well be in.

Peter Doig from the Ole Faarup Collection Captivates Bidders

Peter Doig, Ski Jacket, Painted in 1994, oil on canvas. Photo: Christie’s.

At the center of Christie’s 20th/21st Century Evening Sale was Peter Doig’s Ski Jacket, 1994, which sold for £14.3 million ($19 million) after a prolonged 14-minute bidding contest between Christie’s Asia chairman Eric Chang and dealer Francis Outred, who ultimately secured the work in the room. The painting more than doubled its £6 million ($7.9 million) to £8 million ($10.5 million) estimate to provide the top price of Frieze Week.

Painted in 1994, the year of his Turner Prize nomination, Peter Doig’s Ski Jacket captures the artist’s early mastery of texture. The canvas, over two meters wide, depicts a snow-covered slope scattered with miniature skiers and chalets, its surface layered in thick impasto that shifts between mist and frost. The composition is based on a newspaper photograph of a Japanese ski resort and its dazzling palette of pink, gold, and blue hues refracted like light through goggles reflects Doig’s fascination with the sensory distortions of snow.

Acquired soon after completion by late Danish collector Ole Faarup, who is known for supporting artists early in their careers, the painting has not been publicly exhibited since 2012.

The painting was one of eight lots offered from The Ole Faarup Collection. Together, the Faarup group realized £27.3 million ($36.5 million), with all proceeds designated for The Ole Faarup Art Foundation, which funds emerging artists. Another major Doig from the same source, Country Rock, 1998–99, achieved £9.2 million ($12.3 million) against an estimate of £7 million ($9.3 million) to £10 million ($13.2 million).

Paula Rego Sets New Auction Record

Paula Rego, Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney's 'Fantasia,' Executed in 1995, pastel on paper mounted. Photo: Christie’s.

A particularly strong performance came from Paula Rego’s Dancing Ostriches from Walt Disney’s Fantasia, 1995, which set a new auction record for the artist at £3.47 million ($4.6 million), surpassing her previous high of $3.7 million set in 2023. The triptych is due to feature in Dance Among Thorns, Rego’s solo exhibition at the Munch Museum in Oslo next year.

Gerhard Richter’s Tulpen (Tulips), 1995, was another of the night’s top performers. It achieved a final sale price of £6.15 million ($8.2 million), within estimate. The work’s inclusion in the sale coincided with Richter’s major retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Paul Cézanne’s Maison de Bellevue et pigeonnier, circa 1890, brought £5.54 million ($7.4 million), also within its estimated range.

Annie Morris, Bronze Stack 9, Copper Blue, Executed in 2015, patinated bronze and steel, Sculpture. Photo: Christie’s.

Several additional benchmarks were achieved for Suzanne Valadon, Annie Morris, and Esben Weile Kjær, all of whom posted new auction records at more moderate price points. Valadon’s Deux nus ou Le bain, 1923, reached £1.02 million ($1.36 million), Morris’s Bronze Stack 9, Copper Blue, 2015, realized £482,600 ($644,754), and Kjær’s Aske and Johan upside down kissing in Power Play at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, 2020, achieved £25,400 ($33,934), all above their high estimates.

Freud Underwhelms, Nara Bought In

Lucian Freud, Self-portrait Fragment, Painted circa 1956, oil on canvas. Photo: Christie’s.

Despite the strong headline results, several high-profile works failed to meet expectations. Lucian Freud’s Self-Portrait Fragment, though a historically significant work, opened well below its estimate and ultimately sold for £7.6 million ($10.2 million) against a presale range of £8 million ($10.5 million) to £12 million ($15.8 million). Bidding opened at only £4.2 million ($5.6 million), which suggests that Christie’s had persuaded consignors to lower expectations in advance. The painting, long held in a private collection and carrying a house guarantee, has been requested for the forthcoming Lucian Freud: Drawing into Painting exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2026.

The most notable disappointment came from Yoshitomo Nara’s Haze Days, 1998, which came into the evening carrying an estimate of £6.5 million ($8.2 million) to £8.5 million ($10.7 million). After prolonged pauses in the bidding, the painting stalled at £4.7 million ($6 million) and was bought in. The failure to sell marked a sharp contrast to Nara’s performances in Hong Kong earlier this season, where comparable works headlined the sales and found buyers with ease.

Other underperformers were visible across the contemporary segment. Damien Hirst’s medicine cabinet, a bellwether of the 2000s boom, achieved £508,000 ($664,000), falling short of its £600,000 ($785,000) to £900,000 ($1.18 million) range. Likewise, Mark Grotjahn’s Untitled (Dropping Off and Falling Away Red and T Face 43.22) drew limited interest, closing within estimate at $2.15 million, far below his 2017 auction record of $17 million.

In total, six works were withdrawn or failed to sell, and more than half of the sale’s lots carried guarantees. Nevertheless, Christie’s £106.9 million ($142.9 million) total once placed it far ahead of Sotheby’s £47.6 million ($63.3 million) result from its contemporary evening sale the following night, which only reaffirms the house’s growing dominance. Including day sales and single-owner sessions such as Spellbound: The Hegewisch Collection and the Impressionist and Modern Art Day and Works on Paper Sale, Christie’s 20/21 Marquee Week in London reached a cumulative £141.8 million ($189.7 million), up 23 percent year on year.

With Frieze London now concluded, market observers will be looking to Paris and New York over the coming weeks to see whether a definitive trend reversal towards higher turnover totals can be established.

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