$2-Billion Frieze Week Wraps with Picasso, de Kooning Sales
- October 20, 2013 22:24
With nearly $2 billion worth of art for sale in London, Frieze Week is the art world’s biggest amalgamation of commercial fairs, auctions and gallery shows focused mostly on contemporary art. The fairs ended Saturday on a high note with big-ticket sales of works by modern masters such as Picasso, Basquiat and de Kooning.
At Frieze Masters in Regents Park, New York's Aquavella Galleries had a 1961 painting by Picasso titled “Femme assise au chapeau” that sold to the Greek collector Dimitri Mavromatis for $7 million, according to Bloomberg.
Mnuchin Gallery sold a 1983 de Kooning abstract priced at $8 million. Two 1980s abstract works by Basquiat, priced at $4.3 million and just under $5 million, both sold through Van de Weghe and Vedovi Gallery.
Some dealers at Frieze and other fairs saw the Frieze Masters fair as a "distraction," saying the amount of events made it hard for collectors to cover all to be seen.
Christie's sale on Oct. 18 had buyers for 91 percent of 54 lots. The total for the sale came to 27.8 million pounds with fees.
![Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.](/images/c/e2/2e/Jan20_Rape_of_Europa100x100_c.jpg "Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.")
